Age Matters

Employing, Motivating and Managing Older Employees

Keren Smedley

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138618787
• eBook ISBN: 9781351163262
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Keren Smedley and Helen Whitten's Age Matters provides a comprehensive, innovative and positive approach to recent changes in the regulations and in demography. The authors explain the advantages and disadvantages of the 2006 legislation and its effect on current retirement practices. Packed with statistics and perspectives on the ageing workforce (in the UK, EU and countries around the world), the book includes practical advice, models, exercises and training activities to help establish an appropriate response for your organisation. It is those organisations who can look beyond the legislation to manage the value in their older workforce that will thrive. Use this book to understand the implications of demographic change and the employment law issues it raises; to help older employees identify, articulate and adapt to new ways of working; to enable both older and younger employees to work across the generations; and to build an age-inclusive culture. Covering virtually every human resources issue related to the ageing employment pool, this is a must-have resource for anyone involved in human resources, employment planning, organisational development and training.

Section Three
Practical Steps to Achieving an Age-Inclusive Culture

Chapter 9
Recruiting and Selecting Older Workers

Sally has called a meeting with Bill and Mary, who are both looking for new members of staff to join their team. They are due to discuss the short-listing of potential candidates. Sally opens the meeting by saying, ‘I wanted to discuss your shortlist because I am wondering what criteria you chose people on. I can see that some obviously did not meet your specification, and I understand about those but there are three or four that we need to discuss in more detail.‘

Mary says, ‘Well, as far as I’m concerned, anybody over 50 is going to cause me trouble. Why would people leave their job at that age? They are either no good or they are difficult.‘

Bill says, ‘The last thing I need is another Simon‘.

Sally jumps in, ‘I thought we’d had this conversation. Ageism is an important diversity issue and we cannot discriminate against people because of their age.‘

Bill adds, ‘They all look as though they have done masses but how am I to know that they can do it well?’

Sally says, ‘You won’t know that unless you interview them. I think we need to go back over anybody who is 50+ that was placed in the ‘discard’ pile and look at their competencies and abilities.’

Possible outcome

You miss really excellent candidates who have everything you need and you set yourself up for litigation.

By 2011, 35 per cent of the population will be aged over 55 and 18 per cent will be aged between 45 and 55. Almost 40 per cent of the UK labour force will be aged 45 or over – and 16–17 year olds will make up only 17 per cent of the workforce. There are currently 20 million people aged 50 and over in the UK. By 2030 this figure is expected to reach 27 million – an increase of 37 per cent. A worker is commonly perceived as ‘older’ at the age of 50 and even younger.

Increased life expectancy, combined with shortfalls in pension provision, will mean that employees will retire later. Employers will have older workers to recruit and manage, and fewer younger workers – the balance will change.

Age discrimination is a luxury that companies can no longer afford. Under the proposals set out in the Age Discrimination Regulations 2006 decisions on recruitment and selection based on age will be unlawful. It is only lawful to discriminate at the recruitment stage against job applicants:

1. whose age is higher than the employer’s Normal Retirement Age or, if there is no NRA, higher than 65.
2. who will reach the NRA or age 65 within six months of making the job application.

The current situation is that there is plenty of evidence that there is widespread discrimination on age when it comes to recruitment.

This chapter focuses on the recruiting and selection of older workers. The topics covered are:

1. Background and current situation
2. The business case
3. Age-neutral recruitment
4. Job descriptions, person specifications and application forms
5. Advertising
6. Interviews.

1. Background and Current Situation

People aged over 50 have a real difficulty finding a new job, and many finally abandon the search. Government statistics highlight that the older the person the longer they are likely to remain unemployed. Six out of 10 people under the age of 50 who have been made redundant get back into work within a year. Only one out of 10 over the age of 50 find work within a year. Nine out of 10 people over the age of 50 who started job hunting after redundancy gave up after 12 months because of the response they experienced.

750 000 people over the age of 50 would like to be working if they thought there was a relevant opportunity to do so. Many who do return to work after redundancy or for other reasons face a substantial pay reduction compared to their previous job. This wage penalty has increased steadily over the last 20 years with 26 per cent of people over the age of 45 taking a pay reduction, compared to 12 per cent in 1980. These statistics reflect the prejudice shown towards older workers.

