The 50+ generation is causing concern and debate. More often ignored or written off, this is quite some change. The government was so shocked at recent stats about the 50+ generation disappearing from the workforce, they commissioned further in-depth research to understand why.
Since then, there have been endless commentators adding their own theories, but most are missing the mark, probably because this cohort is little understood or studied. To many, they are considered ‘just ageing people’.
Source: Office for National Statistics
In this research by the Office for National Statistics, 47% of this generation say they are “retiring from paid work”. This led Ben Wright of the Telegraph to describe them as ‘work-shy’. Camilla Cavendish of the FT said they are ‘sick of working’. And Alice Dawson of Demos said that ‘to stem the tide of over 50s leaving work, they must not overlook the mental health of their older employees’.
But is she focusing on mental health as the issue when actually it is the work and how it is organised that is causing the stress? In the ONS research, yes, 10 per cent said they left because of stress or mental health; 15% for illness or disability and another 15 per cent due to Covid – but it does not detail how this affected them.
Add all these together, and they are still less than the number who just left the workforce.
Alice Dawson urges employers to focus on the mental health of older employees. Yet she describes the cause of the mental health and stress issues in some detail, “Some of the over 50s we spoke to described situations which involved unsupportive line management, difficult work relationships and work that caused a significant degree of stress or an ageist or ableist work environment.”, “One over 50 we spoke to, who had depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, left work due to grappling with an increasing workload and a decline in occupational health support provided by his employer.”
Surely the employer should invest resources and effort into improving line management, workloads and ageism?
Earlier this year, Dame Sharon White, chair of John Lewis, was quoted saying the government had to get the 50+ generation back to work. This was as bemusing as Alice Dawson’s interpretations – surely this is down to employers to make work more appealing for this generation? This received a flood of online comments with all the evidence needed about what was going on. In online discussions, one said, “I felt undervalued …we have had enough of being treated as if we have irrelevant skills and knowledge”. Another said, “As a retired 60+, I’d be more than happy to return to the workplace, provided there was flexibility in hours worked.” And yet another, “Ageism is alive and well in the workforce” … they’re not going back because they don’t respect the management (because the management doesn’t respect them)”.
And there you have it. The reason why people are retiring early is that they have reached a point in life where they want to be treated well and with respect, and they think they have enough money to live on without working. And unlike younger generations – who actually want the same things – many of the 50+ generations have reached a point where they feel they have enough money to live on and choices. So they walk.
What can employers do to stem the outward flow of 50+ employees?
These issues of the 50+ generation are going to become ever more important. Legal and General recently showed that 47% of the workforce will be aged 50+ by 2030.
We have worked with hundreds of members of this generation who are desperate to use their skills – some need to earn money, and many are happy to do a lot without pay. They just want to feel useful and relevant still. They are absolutely not work-shy.
Employers admit they have not invested in training for this generation – so it is no surprise they have patchy tech skills. There is evidence across the UK that it does not take long to train people to be not just comfortable with tech but even quite skilled. Employees should be encouraged to start investing in the tech skills of the older generation – the rewards will be considerable.
The other gap that employers admit to is their benefits are skewed toward the younger generation.
One CPO said really all they had for the older generation was ‘impotence and menopause support’.
How can employers motivate the 50+ generation?
Employers have a skills crisis – and the 50+ generation is adding to it when they could actually be filling some of the gaps.
To stem the flow and attract employees back, employers need to:
- Include age in their diversity pillars and dice the stats by age. There will be a number of shocks as to how the 50+ generation feels about their employer. In one survey by Jobsgopublic, 75 per cent of 50+ employees said their skills were neither recognised nor used.
- Rethink work and reward. This generation is not necessarily motivated by increasing responsibility for increased pay. They want to do interesting work, but maybe more in projects or part-time. So many have had enough of ‘planes and trains’, meetings and the general ‘noise’ of work as it becomes after 20 years in an organisation.
- Really think about their skills and experience – where is it a real benefit? The other day an HR director said, “My vision has been that at this stage, I want employees to be passing on their experience and learning – mentoring, supporting the younger generation and adding value to projects, not necessarily leading them.” Another commented that this generation did not grow up on mobiles and tablets and is more comfortable speaking to people and creating real-life relationships. How valuable is that in terms of partnerships, community projects, ESG initiatives?
- Rethink your benefits. When one corporate recently asked their employees if anyone would like help to think about what they might do in retirement and plan for this, 750 employees turned up on the call! This is a really easy benefit to add in and can help to motivate employees in their last years of work.
- Invest in training. It feels extraordinary that employers talk about investing in their people – but not from the age of 40. So much has changed in the last decade, let alone 20 or 30 years. You can’t expect employees to manage all their own training and stay up to date. There are plenty of organisations helping parent returners – learn from how these work and offer tech training to the experienced generation.
- One of those on the call asked, ‘what support is there for when we have left the company?’. GDPR has tied employers in knots, worrying about contacting people once they have retired. Get their permission to stay in touch and make it clear there are options other than just retiring, including working on projects and working part-time also, if they leave, welcome them back if they want to return in a year.
Get all this right, and you could just find you have solved a large part of your skills crisis.
Victoria Tomlinson launched Next-Up to help people find new ways to use their skills in unretirement. Next-Up runs pre-retirement workshops for corporates and professional firms and has an online platform to help all employees pre-retirement (public and private sectors). Next-Up’s podcast, Rethink Retirement, helps people with inspiration and ideas for unretirement. Victoria is chair of Women in Leeds Digital, helping increase the diversity of digital teams in organisations. A former director of EY and on the London management team, she founded and ran an award-winning communication, digital and leadership business, Northern Lights PR, for 30 years. She is an Amazon bestselling author, a blogger and one of the BBC’s expert women, regularly appearing on TV and radio to comment on the news. She is an international and TEDx speaker on unretirement, leadership, women on boards and strategic LinkedIn. She has coached chief executives and directors and mentors start-up businesses, young people, ex-offenders and those transitioning into retirement.