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Research reveals importance of an ageing workforce as one in five experience age discrimination
The pandemic has led to an exodus of the ageing workforce and with businesses facing severe talent shortages, many are looking to attract older workers back into the workplace to deal with these deficiencies.
Talent solutions provider, Reed has released the whitepaper ‘Internal mobility and ageing workforce’. Research from Reed shows that while businesses are well aware of the benefits of the ageing workforce, they may not be putting the support older workers need in place. Almost one in five workers surveyed (17%) said they had experienced age discrimination. Reed surveyed 1,000 employees over the age of 40, and 500 senior HR managers from UK businesses with 1,000 employees or more. The majority of HR managers were clear on their need to hire older workers. 62% were looking to actively recruit older workers, while 58% claimed that they were trying to attract older workers due to the impact of them leaving the workforce during the pandemic. One way of solving this problem is via internal mobility policies, such as the training and reskilling of new and existing workers, opportunities for people to explore new roles, and flexible working - including the chance to reduce someone’s working hours or working days. These policies have known benefits in terms of retention, career development, reductions in the time taken to hire new workers and increased engagement within the workforce. Despite this, 56% of hiring managers had no specific internal mobility policies for older workers and nearly three quarters (73%) did not know what was meant by internal mobility for the ageing workforce. Lee Gudgeon from Reed, said: “While it’s encouraging that businesses are looking to recruit older workers and see the value they can bring, they also need to support their older workers and identify where they need to take action.” 46% of workers over 40 said their company had no wellbeing policies specifically for older workers and 45% felt that there weren’t enough benefits on offer for workers of their age range. Lee continued: “The ageing workforce is a huge pool of talent, with a wealth of experience on offer for businesses. Companies are missing a trick by not offering them benefits tailored to their needs at a later stage in their working life. “If you’re looking to attract older workers, make sure you’re putting in place benefits such as learning and development opportunities, reduced hours or the chance to explore different parts of the business.” Reed’s research outlined the benefits older workers found the most valuable. The most desired benefits are flexibility in working hours (42%), increased pension contributions (25%) and an increase in holiday allowance (16%).
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