How to solve the older workers conundrum

If you used to listen to one of these on your commute, then you're the future of the workforce

Many great things came into being in the 1980s: the Rubik's Cube, the Walkman and a generation of workers who might be the answer to today's workplace skills shortage

The UK, like much of the world, is in the throes of a skills shortage and has been for a while.

According to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, the economic inactivity rate was 22.3 per cent in the February to April quarter, up from 22.1 per cent in the previous three months. This was largely driven by those aged 50 to 64, who had left or failed to return to the labour market because they were looking after family at home or were long-term or temporarily sick. This trend has plagued the UK labour market since the pandemic, according to research from the Centre for Ageing Better, with employment rates for 50- to 64-year-olds still failing to meet pre-Covid peaks.

The above statistics might not come as a surprise to many people professionals and yet “there is still such a high level of unawareness and such a low level of urgency”, says Martin Frölander, founder and CEO of age technology company Junoverse. The world’s demography is changing. Falling birth rates and advances in medicine mean people are living – but not necessarily working – longer and that needs to change, Frölander says. “If you look at OECD data, on average, we need to extend full employment by seven years, so it means everybody needs to work well into their 70s.”

Further analysis from the Centre for Ageing Better suggests that, by 2030, there will be an additional 1.2 million people aged 50 to 64 in the UK but only another 500,000 people aged 15 to 29. And yet, evidence suggests many employers have yet to tap into this talent pool.

Claire McCartney, senior policy adviser for resourcing and inclusion at the CIPD, says: “Unless more employers improve how they recruit, train and retain older workers, they are likely to face increasing skill and labour shortages.”

Why are older workers not in employment?

In recent years, there have been several conversations about the ‘great retirement’ being the root cause of the over-50s leaving work, says Matt Flynn, head of department for work, employment, management and organisation at University of Leicester School of Business and director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce. But this notion assumes that many so-called ‘older’ workers have a choice in the matter when, in fact, research from the International Longevity Centre suggests there are 1.65 million people between the ages of 50 and 69 in the UK who have been pushed out of wor k due to a combination of redundancy, ill health or early retirement.

Luke Price, senior research and policy manager for work at the Centre for Ageing Better, agrees, adding that there are noted inequalities when it comes to who stays and who leaves the workforce. “We know that many older workers on lower incomes are much more likely to have been pushed out predominantly due to poor health," he says. "Sickness is actually the main reason for economic inactivity among 50- to 64-year-olds.”

There is “an interesting relationship” between health and ageing in that you are more likely to have one or even multiple health conditions as you get older, Price adds. “But just being older doesn’t mean you will have a health condition,” he says. Research from 55/Redefined suggests this is a common misconception among employers; 37 per cent cited health and illness and 21 per cent cited "lack of energy" as barriers to them hiring workers aged 55 to 75.

Belinda Steffan, research fellow at the University of Edinburgh Business School and project manager and co-investigator for the Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work (SHAW) project, says all the evidence suggests that “we're living for longer, but we're not living healthier for longer”.

“I really believe that if we start addressing issues around healthy ageing earlier in life, while we are of working age, we will have healthier retirements”

Belinda Steffan, research fellow at University of Edinburgh Business School

The SHAW project looked at four areas of health associated with ageing. These were the menopause; cognitive ageing and decline; the stresses and strains that come from financial precarity and lack of financial wellbeing; and unpaid care. “I think dementia is going to be a really big issue in the coming decades, when you will have more workers in their late 60s and early 70s,” Steffan says. “And one of the emerging health themes that we really hadn't considered going into the project was sleep. Almost 80 per cent of our participants mentioned sleep disruption without being prompted,” she adds.

These could be the very areas that HR and employers need to tap in to to better support age-related health concerns in the workplace – and it needn’t be costly. “People ask what is the single biggest thing that helps menopausal women? And I would say, it is informal, social support at work,” Steffan says. Participants in the SHAW project reported wanting to take personal responsibility for their health, adds Steffan, but Price stresses that the onus must not just fall on the workers.

