In October 2006, new legislation made age discrimination in employment unlawful. This new legislation will apply to current employees, and also to jobseekers targeted through recruitment campaigns.

No longer will it be possible for employers to discard older workers or ignore job applications from people over 50 or in their 60s, on the basis of their age alone – age discrimination will be effectively outlawed. In future, ability and/or experience will be the key discriminators of suitability for job vacancies – people will be judged as individuals, not by their date of birth.

Inevitably, some employers will have reservations about older workers, particularly with regard to health, mental ability and productivity – after all, attitudes are not changed by legislation.

However, the current generation of baby boomers in, or entering, their 50’s; and mature people in their 60’s, are extremely health conscious, and certainly more conscientious than many younger people.

The attendance record of older employees is known to be well above average, as they are a conscientious group with a strong work ethic – no Monday morning hangovers for them!

Productivity levels are also excellent, because mature workers have their years of experience to draw upon, and quality and accuracy are in-bred attributes of these generations.

Employers report that the main benefits of employing a mixed-age workforce are:
Reduced recruitment costs through increasing the pool of recruits and maximising applications.
Improved public image through having mixed age policies; there are commercial advantages to having a workforce that reflects the customer base and meets customer preferences and perceptions.
Improvement in staff retention rates through opening up training, promotion and development opportunities to all, and removing unfounded stereotypical ageist myths.
Lower turnover costs through improved recruitment and retention procedures. This has proven particularly useful in sectors where vacancies are hard to fill.
Improved productivity, through better staff morale and having more flexible working practices, particularly in later years.
Improved mentoring capacity, through retaining mature people who have corporate knowledge and experience.
Widening the staff base through responding to demographic change, and appreciating that the available pool of recruits is changing.

Over 50s ‘require greater choice and control over work and retirement decisions’ says Joseph Rowntree Foundation

IBritain’s expanding population of 50- and 60-year-olds need more choice and control over their work and retirement options. But a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report also insists that policy measures to enable more people to continue working past retirement age do not mean forcing everyone to ‘work until they drop’. Drawing together the findings from twelve different research projects on the transition between work and retirement, the report notes that despite the fact that people are living longer, they are also quitting the workforce at a younger average age (although not necessarily at a time of their own choosing). Since people over 50 are set to become an increasingly important economic resource as the supply of younger workers declines, it argues that government and employers need to change their attitudes to older workers and the contribution they can make.

It also warns policy makers against adopting one-size-fits-all prescriptions as more post-war ‘baby boomers’ approach retirement age. As the JRF research programme demonstrates, the circumstances and aspirations of people over 50 vary widely. Some, but not all, would benefit from retiring later. And since money considerations tend not to be the main reason behind their decisions to stop working, it is unlikely that a simple policy of financial incentives to encourage later retirement would do much to alter behaviour.

Specific research findings highlighted in the report are that:
• Many workers leaving jobs before state pension age have little option about the timing of retirement. Those in professional and managerial jobs tend to enjoy greater choice and control over how and when they leave the workforce than those in less privileged occupations.
• People’s retirement preferences are influenced primarily by health and family circumstances, combined with the view they take of their job. Financial factors are most often felt as a constraint, determining whether retirement at a preferred time is really affordable.
• Almost as many people who leave their career jobs before retirement age can be found working part-time, or in temporary or self-employed ‘bridge’ jobs a year later, as are fully retired.
• The most attractive and lucrative ‘bridge’ job options, such as consultancy work, tend to be taken by men who were well paid and well qualified in their previous career. Women more commonly take up part-time work after leaving their ‘main’ career, and frequently at lower rates of pay.
• A high proportion of men and women workers over 50 have caring responsibilities for older relations, but this does not typically lead them to give up work. Nevertheless, as the pressures to continue working beyond retirement age increase, there is a risk that the availability of informal, family care will diminish, putting professional caring services under extra strain. • Employers have only just begun to adopt policies to encourage older workers to stay in work, and to avoid wasting their talents. Training and career development activities remain skewed towards younger workers.
The report argues that any financial incentives introduced to encourage later retirement will achieve little unless other barriers to older people staying in the labour market are removed. These include not only age discrimination by employers, but also negative attitudes to work among older workers themselves that leads them to feel undervalued and that they have little left to contribute.

Another barrier identified by the research is a lack of opportunities for many workers to adjust their working hours or terms of employment as they grow older – partly through fear of losing pension entitlements. The report concludes that employers and government could both do far more to promote flexibility and increase the options for older workers who do not want to exchange their full-time careers for total retirement.

