workingwise.co.uk launches #AgeDiversity campaign

The workforce is changing, life expectancy has increased significantly and people are fitter and healthier than ever before. However, our mindset as individuals and recruiters doesn’t seem to have caught up.

workingwise.co.uk, alongside WM People, is focused on getting employers to recognise their bias in everything from job adverts to behaviour in the workplace generally by launching the #AgeDiversity campaign, alongside their annual showcase National Older Workers Week (21-25 November).

Chris Poole, Director of Robert Walters UK, says: “With today’s workforce working for longer, the average workplace is now made up of four different generations – a phenomenon that has never before occurred in the workplace. While this diversity brings a range of perspectives, skills and backgrounds, it also challenges business leaders on how to be inclusive of a multitude of different age groups in the workplace – with no historical best practice to follow.”

Employers will be encouraged to actively seek and recruit older workers and to have the policies and practices in place to ensure they retain this talent, as well as getting older workers to realise their value.

There will be a survey based around the workingwise Top Employer Charter – to discover where employers are at the moment with regards to age diversity – with the hope they’ll be an uplift in employers signing the charter.

Recent research has shown that many organisations are not actively recruiting older workers, there is age discrimination in the recruitment process and policies to retain older workers (i.e. carer and menopause policies) need to be improved. This has become a more urgent issue in light of current labour shortages and the increase in economic inactivity among this age group.

Employing older workers fills skills gaps, as they have a breadth of experience, but older workers are also great for business. Having a diverse workforce brings in different viewpoints and an understanding of the varying needs of different clients/consumers. Older workers life experiences have developed many soft skills and they are great mentors for younger workers, increasing business success.

Employing older workers makes sense from a social perspective too:

• Health – impact of quality work on health, including mental health, of individuals; impact on NHS/social care of not keeping in work
• Financial well being – worries about pensions not being enough; social impact of pensioner poverty

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