As part of the Centre for Ageing Better’s age-friendly framework, it advocates for every employee to have the health support they need to be successful at work. “Of course, this includes making sure that you are meeting people's needs for reasonable adjustments, which is a legal obligation anyway, but having that conversation in a positive way and thinking about what you can change and improve to help people manage their health,” Price adds.

Steffan says that often the biggest barrier to employers being able to support people at work is a lack of disclosure.

“Our research would suggest that a lot of people… just didn't want to disclose their health at work. There’s a perception that the minute I talk to HR or occupational health, it's on my record and it becomes part of my employment – who I am as an employee.”

The key to really encouraging that health disclosure “comes through cultural change”, she says, “which is really hard to do, unless you have very visible role models, very visible buy-in from the board and senior management level”.

For Price, the Centre for Ageing Better research suggests that while no one likes to be pigeonholed, “people still like to see aspects of identity – whether that's age or other aspects – recognised and actively talked about and shown to be supported”. He reiterates that the balance comes from actively promoting age-inclusive initiatives to all of the workforce – and prospective employees during the recruitment process – and ensuring line managers have appropriate training to be able to have conversations about health-related matters.

Many organisations have turned to employee resource groups or networks to provide the spaces for open discussions to happen, and having older worker champions can also provide people with an alternative contact if they are not comfortable approaching HR or their line manager. Flynn says that trade unions can also play their part here, acting as partners to the business to help identify some of the factors that are leading to early retirement and early exit.

The caring conundrum

One of the most common causes of over-50s falling out of the labour market is caring responsibilities. According to a 2020 report from Carers UK, by 2040, one in six workers will balance their job with caring responsibilities. Approximately two million people have already reduced their working hours to care for a dependent and 2.6 million have given up working altogether.

People are also having babies later in life, meaning they are more likely to be caring for their children and their elderly parents at the same time. While there has been great progress in support for working parents, according to Flynn, “the support that's given to people with elder caring responsibilities really isn't up to the same standards as those with childcare responsibilities”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer to many of the barriers to employment for ‘older’ workers – and what report after report shows over-50s want from a job – is greater flexibility.

Lyndsey Simpson, founder and CEO of 55/Redefined, says: “If an employer allows for flexibility in how, when and where employees work, most common medical issues and disabilities could be accommodated more easily,” while McCartney points to CIPD research that “highlights the importance of flexible working as well as policies that provide support for carers, such as bespoke paid carers’ leave”.

Recent changes to the Flexible Working Act mean employees have the right to request flexible working from day one and employers must consider any request. Price explains that one of the key things that the Centre for Ageing Better emphasises to employers when they are faced with flexi working requests is the importance of “reason-neutral flexibility”.

“It shouldn't matter if you want flexible work to look after your kids or to look after your parents or grandkids. Arguably, it shouldn't really matter if you just want a flexible working pattern because every two weeks you’d quite like a Friday off to pursue a hobby,” he says. “Flexible working is something that's really beneficial for everyone and, when we start to weigh up whether someone is more deserving of flexible working than another person, that's when we start to get into real trouble with it.”

To retrain or not to retrain?

For Flynn, as well as a flexible approach to working, older workers “need some support in staying productive at work”.

“The UK isn't very good in providing people training generally. Part of the reason is because if somebody doesn't have the right skills, it's relatively easy to get rid of them and then just bring in somebody with the right skills...reskilling is costly, but it is seen as easier," says Flynn.

“If the nature of someone’s job has changed considerably and they haven’t been offered training and development to adapt to it, then they're not very productive in work," he says. "Equally, a person might stay in a role that is no longer suited to them, again impacting their productivity.”

But that is true across the board, stresses Frölander. “If you are in the right place, doing the right thing, you will be productive. If you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong things, you will not be productive. And that goes for employees of all ages.”

Frölander’s company Junoverse works with organisations to “optimise employee longevity… for the ones who want to stay on board for as long as possible and for the ones who do not want to stay on board but want a healthy, happy retirement”.

“Where most companies fall short is that they have no specific age-adaptive, later-life employment journeys," he says. "You go into a company and you ask them: 'So what do you do with employees after the age of 55?' They will look at you and say: 'We wait until they retire.'”

