Almost every industry sector that participated in the Commission’s National Conversation about Work identified the ageing workforce as a looming issue. However, the Commission has seen little evidence of systemic approaches being taken in response. A manager at a Feilding meat processing plant said “we’re very aware of the issue and there is increasing understanding that it is a problem, but we’ve had less success in the industry in deciding what to do about it.”

The ageing labour market is a serious future concern for many regions in New Zealand. Venture Taranaki experts believe that labour force succession planning is not sufficiently sophisticated enough to tackle the ageing demographics of the labour market. The ageing workforce means that there is a “black hole” between the current generation (of apprentices) and the baby boomer retirees who are “tired” of working.

The Commission learned that in some sectors, manual jobs, shift work and long hours are onerous on employees and some mature workers suffered from burnout and stress and “would come to a point when they would vote with their feet and retire.” In one workplace employees talked about staff that had retired and had then been re-hired on more casual conditions of work because their skills and experience could not be replaced. Many were concerned with a lack of future prospective employees to fill gaps left by retiring older workers. In heavy industry workplaces, employees thought that older workers who “had been in the game for some time, would not be around for too much longer.”

A female participant at a Positive Ageing Council meeting said that the first generation of older women who had been in paid employment for much of their careers would soon be preparing to retire. Many would have the same issues around their self esteem being bound up with work that confront many men as they faced exiting from the workforce. Employers would have to think very carefully about whether they could afford large numbers of baby boomers to slip quietly into retirement.

The perennial issue of employers’ stereotypical attitudes to older workers without acknowledgement of the maturity, experience, institutional knowledge and mentoring potential that they bring to the labour market was identified by several participants. However, in general businesses have a positive attitude towards older workers, although pockets of bias towards older workers exist.

Many older people were still actively engaged in the workforce well past traditional notions of retirement age. Innovative work practices that meet the needs of both the business and the employees are enabling organisations to retain older workers longer. Some strategies to retain ageing workers were being considered, such as flexible work arrangements and mentoring schemes using retired or semi-retired business people.

“Mentoring can be critical in helping to retain institutional knowledge through strong relationships.” The New Zealand Refining Company at Marsden Point recognises that older members of the workforce represent a valuable resource of knowledge and experience which could potentially be lost as these employees leave the company’s service.

The refinery’s Mentors’ Scheme aims to link younger employees in the company with the years of knowledge and experience held by its long-serving retiring employees. It offers retiring employees the opportunity to voluntarily play a role in developing the company’s current employees.

Refinery mentors provide mentoring, practical support and skills development to new and/or inexperienced employees, in technical areas where the passing on of practical knowledge and experience has the potential to add significant value and/or accelerate the development of essential skills.

Too few businesses have implemented practices to capture institutional knowledge or to transfer the knowledge of older workers to younger workers. It is assumed that ‘people pass things along’ but the amount of information that people personally hold is underestimated by most businesses. The rapidly ageing workforce requires that active retention of institutional knowledge is required to ensure business sustainability.

Loss of institutional knowledge is a looming crisis faced by small business owners looking to exit. In Dunedin, the “Beyond Business Succession Planning Service” aims to maximise the economic impact of business succession. Beyond Business provides an impartial mentoring service to help business owners tackle the issue of succession and retaining valuable business knowledge.