Donald Hirsch, Special Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “The Government and society have become much more open to the idea of ‘work-life balance’ in the case of parents and young children. This idea needs to extend more clearly to include older workers, many of whom have caring and other family responsibilities. A first step would be to extend legislation so that all workers have the right that was recently given to parents with young children to ask their employers for part-time and other flexible working options. Another key task will be to make work more worthwhile for older people, with opportunities to learn and to work in new ways, to the mutual benefit of individuals and the economy. What will not work is simply to create financial ‘incentives’ to work longer. For example, if we were to delay pensions until 70, without a huge change in current working patterns and opportunities, the result for many poorer people would simply be to prolong out-of-work poverty.” He added: “The reality revealed by the JRF research programme is that some older workers would like the option to pursue their career for considerably longer. Others are delighted to leave work as soon as they can. A third group would regard a switch to self-employment or part-time work as the best option and halfway-house.”

1. the working population is getting older - employers will have more older workers to recruit and manage and fewer younger workers. 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

2. people are working longer – increased life expectancy combined with shortfalls in pension provision mean employees are retiring later 3. the law is changing - by October 2006 employees will have protection against discrimination on the grounds of age. The government is also consulting on the introduction of a default retirement age of 65, with employees having the right to request to work beyond that age.

This does not mean you should discriminate in favour of older workers. However, being fair to all your workers, regardless of age, may help you to tackle the issue of skills shortages. When an older worker retires you will no longer have the same conveyor belt of younger workers to replace them.
So how do you make the most of your older workers? Older people are no different from young people at work. They want to:
• start work on a sound footing
• be developed and trained throughout their career
• have flexibility in the hours they work and the kind of work they do
Human Resource Planning and career planning can help you to manage an ageing workforce effectively. This means reviewing the way you treat people at keys stages such as recruitment, promotion, training, redundancy and retirement.

Challenge the stereotypes about older people at work. For example, many people assume that older people are more likely to be off sick. In fact, research has shown that the opposite is the case.

Another common assumption is that older people start 'winding down' as they approach normal retirement age. However, older people are often ambitious but need to use their skills in different ways. For example, older workers can make good mentors for junior colleagues or use their experience working on special projects.

Stereotypes are damaging to the way we perceive age. Be positive about age and value the contribution every individual can make.

The employment relationship begins with recruitment and goes right through to retirement and beyond. It is vital that you do not take this relationship for granted – whatever the age of the employee.

The ACAS booklet splits the employment relationship into three phases:
• beginning the relationship – focuses on recruitment, induction and human resource planning
• maintaining the relationship – looks at performance management systems and career planning as well as issues like flexible working and health and safety
• changing the relationship – concentrates on retirement and redundancy and the challenges faced by employees when they approach the end of their working life.

Generally, older workers are people over fifty. They find it hard to get work because age discrimination is most common during recruitment and selection.

Some of the barriers employers put in-front of older workers include:
• advertisements asking for school-leavers or people with little experience
• application forms requesting date of birth and an employment history
• selection procedures that re-enforce stereotypes about older workers not fitting in or being able to learn new skills.
When an older person does apply for a job an employer can be suspicious. Shouldn't they be in a job already or retired? Employers often consider that older workers are:
• over-qualified
• too experienced
• not what they had in mind when they advertised the post.

How can you give older workers a fair chance? Start by asking yourself the following questions:

You need to take age seriously because older workers will form an increasing percentage of the working population. The people you recruit will be older and the people you train and develop will be older. It's in your interests to make the most of the skills and experience of your workers, regardless of age.

You may already have equal opportunities policies, promoting equality in terms of sex, race and disability. Age is potentially the form of discrimination that affects most people and should be added to your 'equality policy'.

Try putting yourself in the shoes of older people to think about why they apply for jobs. Older people may have the necessary skills and ability but possibly lack confidence. They may feel out of touch with developments and in need of re-establishing themselves. There are 2.7 million people age between 50 and the state pension age who are not in work but able to work. Of these, between 700,000 and 1 million would like to work.

Flexible working is often a very important issue for older workers. They may have caring responsibilities outside work or just want to work fewer hours. A flexible approach to working patterns can help employers to attract older workers when recruiting and to hold onto their expertise when they are established employees.

Recent research shows that age is often a factor when choosing candidates for interview or selecting for a post. To avoid stereotyping older workers employers need to train their managers and personnel staff about age diversity. This will involve, for example, thinking carefully about the kind of language used in adverts and interviews and challenging some of the preconceptions managers may have about employing older workers. A common preconception is that older workers do not stay with the business as long as younger workers. However, many companies target older workers in order to reduce labour turnover.