Frölander stresses the need for “individualisation” when it comes to career trajectories. “We tend to avoid the term ‘workforce’ as we want to highlight the importance of moving away from viewing older professionals as a collective group.” He says each ‘older’ worker has their own set of circumstances and motivations.

Simpson adds: “Training and upskilling the over-50s is absolutely crucial in retaining them.” And workers are recognising this: 96 per cent of respondents to an Osbourne and Clarke survey in 2023 said they would need additional training to continue to work until their intended retirement age. However, 55/Redefined’s ageism at work analysis showed that 65 per cent of employers said they were not prepared to offer training and would only hire someone over the age of 55 to do a role they already had experience in.

“There lies another common misconception: why invest in older talent when they are perhaps more expensive and will want to retire soon?” Simpson adds. But, in fact, research shows that most over-55s (46 per cent responding to 55/Redefined’s survey) want to retire later and nine in 10 would be prepared to take a pay cut to retrain in a new role/industry.

Employers are missing the “huge business case” by not making a conscious effort to recruit and retain ‘older’ workers, Simpson says. Over-50s are five times less likely to switch jobs within the first 18 months of employment, according to 55/Redefined research. Meanwhile, a 202 3 Bain & Co report found that older workers tend to “be twice as satisfied with their work (and with life in general)” compared with workers in their 20s and that they bring greater management experience and general work experience to pass on to other employees.

'When am I supposed to retire?'

These assumptions very commonly creep into talent attraction processes. Price says that when the Centre for Ageing Better did a nationally representative survey, it showed that around 36 per cent of 50- to 69-year-olds felt at a disadvantage when applying for jobs due to the negative stereotypes associated with their age. “We also know from other research that one in three workers aged 50-70 who left their position during the pandemic experienced age discrimination when looking for work,” he adds.

With that in mind, McCartney stresses the importance of improving recruit ment pra ctices to eliminate bias. This could include:

Framing and wording jo b adve rts with care. Referring to the specific behaviours and skills required and avoiding using age-biased language in your job ads.
Circulating job ads as widely as possible, using multiple platforms.
Regularly collecting and scrutinising age data from the recruitment process.

Price also flags the need for HR to “really get to know the numbers in your organisation”.

“Understand how many older workers you have. How many older people apply for jobs? How many of them get shortlisted? How many actually get appointed? There's no way you're going to be able to solve this problem without really understanding what's going on in your organisation,” he says.

As well as knowing your numbers, the experts agree that fundamental to tackling much of this is listening to your employees. Organisations that do this will soon reap the benefits.

1970s: Tea trolleys

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, tea and coffee trolleys offering morning and afternoon refreshments were common in large offices.

1980s: Sandwich deliveries

After tea trolleys came sandwich deliveries, giving workers the opportunity to have a freshly made sandwich of their choice each day

Dinnerladies: L-R Anne Reid and Thelma Barlow in the BBC sitcom ©BBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection/Alamy

Dinnerladies: L-R Anne Reid and Thelma Barlow in the BBC sitcom ©BBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection/Alamy

1990s: Staff canteens

From sandwich deliveries to in-house office catering, the 1990s saw an increase in organisations offering hot meals to workers

2010s: Fruit baskets

After Jamie Oliver made children's school meals healthier and the government increased its focus on healthy eating, workplaces swapped vending machines for fruit baskets

2020s: eating at your hot desk

After the pandemic, many businesses introduced hot-desking to fit in with flexible working and reduce office space. With workers no longer having their own dedicated desk and drawers, many keep their lunch (odour-free so as not to annoy their desk neighbour) in their bag by their feet.

Returning to employment

Rachel Stewart, a career consultant specialising in those aged 50+, spent more than 30 years in various roles in higher education before a change in personal circumstances led her to leave that career earlier than she had planned.

“One of the things I found when I left my job at 61 – so nowhere near the state pension age as it is now – even though I said I was going to be doing career coaching, people just referred to me as retired and they still do, it drives me nuts. If I had made the career change at 51 rather than 61, it would have been seen as striking a better work-life balance.”

