Talented over 55 year olds could fill skills gap, says REC
As older employees become more prevalent in the UK workforce recruiters will need to improve their hiring strategy to entice the most talented in this age group, a survey of employers has said.
Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) showed that businesses need to adjust the way they advertise jobs and provide training opportunities or miss the best candidates in the over 55-age group.
The survey of more than 200 employers asked respondents to identify the most important change firms should make to encourage applications from jobseekers in this demographic.
More than a third (37 per cent) highlighted issues around advertising, while 34 per cent admitted that they should be providing more opportunities for older staff to upskill or reskill.
A fifth said “thoughtful advertising”, for example simple changes to the tone and type of language used, was crucial to ensuring older workers were not discouraged from applying. For example leaving out terms such as ‘graduate’ or ‘energetic’ in job descriptions and emphasising the opportunity for flexible working. A similar proportion (17 per cent) also recognised that exclusively advertising jobs online fails to reach the widest pool of potential candidates.
Research from The Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise, published in October 2014, found that one million people aged 50 to 64 years who are economically inactive became ‘involuntarily workless’ through redundancy, ill health or early retirement.
But if employers reintegrated these people back into the workforce it could boost the country’s GDP by as much as £88 billion.
Commenting on the REC survey, employment minister Esther McVey said: “With 50 being the new 30, there are more and more older workers wanting to make the most of their skills and experience in a new career, and they have a hugely valuable contribution to make to any workforce.
“Despite the recent impressive trends in those over 50 getting back into work, older workers still in many cases face outdated stereotypes when it comes to business hiring practices.
“Not only is this a waste of valuable talent and ‘life skills’, but it’s a missed opportunity for businesses to make their most of their experience to support younger colleagues develop their careers.”
Kevin Green, REC chief executive, said: “The UK is suffering from skills shortages across the economy and at the same time businesses are telling us that they are at capacity and can’t take on more work without more staff."
But to encourage older workers back into the labour market to plug this skills gap, employers need to be more effective at attracting them, as well as potentially structuring the work differently to suit this life style, he said.
Dr Ros Altmann, business champion for older workers at the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “People are living longer and want to work for longer, and it’s vital to our economy that they do. Businesses need to act now in order to benefit from the extensive skills and experience that older workers bring. It is important not to rule out older applicants when recruiting new talent.”
In March Altmann plans to publish a business case for retaining, retraining and recruiting older workers.