ENTRENCHED ATTITUDES toward hiring, retaining or re-skilling mature aged workers is the central challenge to engaging their participation in the workforce, according to John Plummer, president of the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA)
ENTRENCHED ATTITUDES towards hiring, retaining or re-skilling mature aged workers is the central challenge to engaging their participation in the workforce, according to John Plummer, president of the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA).
Speaking at a recent symposium on the ageing workforce, he also said that change is not going to result from policy change alone, as it needs to be led from the within an organisation and from the top.
“Age can and does work – age works to benefit the worker and age works to benefit the organisation,” he said.
“There are too few examples of organisations successfully and effectively integrating aged workers into their workforces.”
He pointed out that mature-aged workers do provide economic and workplace benefits for business, and cited findings from workplace surveys and analysis, which showed productivity increases as well as general benefits for the workplace environment.
The symposium, which brought together policy makers, employers and commentators to identify the solutions to developing the ageing workforce, also found that a combined industry, union, business and workplace response and actions are required – there is no single policy fix.
Plummer said choice was key in providing opportunities for the ageing workforce and for business – choice of employment situation, diversity of opportunities for mature aged workers to develop existing skills or to re-skill, along with choice in superannuation and financial regimes.
“Choice and diversity to allow employers the choice of employment opportunities that make sense to achieve productivity and provide gains for their business,” he said. “The natural ageing of Australia’s population will occur – this is inevitable. The role and place of the aged workforce in this ageing process will shape our workplace and our society for decades to come.”
Plummer’s comments come on the heels of a recent survey which found, however, that persistent government and media attention toward the impact of Australia’s ageing workforce has done little to influence employers, with 62 per cent of companies remaining oblivious to the issue.
The survey was conducted by Catalyst Recruitment and took in 103 Australian companies of various sizes, also found that only 26 per cent had strategies in place to manage the potentially harmful impact of the ageing workforce on their business. It revealed larger companies were more likely to appoint mature aged employees, but the major obstacles to their employment were their resistance towards change and new technologies.
Across the board, knowledge, stability and wisdom were identified as highly attractive characteristics of mature aged employees.