Nine out of ten older people believe that employers discriminate on grounds of age (NOP research – Code on Age Diversity). This statement is upheld by the fact that 55 per cent of managers say they use age as a criterion for recruitment (Chartered Management Institute Survey). The availability of training also decreases with age: there is a 50 per cent reduction in training levels for the over-50s compared with the 35–50 year olds (New Policy Institute).

A survey of 2072 adults (aged 15 and over) found that ageism is the most common form of workplace discrimination. Twenty-two per cent of people have experienced workplace discrimination and of these, 38 per cent said it was because of their age. Thirty-eight per cent of those said it happened during recruitment, 25 per cent during promotion processes and 25 per cent during selection (MORI Social Research Institute, December 2002).

In a survey of over 1000 people the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that: one in eight workers had been discouraged from applying from jobs on the grounds of age; one in four thinks that employers are not interested in employing people over the age of 40 (CIPD, Age Discrimination at Work, January 2001).

This is a typical case study:

A 66-year-old factory worker had to lie about his age when he applied for his present job. He had sent in numerous applications and although he felt he had the qualifications, was turned down. Eighteen months into his current post he was overheard saying that he was about to celebrate his 63rd birthday party that weekend. His boss, who was walking past, called him over and said, ‘That is not the age you put down on your application form; why did you do this?’ Jim asked him, ‘Would I be standing here now if I had told you I was over 60?’ His boss replied, ‘No’.

The result of this is that highly skilled people end up working in less challenging areas, taking part-time work, or working in the voluntary sector. Others choose to set up their own businesses or consultancies. Either way, organizations could be losing out on real talent, knowledge and wisdom.

‘It is time to recognize that 60-somethings are “not in their dotage” and still capable of doing high-powered jobs’, warned Alan Johnson, former Work and Pensions Secretary. He has called for a culture change to stamp out ageism at work saying, ‘When you get to 65 people are remarkably youthful and energetic and have got lots of ideas. The view that people are only fit to do a few simple clerical jobs when they reach 65 is wrong.’

The concept of age in the UK is not shared throughout the rest of the world. In the US it is common for lawyers and other professionals to continue to work well into their late 60s and early 70s. American legal companies in the UK benefit from partners in their 50s leaving or retiring from UK companies and coming to them at what they consider to be at the ‘peak’ of their career, bringing with them clients, wisdom, knowledge and experience.

This is not just happening in the law. The UK loses many of its outstanding academics to American universities. Professor Harry Koto, a Nobel-Prizewinning chemist was forced to retire from his post at Sussex University when he reached 65. He has moved to the US where there is no mandatory age of retirement and Florida has acquired a ‘prize asset’ (The Times, October 2004).

There are numerous examples of older people who, in spite of having taken further qualifications, are turned down from posts as unsuitable or incompetent before they have reached the short-listing. Some report taking five to ten years off their age and editing their CVs in order to feel confident in applying for jobs.

In recent years, however, some organizations, such as major supermarkets and retail stores, have developed policies to encourage the older worker to apply for work. Those organizations that have done this have reported real business benefits, particularly in customer satisfaction.

Companies in the financial services sector have also reported that customers value the help of an older person when it comes to financial advice. The Nationwide Building Society raised its retirement age to 75 as many customers said they preferred to discuss their finances with someone of the same age and someone who had had some financial experience.

It is estimated that the relatively low level of employment amongst older workers costs the economy between £19–31 billion a year, mostly in lost output but also because of reduced taxes and increased welfare payments (National Audit Office).

The Government is increasing employment opportunities and has set up the New Deal 50 Plus, a scheme that was set up specifically for older workers. They have helped more than 120 000 people into work. They are also increasing employment opportunities in other ways such as working with employers to raise awareness of an age-diverse workforce and helping older people manage interviews by improving their self-confidence and presentation. As reported by a recruitment agency working specifically with older people, one of the difficulties is that many older workers, having been employed for 20–30 years in one organization, have little experience of how to approach both filling in a CV and attending an interview. A particular problem that has been highlighted is that many organizations are recruiting new staff through on-line processes and many older people do not feel confident of their technical abilities. Equally a gruelling three-day interview in an assessment centre can be ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• SECTION ONE: AGE DISCRIMINATION AND ITS CONTEXT
• SECTION TWO: MANAGING AND MOTIVATING THE OLDER WORKER
• SECTION THREE: PRACTICAL STEPS TO ACHIEVING AN AGE-INCLUSIVE CULTURE
• SECTION FOUR: TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index