Stewart says that, through her own experience and talking to clients, it is clear many people and organisations are influenced by ingrained stereotypes and biases across the whole of society – think ‘over the hill’ 40th birthday cards and pensions adverts featuring greying seniors with walking sticks.

“If those assumptions are constantly being made in society, you may be then embodying them yourself,” she says. “There's a real risk that if somebody is behaving a certain way, or going through something personally, or they are just tired of doing what they have been doing for X number of years, that can manifest as being potentially quite grumpy or not really making the effort.”

When it comes to the workplace, “we have made great strides in other areas of inclusion – and we are tackling, in one way or another, all sorts of other ‘isms’ – but we're not tackling ageism… and often, although it is a protected characteristic, age doesn't appear in EDI strategies”, Steffan says.

“The message I would like to be conveying to employers is: forget your prejudices and your assumptions and, also, don't judge too much by the behaviour you see, because the person may be playing to a stereotype without realising. Talk to your employee as an individual and work out what is going on for them.”

Case studies

Danny Harmer

Imogen O’Rorke

Associate director in the green and good team at SEC Newgate

“My story is slightly different to the usual ‘returner’ story. I know generally companies have been having a hard time getting people to return to the office post-Covid – for various reasons – but that actually worked in my favour when I was looking to go back into marketing and communications. I’d spent the past 10 years running a micro-business (sustainable rubber boots) and doing some freelance copywriting work on the side, following 10-plus years as a journalist, PR and marketing executive. When I found myself as a single parent, I decided I wanted more stability, a regular income and a benefits package, and so I contacted an organisation called F1 Recruitment and signed up to its Back2Businesship scheme, which involved training, retraining and preparing marketing professionals to return to employment.

"Having completed the course in 2022, my fellow graduates and I realised that Covid was the best friend of returners, because all the research pointed to the fact that people – especially women – coming back into the workplace after having children, or a career break, were prepared to go into the office again. Yes, they wanted flexibility as an option, but they were much more likely to be loyal and to stick in a role, so there was less churn.

"People have long been afraid of disclosing their age because of inbuilt prejudice"

"When I started applying for jobs again, I was advised that we weren’t legally obliged to put our age on our CV so I didn’t. People have long been afraid of owning their age and disclosing it because of inbuilt prejudice. I remember pre-pandemic being advised to doctor my CV to hide some of the earlier experience I’d gained because, generally speaking, the media industry is perceived as being ageist. It also would have avoided the dreaded ‘you’re too qualified’ response from prospective employers.

"When I joined SEC Newgate, I was in my late 40s. F1 Recruitment had persuaded around 20 organisations to join a speed-dating-type interview process with candidates on the Back2Businesship scheme and we were coached on how to hone our pitch in a 10-minute virtual chat platform. This opportunity made all the difference, because so-called older workers are desperate for the chance to get in front of a recruiter, face to face, to show them how articulate, confident and eligible we are for the role at hand. So often your CV never makes it past the first-round sifting stage.

"It just so happened that my skills were the skills that SEC Newgate was looking for and the company was looking for all of my experience – they wanted all of me. So it wasn't just my copywriting and my PR experience, they were also impressed by the fact that I'd been an entrepreneur twice-over and that I had a lot of creativity on my CV. It is these skills and experiences that now form my personal profile when being matched with clients at SEC Newgate, so I know the company continues to value and celebrate my experience.

"I may have been lucky with SEC Newgate, which has just become the first communications agency to be accredited as an age-inclusive employer by the company 55/Redefined, but there are definitely aspects of the business that others could replicate. Having senior-level buy-in and role models is key and the flexibility and home-working opportunities were already there at SEC Newgate pre-pandemic, as was a successful reverse-mentoring scheme (I’m enjoying being a reverse mentor to young analysts coming into the business of communications). I also really like the collegiate structure of the company where your expertise, specialisms and depth of experience are appreciated. I’m two years in and I have no plans to leave.”

