Australia: "Stubborn Streak" Keeps Older Workers Working?

According to an article by Cameron Stewart, as Australia gets greyer and the baby boomer generation enters its twilight years, jobs are not shifting as people once thought they would: "The grey-haired warriors are staying put in their jobs, shutting out younger wannabes and declaring that retirement is for wimps."

"The Prime Minister has set the example, he is leading the pack," says Allan McLean, director of the National Ageing Research Institute. "We now know that stopping work suddenly is bad for you. It can kill you."

Among other things, Stewart also cites the results of a survey of retirement intentions released early in 2006 by AXA Australia taht found that almost two-thirds of baby boomers are planning to have some form of paid job in their retirement years and that today's average retirement age of 59 is set to increase, with most people expecting to retire at 62 or older.

Source: The Australian"Retiring for wimps, say grey warriors" (August 21 2006)

United Kingdom: Trades Union Congress Says One Miillion Over-50's Being Dumped by Employers

According to a Trade Union Congress (TUC) report, over one million 50-65 year olds who want to work can't get a job because employers won't recruit older workers or retain the ones they already employ by investing in training or making minor adjustments for disabilities.

The report--"Ready willing and able"--despite an average retirement age of 63, only 12% of non-working 50-65 year olds fit the stereotype of "early retired, affluent professionals," only a third retire early "fully voluntarily" and many survive on state support such as Incapacity Benefit or inadequate occupational pensions until they reach state pension age (65 for men, 60 for women but rising to 65 between 2010-2020).

The TUC calls on employers and government to defuse the "demographic timebomb" of a rapidly ageing workforce being pushed out of jobs and on to benefits and early pensions by introducing policies and practices to retain and recruit workers over 50.

Source: Trades Union Congress News Release (August 14, 2006)

Gray Ceiling and Generation X

In the August 21, 2006 issue of Fortune Magazine, senior writer Anne Fisher writes about Generation X as a generation of workers that can't get ahead because aging boomers above them won't budge, and offers them some advice for how to break through the "Gray Ceiling"--"increasingly, younger workers are finding that no matter how many hours they put in or how much their bosses rave about their work, they're just plain stuck."

According to Fisher, employers helped build the Gray Ceiling during the late '90s by, among other things, starting to campaign to keep older workers kicking around. However, many companies are unaware that they have created a Gray Ceiling and companies that don't "realize that if they aren't focused on how to keep Gen Xers happy will inevitably find that somebody else is." Gen Xers report that 51% have been given a fancier title--"the addition of the word "special" or "specialist" to a title is particularly in vogue."--in the past two years, yet 47% say they're still doing the same job.

The postive things companies are doing to keep their younger workers include moderated diversity training with both boomers and Gen Xers, rotating young talent throughout the organization, and making tuition reimbursement programs more generous. For Gen Xers, themselves, their strategies may be jumping into a different industry or a foreign market or starting a new venture; while risky, "staying put in a going-nowhere job may be an even bigger gamble."

Source: Fortune Magazine "Middle management Hell: Have you outgrown your job?" (August 9, 2006)

United Kingdom: Industry by Industry Reports on Tackling Age Discrimination and Promoting Age Diversity in Employment

The Age Partnership Group has issued research that encourages employers to tackle age discrimination practices and recognise the benefits of older workers. Each of nine industry sector-specific reports look at the challenges faced by the sector relating to the recruitment, training and retention of older workers.

Specifically, the nine sector research reports include Business services, Construction, Education, Health and Social Care, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Retail, Transport and Logistics, and Other community (media, sport, public services, the arts).

The research found that eight sectors use length of experience to fix starting salaries or as a criterion in selection for recruitment and retention; seven sectors use age or length of service as the basis for redundancy decisions; five sectors provide age information on candidates to short-listing and interviewing staff; four sectors set maximum or contractual retirement ages and for two of these sectors the contractual retirement age is often below 65.

The reports also examine what employers are doing to remove compulsory retirement ages and adopt flexible approaches, as set out in the Pensions White Paper, as well as looking at how the age legislation affects young people in the workforce.

Source: Age Positive News Release (August 10, 2006)

Conferernce Board Study Shows More Companies Turn to Strategic Workforce Planning

The Conference Board has issued a study showing that an aging workforce and an emerging "baby boom" retirement wave are driving more companies toward "strategic workforce planning," which involves analyzing and forecasting the talent that companies need to execute their business strategy. "Strategic workforce planning is aimed at helping companies make sure they have the right people in the right place at the right time and at the right price."