To support the awareness of age issues consider using age profiling. This involves keeping an ongoing record of the age of all job applicants, short-listed candidates, and interviewees – as well as those appointed. Profiling can tell you if recruitment and selection processes are successfully recruiting older workers.

It is a good idea for any organisation to plan its labour force requirements, matching available supply against forecast demand.

In the future the 'available supply' will consist of more and more older workers, so you may need to adapt your recruitment and training procedures to reflect the concerns of this ageing workforce.

Skills shortages may occur unexpectedly and recruitment and training processes need to be kept flexible. Older workers often have the necessary skills but sometimes are not familiar with some types of new technology or work environments. These problems can be overcome during the induction and training process.

If recruitment is difficult for certain jobs or skills, consider re-designing the job to make it more attractive to older workers. Part of this redesign may involve offering flexible forms of working; a mentoring role or the opportunity to work on special projects.

Maintaining an effective working relationship with older workers means focusing on training, career planning and performance appraisal.

Start by taking a long-term view of management. Career planning can help you to think about an employee's whole working life from recruitment right through to retirement.

But it is not always easy. Older workers can present you with specific problems. For example, how do you make the most of their expertise without blocking potential career progression for junior colleagues?

One of the answers is to be more creative about how you see career progression. Promotion will always be important but 'getting on' is not just about moving up. Employers may find it worthwhile thinking about other options for older workers, such as:

• a more open job description, with a wider variety of tasks
• sideways moves to other jobs, giving more responsibility on special projects
• a mentoring role to help develop and coach junior colleagues.
Older workers often respond positively to greater choice and flexibility at work. Employers need to be flexible, too, about how they hold on to the valuable skills and knowledge of experienced staff.

Organisational strategies for achieving targets should be written with career paths in mind. Developing the skills and experience of older workers may offer employers the chance to set new and challenging goals for individuals and the organisation as a whole.

Career plans should be a positive reflection of what older workers can achieve rather than an acceptance of negative stereotypes. However, it is also up to employees to identify their own strengths and to discuss career ideas with their managers.

Do performance reviews change as employees get older? No. Levels of performance need to be monitored just as closely with older workers. Adopting a 'let it be' attitude will indicate to an older employee that you do not value their work. From October 2006 treating older workers less favourably will be against the law.

Career planning is very closely linked to reporting systems. Employers cannot develop their employees unless they understand them. This means: • a reporting system with clear, realistic objectives
• regular meetings with ongoing appraisal throughout the reporting year
• personal development plans that reflect an employee's individual strengths and weaknesses.
You can't make exceptions for older workers and allow performance to slip because you think they are going to retire. This may be regarded as positive discrimination. Deal with unsatisfactory performance in the same way you would for any employee.

Talk through the problem first and try to resolve it informally. If things persist issue an improvement note, setting out the standard of work required and the timescale for reaching that standard. Give employees chance to improve and offer training where necessary.

Yes. All your employees are valuable and should have access to training, regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time, young or old. Of course, employers need to take account of the different ways people learn.

Initially, some older workers may be less familiar with new technology or software – particularly if they are returning to work after a gap in employment. Also, it may take time for them to adapt to college-based training courses as they may not have undertaken formal study for some time.

Older workers will have advantages over younger workers in some respects. For example they will have more experience and will often be able to apply the theory of the text book more easily to work situations.

To plan future training needs consider carrying out a skills audit of all your employees. With employees working longer, specialist training in coaching and mentoring could prove invaluable.

Mentoring is about an older worker becoming a role model to a younger worker. The older worker is able to pass on their skills and offer support and encouragement.

Mentoring is an ideal way of hanging onto the huge investment you make in the skills and expertise of your employees.

Mentoring is a one-to-one, non-judgemental relationship in which an individual voluntarily gives time to support and encourage another. This is typically developed at a time of transition in the mentee's life, and lasts for a significant and sustained period of time. (Active Community Unit, Home Office);

Mentoring can benefit older and younger workers. Older workers may be moved away from physically demanding work into a more supervisory role. They get a fresh challenge towards the end of their career and greater flexibility in the hours they work and the kind of work they do.

Younger workers have the reassurance of being 'taken under the wing' of someone with years of experience.

Training in mentoring will help you manage the new relationship between the older and younger worker in a structured and thoughtful way.

Mentoring can help employees at all levels – from those in junior roles all the way up to leaders of companies. Indeed, most effective 'succession management' involves a degree of mentoring.

The full text can be found at www.acas.com.uk

Further information, and updates on the proposed age discrimination legislation, can be obtained from the following:

Employer’s Forum on Age www.efa.org.uk
DTI www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/age
Government agency www.agepositive.gov.uk
Equality issues www.equalitydirect.org.uk