Age is all the rage

 

Dr Judy McGregor, EEO Commissioner

 

Age is suddenly all the rage. Gloomy predictions about the cost of an older population compete with the encouragement of positive healthy ageing and the benefits of Sudoku. But there remains a blind spot in societal thinking about age and work.

In New Zealand age is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Act 1993. This means that employers cannot discriminate on the grounds of age (from 16 years and above) in job advertising, recruitment, promotion and other areas.

The legislation has spelt the end of compulsory retirement in New Zealand since 1999. Today a growing number of New Zealanders want to continue in paid full time or part time work beyond 65, some for financial reasons and others because it is an important measure of their self esteem and gives them a sense of contribution.

Recently The Economist posed the question: “Older workers want to retire later; companies fear they will soon be short of skills. Why can’t the two get together?” The question summed up New Zealand’s situation very accurately. New Zealand’s skill and labour shortages are at a 30-year high, despite a slowing economy. This bad news is compounded by the fact that one source of decent labour is still not on the radar screen for many employers and business groups. For example, Business NZ recently produced an otherwise useful analysis of the skills problem. However, it referred to older workers in one line only and then in the context of promoting probationary periods of employment.

Labour shortages can be addressed in a number of ways. Work can be shifted around the globe to exploit cheap workers in poorer countries, or New Zealand can relax its immigration rules to accept more skilled migrants. New technology and better training can also enhance productivity. But older workers are one of the readiest sources of labour and skills. Not only do they provide experience and institutional knowledge, new statistics show they are a more stable workforce than younger people with half the turnover rate. Retention, experience and skills are powerful business case arguments in favour of older workers.

But stereotypes about older workers remain entrenched in our society. Professional men from their late 40s onwards who lose a job often find it very difficult to re-enter the labour market at the level they expect. This is particularly evident in the IT industry, engineering and in the professional service areas, especially where younger recruitment agency staff and “headhunters” are the conduit between employer and applicant. Ageist attitudes are often not overt at the recruitment stage but are nonetheless powerful barriers for many mature workers.

Recently a man in his late 50s with engineering experience who had retrained to gain other relevant skills showed me his file of over 200 unsuccessful job applications.

Older women, on the other hand, often re-enter the workforce after family responsibilities at much lower levels than they were previously employed. Likewise, mature women re-entering paid employment after a marital break-up often settle for “awful jobs”, where wages and working conditions are poor. Public perception that mature workers don’t push for work is not confirmed by research. In fact mature job-seekers knock their socks off to look for work. Many suffer guilt and anguish about being unemployed. They see themselves as being on the “scrap-heap” when they still have the energy and drive to contribute as productive New Zealanders.

So what has to happen for older workers to be valued in society? There needs to be a general shift in societal thinking to valuing and investing in experience, and to thinking about retention of older workers. Despite the prejudice of many about older people in the workplace, hundreds of older employers and employees make significant contributions to New Zealand’s economic prosperity. Take Christchurch’s Sir Angus Tait (86 years) of Tait Electronics, described as the “giant oak of New Zealand’s electronics industry”. Sir Angus continues to stimulate public debate about New Zealand’s quest for business innovation. And take Dr Elizabeth Flint, (96 years) a research associate at Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd at Lincoln and the foremost authority on single-celled freshwater algae. They are part of a quiet revolution of Kiwis in their seventies, eighties and nineties who are well beyond the traditional retirement age and are reinventing the idea of life and work. For age to truly become the rage, though, they will need to become the norm not the exception.

The mass media will need to play its part. It has shamelessly promoted the cult of youth in work and leisure. As grey hairs begin to dominate newsrooms and advertising agencies - like other areas of employment - older role models may have more personal relevance and marketing attraction. British novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard talks about the conspiracy of silence about age because of the negative aspects of the condition. The conspiracy needs to be actively challenged.

There is slow recognition only amongst employers about older workers. New Zealand research shows that employers in general believe that older workers are dependable, have a good work ethic and provide workplace stability. However, they are also often prejudiced against older workers because they believe them to be inflexible, computer illiterate and hard to train. Older workers, in general, also feel they are discriminated in training opportunities because they are not considered to be a good investment.

There are two urgent issues for business and industry to come to grips with if the benefits of older workers are to be harnessed. The first is that many organisations have no idea whether or not their workforce is ageing and succession planning will become an issue. Simple demographic audits about age profiles and employer knowledge of retirement motivation and expectations will increasingly provide businesses with competitive advantage.

The second issue concerns changing work to suit older workers. If older workers can delay traditional retirement at 65 years by working three days a week or six months a year, or with a new combination of days, hours and weeks, will business be ready for them? New ways of working may harness valuable mature workers who otherwise quit the labour market. The re-organisation of work to suit mature workers will go a long way to help future-proof business and New Zealand’s prosperity.

 

-- published in The Press, April 2006, as part of a series on the ageing population of New Zealand.