The study--Strategic Workforce Planning: Forecasting Human Capital Needs to Execute Business Strategy--reports that these other forces are driving strategic workforce planning: current movement and projected labor shortages; globalization; the growing use of contingent, flexible workers; the need to leverage human capital to enhance return; mergers and acquisitions; and the evolution of workplace technology and tools. The study includes detailed case studies of nine organizations.

Source: Conference Board Press Release (August 7, 2006)

Malaysia: Workers Choosing To Delay Retirement

According to an article by Chan Ching Thut in The Star, "more Malaysians are planning to retire later than at age 55, with the main reasons cited for the delay being higher pay while working, enhanced retirement benefits, and new and challenging responsibilities." This is the result of a pulse survey conducted in May 2006 by Accenture.

Accenture partner and human performance senior executive Joan Hoi said "One-third of Malaysian workers interviewed have changed their plans for retirement within the past five years."

Separately, Hoi noted that a significant finding from their Aging Workforce survey was on the management of the knowledge assets of a company: Globally, one quarter of employers surveyed revealed that their organisations would allow older workers to retire without any transfer of knowledge, and in Malaysia, 48% cited “small, informal discussions” or “1 to 2 weeks' process” as the methods used by organisations before employees retire, while 15% said their organisations would let them go without any transfer of knowledge.

Source: The Star "More Malaysians choose to delay retirement" (August 7, 2006)

Scotland: Government Grants Aim To Bring Older Workers Back into Learning

The Scottish Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Allan Wilson has announced that the Experience Counts initiative that aims to bring older workers back into learning will continue to benefit from Scottish Executive funding until 2008. The initiative provides tailored learning programmes for over-50s to raise confidence and allow learners to acquire new skills. "Through the programme, Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) collaborate with employers and learning institutions to provide 'bite size' or taster courses dependent on employer and worker needs."

"Experience Counts ensures that older workers can be competitive in the modern workplace. By combining older workers' wealth of professional experience with new knowledge and skills development we can further Scotland's commitment to a world-class professional environment."

The first phase was announced in March. In this second phase, four SSCs will operate across Scotland, receiving £224,000 to deliver a range of activities from enhancing the continuous professional development of staff in Scottish Colleges to the development of an older colleague mentoring programme in the transport sector.

Source: Scottish Executive News Release (August 7, 2006)

GAO Reviews Data on Retiring Boomers and Effects on Financial Assets Markets

As the first wave of baby boomers become eligible for retirement benefits, concerns have been raised about the possibility for boomers to sell off large amounts of financial assets in retirement, with relatively fewer younger U.S. workers available to purchase these assets. Analysis of this situation by the General Accountability Office (GAO)--presented in its report Retirement of Baby Boomers Is Unlikely to Precipitate Dramatic Decline in Market Returns, but Broader Risks Threaten Retirement Security (GAO-06-718)--suggests that retiring boomers are not likely to sell financial assets in such a way as to cause a sharp and sudden decline in financial asset prices.

However, due, in part, to the decline in traditional pensions that provide guaranteed retirement income and the rise in account-based defined contribution plans, the retirement security of boomers and others will likely depend more on individual savings and returns on such savings.

Source: General Acountability Office Highlights (July 28, 2006)

Career Advisers: Preparing To Work Past 65

Following up on the McKinsey survey showing that the average age of retirees was only 59 and a full 40% of retirees were forced to stop working earlier than they had planned, Virginia Galt writes in the >i>Globe and Mail that these results come as no surprise to career advisers. Thus, Barry Witkin, founder of Prime50, suggests that a "fair amount of age discrimination still exists, but it is couched in terms such as a person won't fit in or that they are overqualified or that they may be too expensive." Nevertheless, he believes that the demand for older workers will be picking up.

Witkin's basic advice to older workers is to stay current and to continue to develop their skills. Since there are there are far more boomers coming on stream compared to available employers who might hire them, he also recommends that older workers keep their résumés updated, review their career plans with a career counsellor or career-transition specialist, develop networking and search skills, stay informed, look after themselves--both stress=wise and health-wise, look current, assess their skills and accomplishments, and have a positive attitude.

Source: Globe and Mail "Thinking of working past 65? Think again" (August 5, 2006)

Norway: Small and Medium Businesses Open to Older Workers

According to a survey conducted by Bedriftsforbundet, a Norwegian interest group for small and medium businesses, shows that leaders of those businesses are slowly growing more positive about hiring staff over the age of 50, but plenty of skepticism towards older workers remains. As reported in the Aftenposten, the survey shows that as many as 30% admit that they would prefer to avoid hiring workers over 50, while around 55% said that they had no qualms about hiring senior staff--a slight increase over the past three years.

