To improve age inclusion, existing recruitment processes must be challenged, non-linear career progression should be encouraged and flexible working and job design must be offered as a default, senior leaders argued, at an event hosted at the House of Lords by founders of the not-for-profit organisation Brave Starts.
Organisers highlighted research showing that age inclusion is undervalued: though 7.2 out of every 10 employers agreed that the ageing workforce is an important issue to address, just 4.3 out of 10 described themselves as strategically ready to address it.
Offering flexible work options is a good place to start, suggested psychologist Lucy Standing, who co-founded Brave Starts. She said: “Flexible working is proven to be the one thing that enables much more people as they get older to access work options. It doesn't just benefit older people, it benefits everyone.”
Offering additional advice as to how employers can improve age inclusion, Standing added: “We need to be much more focused on entry points [to work] at different stages, and internal job mobility. After four to eight years, people don't necessarily want to keep doing their same job forever and a day. Promote internal mobility and job shadowing."
Read more: How the ageing workforce will affect the future of work
During a panel discussion focused on recruitment, Stuart Morris spoke candidly about his lived experience of struggling to find the kind of senior role he had enjoyed earlier in his IT career. With support from Brave Starts, he successfully reframed his approach to finding work.
Giving two examples of senior leaders who ended up taking junior roles after a spell of unemployment, Brave Starts ambassador Lisa MacLaren, who specialises in recruitment, said: “Recruitment isn’t totally broken, but it’s fractured. If you’re a CEO who ends up [working] as a postman, you would reckon that there's something else you can do with your skills and experience which would be of more benefit to the economy.”
Lee Barron, MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, stated: “We've built a world of work that too often writes people off once they hit a certain age. It's not right, it's not fair and it's definitely not smart.
“We need to look at the full life cycle of work – not just how people get into work, but how they're treated throughout their working lives, and afterwards. We've got millions of people with experience, with resilience and wisdom built from decades on the job. Too often they’re showed the door. It's a waste of talent. We need to put that right.”
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Another issue is that employers don’t necessarily have the data they need to assess their progress with regard to age inclusivity, senior leaders at the event highlighted.
MacLaren said: “You can't solve what you don't report on. Everybody wants data-informed decisions [but] if we're not capturing the age of applicants, we can't go back and say actually, these jobs have all been filled by people in their 30s. That is a really big challenge.”
Attendees of the event were given action prompts to take away, advising them on how to support an ageing workforce. Employers were given 11 action points, including:
· Enable career exploration and lifelong learning;
· Audit job ads, benefits and career development processes for age bias; and
· Support managers with training on leading age-diverse teams.