Sami Riaz

Second-year student in HR management at Birmingham City University

“Most of my work experience has been in various roles in the NHS, most notably in operating departments in all types of clinical settings: A&E, wards and in intensive therapy units helping nurses during the pandemic. Covid made me realise that life is too short. What’s more, if you’re in the wrong employment, you can end up just a number, easily replaced. The experience of working on the frontline during the pandemic, as well the well-publicised pressures on NHS workers, was beginning to seriously impact my health, so I decided I needed a change in career. HR might seem like quite the shift, but both HR and healthcare are centred on people. I was keen to learn more about what I saw as leadership and business structure failings in the NHS and to gain knowledge on how to address them.

"And so I enrolled on the HR management course at Birmingham City University in 2022. At 47, I am not only the oldest student in my class but in the whole business faculty. When I’ve been to careers fairs with my fellow students, I have been mistaken for their parent and I have watched some recruiters’ eyes roll when I ask what opportunities they have for older graduates. I’m still in the process of identifying industries and companies that welcome older graduates and where I can best add value, but my guess is that the public sector will jump at the chance of any labour.

"I wasn't nervous about interacting with people 20-30 years my junior – I was more concerned about competing for jobs"

"When I graduate, I'm going to apply for a graduate management scheme because I believe that, in leadership positions, you should have people of every age. So I intend to be a leader, not just because I am a bit older but because I feel I can bring a lot to that position.

"When I first started my studies, I wasn’t nervous about interacting with people 20-30 years my junior – in the healthcare profession, you have to be able to talk to all ages – I was more concerned about keeping up with and competing with 18-year-olds in the marketplace. But having just completed my second year as one of the top students, I've surpassed my own expectations and my own fears.

"My message for employers would be to ask what older workers want and need because it’s so easy for assumptions to be made, especially around health concerns. There is no perfect employee without ‘baggage’ at any age. I’d also say official qualifications are not everything – years of experience or evening courses taken during parental leave can amount to much more than what can be taught in university.”

Dawn Browne

People and talent director at Fuller’s

“At Fuller’s we absolutely have made a conscious effort at better attracting and retaining older workers. One of the things we do is keep quite close to our people data, to understand who's working for us – who our people are. As we came back to life after the pandemic, we discovered that the fastest growing area of our workforce was 16- and 17-year-olds and we were seeing a decline in the numbers of over-50s working for us. This was perhaps not surprising, coming out of a pandemic, but that felt like a bit of a shame so we actively set out to attract more workers aged 50 and over.

"One of the things we know from the research we did with Rest Less is that workers aged over 50 want greater flexibility. Well, hospitality is one of the best sectors to offer that because, if you care for your grandkids after school, you might want to come and work a lunch shift; if you are an early bird, you might want to come and work a breakfast shift; if you only want to work eight hours a week, that's fine by us. Luckily, at Fuller’s, we do that anyway, so that wasn’t a massive shift for us. That is part and parcel of running a hospitality business so managing the various work patterns and flexible-working requests of older workers isn't too much of a challenge.

"The difference for those aged 50 and over is they felt that hospitality wouldn't welcome them. So our job was to go out there and say: 'We really want you.' We really want people of an older generation in their third quartile – that is brilliant for us – because they just add immense value to the business. When you've got quite a young workforce, somebody who's got life experience is not only more representative of your customer demographic but they support the leaders in our business, put their arms around the younger people and offer vital mentoring and coaching.

"We have all kinds of roles filled by older workers – apprentices, people looking for a second career, etc."

"Today, we’ve got all kinds of roles filled by ‘older’ workers. We have examples of over-50s who are apprentices. We have attracted people who would like a second career; I'm thinking of a particular lady who was a teacher, retired early and didn't want to stop work completely, so she came to work for us as a front-of-house team member. Our eldest employee is 91 and youngest is 16.

"We have a very family-oriented culture and that means our leaders and each of our businesses are encouraged to create a safe environment so their team members feel comfortable to ask for what they want and need. Ultimately, our intention is for our people to be happy, particularly in customer-facing roles. Happy employees means happy customers. It makes financial sense.