Bedriftforbundet's managing director Tom Bolstad suggests that the main reason many smaller companies hesitate to hire older staff is that they seek a younger profile and fear that older workers can mean lower working capacity. In addition, for companies with over 20 employees, their primary fear is that "seniors can mean expenses involved with earlier retirement pension."

Source: Aftenposten "Older workers more popular" (August 1, 2006)

Japan: Businesses Responding to Need for Older Workers

Writing for The Japan Times, Ryohei Takeda follows up on the legal revision on stabilizing elderly employment that took effect in Japan in April, making it obligatory for firms to keep workers on the payroll in stages until age 65. Specifcially, he writes that the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reports that about 96% of firms with more than 300 employees have already introduced measures to extend employment.

However, Takeda notes, "the bulk of them rehired employees aged 60 with pay cuts of 50 percent or more." On the other side, the ministry said that less than 7% of businesses have gone so far as to either raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 or abolish it.

Source: The Japan Times "Workforce gears up to take in growing number of seniors" (August 2, 2006)

Rhode Island: Unemployment Benefits and the Social Security Offset

A Providence Journal staff writer, Neil Downing, reports on the failure of Rhode Island to pass law changes (H7451
and S2902) to the offset of unemployment benefits by those receiving Social Security benefits and argues that one "shouldn't have to take a cut in unemployment benefits just because you also receive Social Security benefits. That's unjust. The rule should be scrapped."

A bill to end Rhode Island's Social Security offset was introduced in the General Assembly earlier this year--in the House by Rep. Thomas C. Slater, D-Providence, and in the Senate by Sen. Frank A. Ciccone III, D-Providence.

Neither measure passed. The House Labor Committee recommended that the proposal be held for further study.

Source: The Providence Journal MoneyLine by Neil Downing: Workers' penalty (July 30, 2006)

Flexibile Work Schedules Urged on Employers by Older Workers

Despite The conventional wisdom that working moms l lead the push to make employers more flexible, Cindy Krischer Goodman, writing for the Mcclatchy Newspapers, reports that studies are showing it is another demographic altogether--older workers--that is getting companies to create job shares, pairing older workers with young moms, restructure jobs, and adapt pension policies to allow older workers to stay on part time or as consultants.

For example, Goodman reports that Miami's Baptist Health South Florida is responding to a nursing shortage by sending out about invitations to retired nurses to return to their former jobs, even in a scaled-back capacity. Even where there are no shortages, such as for lawyers, law firms are encouraging older lawyers to remain as of counsel--a flexible arrangement that allows them to work on a few cases from home or the office, since, as one firm says, "there is a shortage of people who are experienced and have a depth of knowledge in a specialized area."

Source: The Boston Globe "Old pros are leading the charge for flexible schedules" (July 30, 2006)

Cures for Corporate Amnesia in the Oil Industry

Writing in the July 2006 issue of Practicing Oil Analysis magazine, Jason Kopschinshy, Noria Corporation, offers the oil and gas industry some suggestions for handling the “corporate amnesia”--the crunch of heuristics (discovery achieved by trial and error) gone missing--that companies will eventually feel as baby boomers retire. The industry may be one of the hardest hit, as the Oil and Gas Journal suggests that, by the year 2010, as many as 60% of experienced managers will retire from the industry.

For those seeking to ensure that production equipment is as streamlined and effective as possible, Kopschinshy suggests that procedure-based maintenance should become "a strategic and tangible method of collecting data on current maintenance, production and operating methods, analyzing the information and improving on it through technology, heuristics and proven techniques, then documenting the information in a user database." If knowledge management is not made a priority: "If we do not periodically update maintenance procedures to reflect changes in technology - machine configuration, equipment age, and changes in economic penalty of failure or machine criticality - they too will become useless over time."

Source: Practing Oil Analysis "The Real Cost of Corporate Amnesia" (July 2006)

Related articles: "Oil and Gas Industry Being Hit by Aging Workforce"; "Oil and Gas Industry: Seeking Solutions to Aging Workforce"

Canada: Conference Board Report on Aging Workforce and Employers

The Conference Board of Canada has issued an executive action report finding that almost 80% of Canadian organizations believe they will face the consequences of an aging workforce within the next five years, but few are taking steps now to address impending retirement-induced labour shortages. Although one source of labour is older workers, the report--"Too Few People, Too Little Time: The Employer Challenge of an Aging Workforce" [free registration required]--found that recruitment and retention programs and policies targeted at mature workers are applied inconsistently.

“Canadian organizations are aware that by 2015 there will not be enough qualified people to go around. For the most part, they are doing little to tackle the problem,” said Owen Parker, Senior Research Associate. “Employers will have to develop more effective ways of managing their aging workforce to maintain operational continuity.”

