Age friendly employment

Are you an age friendly employer?

There is no expiry date for workers, but as people get older many face discrimination on the basis of their age – or challenges accessing the work that works for them.

A third of the workforce in England are aged 50 or over, nearly 9 million workers. But not all employers are offering what’s needed to retain older workers, or recognising the importance of recruiting them.

Multigenerational workforces drive productivity and innovation

Employing older workers can bring many recognised benefits to a business*:

Retention of experience and firm-specific knowledge.
Reduced skill shortage.
Lower staff turnover as older workers are less likely to leave.
Lower costs of recruitment and training – If more older workers are retained or move to a new type of work with their current employer, there would be significant savings in recruitment and training costs.
Meeting customer desires for an age-diverse workforce as the customer base ages.
Improved staff morale.

Businesses may be reluctant to recruit or retain older workers because they believe they will soon retire and therefore cannot make a long-term commitment to the business. Workers of all ages leave companies all the time. Therefore, businesses can benefit from ensuring they train older as well as younger people.

Valued characteristics of older workers include:

Experience of work and life experience,
Loyalty, reliability and good time management skills,
Patience and calmness under pressure,
Ability to engage well with other people and strong customer service empathy,
Ability to mentor younger staff

The Age-Friendly Pledge

The Age-friendly Employer Pledge is a nationwide programme for employers who:

recognise the importance and value of older workers
are committed to improving work for people in their 50s and 60s (and beyond)
are prepared to take action to help them flourish in a multigenerational workforce

Signing up to the Age-friendly Employer Pledge shows your commitment to older workers.

South Tyneside Council has signed the Age-Friendly Pledge. Mary Fairfield, Public Health Practitioner explains what this means for the organisation and the benefits and older workforce can bring.