"Honing our age-friendly policies, as well as being a bit more thoughtful about our external projection (watching the wording in the recruitment adverts; showing photographs of people that aren't just 19 behind the bar) has been a really positive experience for us. We now get five times more applications from over 50s than we did before we started this process.”

Danny Harmer

Chief people officer at Aviva

“Creating a diverse, inclusive organisation is a fundamental part of our culture at Aviva – we want colleagues who reflect our customers and to have access to all the talent available. Age is an important characteristic that brings diversity to teams, yet it is often overlooked in the workplace.

“Our values are at the core of our inclusive culture and bring to life some simple truths about what it means to work here. They focus on care, community, commitment and confidence. By acting with our values in mind, we have good retention rates across our diverse workforce. We also know we can understand and serve our customers best when we, as an organisation, reflect our diverse customer base.”

"Age is an important characteristic that brings diversity to teams"

Spokesperson for Aviva

Our colleague population is changing. In 2018, 19.4 per cent of colleagues were aged over 50, this had increased to 24.4 per cent in December 2023.

To help create this age-friendly culture, our people team has implemented an extensive wellbeing offering for all our people, including support for specific age-related health or financial concerns. This includes:

Mid-Life MOTs, which are seminars aimed at over-40s who are starting to consider their financial future. They cover topics such as planning for retirement, wellbeing and wealth (including savings and debt management).
Pre-retirement support, including 'part-tirement' for people who want to gently phase out of full-time employment.
Efforts to tackle the stigma around menopause and to better support our employees experiencing symptoms. This includes signing the Wellbeing of Women Menopause Workplace Pledge and an internal Menopause Support Hub. We also offer access to Aviva's Digital GP app, the Peppy Menopause app and we have a Menopause Support Group, which is a safe space for people to share stories and ask for advice.
Smart and flexible working arrangements that allow colleagues to benefit from part-time working, term-time working, job shares, compressed hours or home working to flex around what suits them and their lifestyle choices.
Our Generations community is committed to building a sustainable workforce by supporting employees of all ages. The community is dedicated to supporting our employees throughout their career and creating better awareness of issues around ageism in the workplace.

Our top three tips for any organisation looking to to create a more age-inclusive culture:

Start with data to understand how you measure up and where you need to focus, for example, quantitative and qualitative data from engagement and employee life-cycle surveys.
Create inclusive recruitment approaches by focusing on age-friendly language in job ads as well as inclusive brand imagery and internal comms to attract older workers and retain them by promoting an age-friendly culture.
Make sure that everything you do in this space, including policies and procedures, is aligned to including all generations of employees. Take advice from your people and find out what others are doing. We will soon join the Workplace Age Diversity Index to help us to better understand the wider market.

Danny Harmer

Imogen O’Rorke

Associate director in the green and good team at SEC Newgate

“My story is slightly different to the usual ‘returner’ story. I know generally companies have been having a hard time getting people to return to the office post-COVID – for various reasons – but that actually worked in my favour when I was looking to go back into marketing and communications. I’d spent the past 10 years running a micro-business (sustainable rubber boots) and doing some freelance copywriting work on the side, following 10 plus years as a journalist, PR and marketing executive. When I found myself as a single parent, I decided I wanted more stability, a regular income and a benefits package, and so I contacted an organisation called F1 Recruitment and signed up to their Back2Businesship scheme, which involved training, retraining and preparing marketing professionals to return to employment.

Having completed the course in 2022, my fellow graduates and I realised that COVID was the best friend of returners, because all the research pointed to the fact that people – especially women – coming back into the workplace after having children, or a career break, were prepared to go into the office again. Yes, they wanted flexibility as an option, but they were much more likely to be loyal and to stick in a role, so there was less churn.

‘I was delighted to find a company that wanted all of my experience, so I didn’t have to under pitch myself’

When I started applying for jobs again, I was advised that we weren’t legally obliged to put our age on our CV, so I didn’t. People have long been afraid of owning their age and disclosing it because of inbuilt prejudice. I remember pre-pandemic being advised to doctor my CV to hide some of the earlier experience I’d gained, because, generally speaking, the media industry is perceived as being ageist. It also would have avoided the dreaded ‘you’re too qualified’ response from prospective employers.

