Valuing Experience

Understanding what the specific issues are for your organisation

Knowing who is in your organisation

Some of your most useful information will come from understanding the current age profile of your organisation and how it is likely to look in the future. Large employers are likely to have the resources to do more sophisticated workforce planning, but it will be useful for all organisations to answer the following questions.

1. What is the current age profile of your workforce?
• For the organisation as a whole?
• For different parts of the organisation?
• For different occupational groups in the organisation?
• For men and for women in the organisation?

It is useful for your profile to include age brackets, for example 40–49, 50–59, 60+, as well as average ages. If possible, compare it to earlier years, being careful as to the conclusions you draw if your organisation is small – even one or two people can change the picture significantly in smaller organisations.

2. How does the age profile of your organisation compare and who is it most useful to compare your organisation to? Is it the:
• Workforce as a whole?
• Workforce in your region?
• Age of people working in your sector?
• Age of people in different occupations?

3. How many people are likely to retire in the next few years?
• What is the typical retirement age in your organisation?
• If people continue to retire at that age, how many are likely to be leaving the organisation in the next five years? The next ten years?
• Are there any areas of the organisation, including teams and occupations, where a high number of people are likely to retire at a similar time?

4. Is the number of people who are likely to retire going to be the same as the number of people you are going to have to recruit?
• What is the current staff turnover in your organisation?
• Is this turnover going to be significantly increased by the numbers of people who are likely to retire within the next five years?
• Are there any areas of your organisation where you are experiencing difficulties in recruiting?
• Do any of these areas have significant numbers of people who are likely to retire in the next ten years?
• What are the most significant gaps that you are likely to have to fill due to retirement over the next few years? If it takes a long time to fully train or develop the expertise required by your staff, you may want to take this projection out further.

5. Are you actively tapping into the full labour market?
• What is the age range of the people who have been appointed to your organisation in the last 12 months?
• What is the average age of the people who have been appointed to your organisation in the last 12 months? If known, how does this compare with the past?
• What is the age range of people you have appointed in areas where recruitment is difficult?
• If age is known, are you attracting applications from a wide range of ages?

6. Do your older workers stay?
• Leaving aside people who retire, are there any differences in the turnover of different age groups in your organisation? For example, are people aged between 30 and 39, any more likely or less likely to leave compared with people between 50 and 59?

This information will help you identify what issues may be most important for your organisation and which need to be tackled first or you need to explore in more depth.

If you want to compare the profile of your organisation with that of your region, Appendix A: Getting Demographic Information will help you get started.

Some organisations find it useful to also examine the age profile of their customer base. Is this changing? Do they have employees with the knowledge and skills to work effectively with them?

How do older workers experience your organisation? What do your existing information sources tell you?
Before collecting any additional information, review any existing information that may enable you to answer this question. Possible sources, if they include analysis by age, are:
• Exit interviews
• Engagement or ‘climate’ surveys
• Review of organisational systems or practices, e.g. performance management
• Customer feedback
• Delegate or union feedback
• Record of complaints
• Promotion outcomes
• Uptake of benefits or options
• Participation in training.