Coming of age

There are plenty of advantages to an ageing workforce.

Huge demographic shifts mean Australia’s age profile is transforming. The fastest-growing group is those aged over 65 as people have fewer children and live longer.

This has huge implication for companies that have to deal with an ageing client base and an ageing employee pool, with employees wanting to work well into their 50s and 60s and, in some cases into their 70s.

“People are getting to 55 or 57 and they are not ready to retire,” Westpac Banking Corp group executive of people and transformation, Peter Hanlon, says.

Others may be ready to retire but the recent financial crisis has left their superannuation funds looking decidedly sick. Aware that they will live longer than their parents, many have little choice but to stay in employment for much longer than they had anticipated.

The ageing workforce presents new challenges for both employees and employers.

By 2050, the proportion of the population aged over 65 is set to more than double, according to the 2010 Intergenerational Report.

There are now 3 million people over 65 (making up 8.2 per cent of the population); by 2050, this age group is expected to comprise 8.1 million people (about 22.7 per cent of the population). While today there are five working-aged people to every person over 65, by 2050, this ratio will fall to 2.7 people.

These changes are reflected in the age make-up at individual companies. A decade ago, 7 per cent of Westpac’s staff were over the age of 55, while 28 per cent were over 44. Today, one-third are over 44, while 11 per cent are over 55.

The average age of staff at professional services firm PwC has risen from 28 to 31 over the past few years.

Accommodating older workers is a challenge for many companies.

“The issue has been on the back burner for the past couple of years,” PwC partner Jon Williams says. “Companies are only now starting to grapple with it and saying, ‘What is the business model to accommodate an ageing workforce?’”

Williams says one of the key challenges for employers is to create a model that allows older workers to move away from top managerial positions into roles that are more advice-oriented.

Rather than risk people in their 50s and 60s leaving to set up a consultancy or become a
non-executive director, companies need to find ways to harness their considerable skills within the organisation.

“Few organisations have constructed themselves to allow that to happen,” Williams says.

Such a change would also require a shift in social attitudes, he notes.

“People don’t like moving backwards. They don’t like the sense of loss. It needs to become socially acceptable to move into less direct positions of power,” he says.

The ageing workforce is presenting other challenges for companies. Employers are experiencing greater demands for flexible work hours as many older workers ask to go part time.

According to Hanlon, 23 per cent of Westpac staff work part time, up from “the high teens” a decade ago. Meanwhile, on staff surveys, “flexibility” has risen to take its place among the top five priorities. Three years ago, it didn’t feature at all.

A flexible older workforce fits with Williams’ suggested model of older workers moving to more advice-oriented roles.

“The first half of a career should be about learning,” he says. “The second half should be about teaching but why should you have to work 60 hours a week to teach?”

There are also huge advantages in keeping older workers happily employed.

For consumer-facing organisations such as banks and retailers, an ageing workforce offers an ideal opportunity for the company to match its staff with a customer base that is also growing older, Williams says.

Hanlon says Westpac is looking for older workers in some parts of the company to meet customer demand.

In the early 2000s, the bank embarked on a recruitment campaign to employ more older workers in its call centres and financial planning divisions.

“Many customers were uncomfortable dealing with a 30-year-old financial planner. Customers want to speak to someone with a bit of grey hair,” Hanlon says.

The number of branch managers over the age of 50 has also increased, while other, older workers are moving into administration and analytical roles.

Supermarket chain Woolworths is also accommodating the over-55s, who make up about 5.6 per cent of the total staff.

“Woolworths has identified mature-age workers as a priority for our diversity and equal opportunity strategy and, as such, we are now keeping a more active watch on our over-55s employment numbers and turnover,” a spokeswoman for the retailer says.

“Currently our flexible work arrangements also accommodate the needs of older workers who can often have carer responsibilities.

“In retail where there is such a high proportion of younger employees, we particularly value the input of older workers who perform a valuable mentoring and development role for younger staff.”

Employees are also preparing to spend more of their lives at a desk.

University enrolment data shows that many are already planning their next careers. Between 2000 and 2008, the higher education sector recorded a 70 per cent surge in students between the age of 50 and 59, figures from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations show. The increase across all age groups was 29 per cent.

RMIT University governance and planning expert Gavin Moodie says the data shows that “most older students are upgrading their higher education for career reasons”.

Moodie further expects the number of older students to increase in line with rises in the number of older workers.

Proving that the impact of an ageing workforce is felt everywhere, universities are also changing their teaching practices to meet the needs of older students.

Universities are opening up city campuses to make it easier for older students to combine study with work.

“Most Queensland, South Australian and Victorian universities and many NSW universities have opened campuses in the central business district to cater for older, part-time students working in the city,” Moodie says.

BRW

Comments (0)