When I joined SEC Newgate, I was in my late 40s. F1 Recruitment had persuaded around 20 organisations to join a speed dating-type interview process with candidates on the Back2Businesship scheme and we were coached on how to hone our pitch in a 10-minute virtual chat platform. This opportunity made all the difference, because so-called older workers are desperate for the chance to get in front of a recruiter, face to face, to show them how articulate, confident and eligible we are for the role at hand. So often your CV never makes it past the first-round sifting stage.

It just so happened that my skills were the skills that SEC Newgate was looking for and the company was looking for all of my experience; they wanted all of me. So it wasn't just my copywriting, and my PR experience, they were also impressed by the fact that I'd been an entrepreneur twice-over and that I had a lot of creativity on my CV. It is these skills and experiences that now form my personal profile when being matched with clients at SEC Newgate, so I know the company continues to value and celebrate my experience.

I may have been lucky with SEC Newgate, which has just become the first communications agency to be accredited as an age-inclusive employer by the company 55/Redefined, but there are definitely aspects of the business that others could replicate. Having senior-level buy-in and role models is key, and the flexibility and home working opportunities were already there at SEC Newgate pre-pandemic, as was a successful reverse mentoring scheme (I’m enjoying being a reverse-mentor to young analysts coming into the business of communications). I also really like the collegiate structure of the company where your expertise, specialisms and depth of experience are appreciated. I’m two years in and I have no plans to leave.”

Sami Riaz

Second year HRM student at Birmingham City University

“Most of my work experience has been in various roles in the NHS, most notably in operating departments in all types of clinical settings: A&E, wards and in ITU helping nurses during the pandemic. COVID made me realise that life is too short. What’s more, if you’re in the wrong employment, you can end up just a number; easily replaced. The experience of working on the frontline during the pandemic, as well the well-publicised pressures on NHS workers was beginning to seriously impact my health, so I decided I needed a change in career. HR might seem like quite the shift, but both HR and healthcare are centred around people. I was keen to learn more about what I saw as leadership and business structure failings in the NHS, and gain knowledge on how to address them.

And so, I enrolled on the HR management course at Birmingham City University 2022. At 47, I am not only the oldest student in my class, but across the whole business faculty. When I’ve been to careers fairs with my fellow students, I have been mistaken as their parent and I have watched some recruiters’ eyes roll when I ask what opportunities they have for older graduates. I’m still in the process of identifying industries and companies that welcome older graduates and where I can best add value, but my guess is that the public sector will jump at the chance of any labour.

‘As an older HRM student, I’m nervous about competing with 18-year-olds in the job market'

When I graduate, I'm going to apply for a graduate management scheme, because I believe that in leadership positions, you should have people of every age. So I intend to be a leader, not just because I am a bit older, but because I feel I can bring a lot to that position.

When I first started my studies, I wasn’t nervous about interacting with people 20/30 years my junior – in the healthcare profession, you have to be able to talk to all ages – I was more concerned about keeping up with and competing with 18-year-olds in the marketplace. But having just completed my second year as one of the top students, I've surpassed my own expectations and my own fears.

My message for employers would be to ask what older workers want and need, because it’s so easy for assumptions to be made, especially around health concerns. There is no perfect employee without ‘baggage’ at any age. I’d also say official qualifications are not everything; years of experience, or evening courses taken during parental leave could amount to much more than what can be taught in university.”

Dawn Browne

People and talent director at Fuller’s

“At Fuller’s we absolutely have made a conscious effort at better attracting and retaining older workers. One of the things we do is keep quite close to our people data, to understand who's working for us; to understand who our people are. As we came back to life after the pandemic, we discovered that the fastest growing area of our workforce was 16 and 17 year olds, but actually, we were seeing a decline in the numbers of over 50s working for us. This is perhaps not surprising, coming out of a pandemic, but that felt like a bit of a shame to a number of us, so we actively set out to attract more workers aged 50 and over.