Half the respondents indicated that their organizations devote little or no effort to retaining their own older workers, and few employers are looking to attract retirees who may be looking for new employment possibilities.

Source: The Conference Board of Canada News Release 07-10 (July 27, 2006)

Canada: Survey Finds Older Canadians Working More

Statistics Canada has released a report--General Social Survey on Time Use, Cycle 19: Aging Well: Time Use Patterns of Older Canadians--finding that more individuals aged 55 to 64 were working later in life and spending less time in leisure activities in 2005. In fact, both men and women were spending roughly an hour a day more in paid work than they were in 1998.

Older Canadians--those aged 65 to 74--devoted much less time to paid work than they did when they were 55 to 64, with men devoting about an hour a day on average to paid work, well below the 4.4 hours for the age group 55 to 64. The survey showed that time use patterns within this age group did not change substantially between 1992 and 2005, with only a small increase in the amount of paid work.

Source: Statistics Canada The Daily (July 28, 2006)

Other remarks: Ottowa Sun (July 27, 2006); Canadian HR Reporter (July 28, 2006)

Taiwan: Panel Recommends Labor Participation Rate of Older Workers

As part of its broad vision of development for Taiwan's industries through 2015 in order to raise their competitiveness and guide them to increase their level of domestic investment, the Panel on Enhancing Industrial Competitiveness has reached broad consensuses on three issues that are critical to economic investment, including the labor market and human resources. As part of this, the Panel has concluded:

The rate of employment of the middle-aged and elderly should be increased and the phenomenon of premature withdrawal from the labor market should be rectified. Barriers to employment for the middle-aged and elderly should be eliminated, systems currently in place concerning retirement be amended, and the minimum retirement age be raised.

Source: Panel on Enhancing Industrial Competitiveness Key Conclusions of the Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development (July 27, 2006)

Europe: Aging Population Putting Pressure on Pensions, Governments

Verionka Oleksyn, writing for the Associated Press, reports Austria's social affairs minister as warning that by 2010--just four years from now--there will be more 55- to 64-year-olds than 15- to 24-year-olds in the European Union. Coupled with a falling birth rate, European lawmakers are struggling with "how to financially shoulder the burden of an aging society while staying competitive globally and finding workable incentives for people to have more babies."

According to a recent EU report, the bloc's working age population is projected to fall by 48 million, or 16 percent, between 2010 and 2050, while the number of seniors is expected to rise sharply by 58 million, or 77 percent.

Europe will go from having four people of working age for every senior citizen to a ratio of two to one by 2050, predicts the report by the Economic Policy Committee and the European Commission.

Oleksyn also writes that because general taxation is expected to come up short to pay for retirement benefits and healthcare, governments are looking into options such as mandatory retirement savings and insurance programs, or even spending less on the younger generation.

Source: Miami Herald "Aging Europe faces economic hurdle" (July 24, 2006)

UBS Financial Seeking Boomers as Financial Advisers

Richard Craver, writing for the Winston-Salem Journal reports that the Winston-Salem (NC) office of UBS Financial Services Inc. has been actively recruiting employees 50 and over for positions as financial advisers. Even though most of them have lacked professional financial-services skills before being trained by UBS, the manager of the UBS office thinks that it makes perfect sense to have a baby boomer sitting across the table to provide financial and wealth-management advice to a clients preparing for life after retirement.

Craver writes that "[a]nalysts said that UBS' strategy bucks the hiring strategy of many financial-services companies, where younger advisers are considered a cost-efficient means for assisting clients" and suggests that it "runs counter to the trend of financial officials considering their early- to mid-50s as prime retirement time rather than the time to start a new career." However, he quotes the manager as saying "we want advisers who have been through, or are dealing with, the same life experiences as our clients. . . . Those shared experiences, whether saving for retirement, paying for college or preparing to transfer wealth to the next generation, can build up a relationship, and ultimately trust, with a client."

Source: Winston-Salem Journal "AGING FORCE: UBS takes on older workers" (July 23, 2006)

Nursing Faculty Shortages Partly Attributable to Aging Workforce

The National League of Nursing has issued "Nurse Educators 2006: A Report of the Faculty Census Survey of RN and Graduate Programs" with research showing that the aging of the faculty population is one of three cirtical factors in the growing nurse faculty vacancies.

Nursing programs in the study "indicated that almost two thirds of all full-time nurse faculty members were 45 to 60 years old and likely to retire in the next five to 15 years. A mean of 1.4 full-time faculty left their positions in 2006; nearly one quarter of these were due to retirement."

Source: PrWeb Press Release (July 23, 2006)