One of the things we know from the research that we did with Rest Less when looking at what workers aged over 50 want from employment is greater flexibility. Well, hospitality is one of the best sectors to offer that, because if you care for your grandkids after school, you might want to come and work a lunch shift; if you are an early bird, you might want to come and work a breakfast shift; if you only want to work eight hours a week, that's fine by us. Luckily, at Fuller’s we do that anyway, so that wasn’t a massive shift for us. That is part and parcel of running a hospitality business, so it’s no more of a challenge managing the various work patterns and flexible working requests of older workers.

The difference I think for those aged 50 and over is they felt that hospitality wouldn't welcome them. So our job was really to go out there and say, actually, we really want you; we really want people of an older generation in their third quartile – that would be brilliant for us – because they just add immense value to the business. When you've got quite a young workforce, somebody who's got life experience is not only more representative of your customer demographic, but they support the leaders in our business, put their arms around the younger people and offer vital mentoring and coaching.

‘It was a real shame for us when we noticed a decline in workers over-50 after the pandemic, so we actively went out to find more’

Today, we’ve got all kinds of roles filled by ‘older’ workers. We have examples of over-50s who are apprentices with us. We have attracted people who would like a second career; I'm thinking of a particular lady who was a teacher, retired early and didn't want to stop work completely, so she came to work for us as a front of house team member. Our eldest employee is 91 and youngest is 16, so that age diverse workforce is who we are.

We have a very family-oriented culture and that means our leaders and each of our businesses are encouraged to create a safe environment for their team members to feel comfortable to ask for what they want and need. Ultimately, our intention is for our people to be happy, particularly in customer facing roles: happy employees, means happy customers. It makes financial sense.

Honing our age-friendly policies, as well as being a bit more thoughtful about our external projection – watching the wording in your recruitment adverts; showing photographs of people that aren't just 19 behind the bar – has been a really positive experience for us. We now get five times more applications from over 50s than we did before we started this process.”

Danny Harmer

Chief people officer, Aviva

“Our values are at the core of our inclusive culture and bring to life some simple truths about what it means to work here. They focus on care, community, commitment and confidence. By acting with our values in mind, we have good retention rates across our diverse workforce. We also know we can understand and serve our customers best when we as an organisation reflect our diverse customer base.”

‘By living our values – care, community, commitment and confidence – we’ve created an age-diverse workforce reflective of our customers’

Spokesperson for Aviva

Age is an important characteristic that brings diversity to teams, yet it is often overlooked in the workplace. Our colleague population is changing. In 2018, 19.4 per cent of colleagues were over 50, this increased to 24.4 per cent as of December 2023.

Our Mid-Life MOTs, which are seminars aimed at over 40s who are starting to consider their financial future. They cover topics such as planning for retirement, wellbeing and wealth (including savings and debt management).
Pre-retirement support, including part-tirement for people who want to gently phase out of full time employment.
Efforts to tackle the stigma around menopause and to better support our employees experiencing symptoms. This includes having signed the Wellbeing of Women Menopause Workplace Pledge and an internal Menopause Support Hub. We also offer access to Aviva's Digital GP App, the Peppy Menopause App and have a Menopause Support Group which is a safe space for people to share stories and ask for advice.
Smart and flexible working arrangements, to allow colleagues to benefit from part-time working, term-time working, job-shares, compressed hours or home working to flex around what suits them and their lifestyle choices.
Our Generations community is committed to building a sustainable workforce by supporting employees of all ages in the workplace. The community is dedicated to supporting our employees throughout their career and creating better awareness of issues around ageism in the workplace.

Our top three tips for any organisation looking to to create a more age-inclusive culture:

Start with data to understand how you measure up and where you need to focus – both quantitative and qualitative data too, for example from engagement and employee life cycle surveys.
Create inclusive recruitment approaches by focusing on age-friendly language in job ads as well as inclusive brand imagery and internal comms to contribute to both attracting older workers and retaining them through promoting an age-friendly culture.
Make sure that everything you do in this space, including policies and procedures, is aligned to including all generations of employees. Take advice from your people and find out what others are doing. We will soon join the Workplace Age Diversity Index to help us to better understand the wider market.

Danny Harmer