Employees benefit from age-friendly approach

The Age-friendly Employer Pledge was launched in November 2022. But the need for a programme to spur more employers into becoming age-friendly had been identified long before. A survey of employers we commissioned around a year before launching the Pledge revealed that while employers recognised the huge value of older workers to their organisation, only one in six had firm plans to introduce age inclusion policies.

Since its early days, the Pledge has experienced growth and success, and this is largely as a result of its interactive nature and the reciprocal engagement with employers and employees. 

And yet many 50+ employees, or prospective employees, feel frozen out of the workplace by recruitment processes that weed them out, by training and development opportunities that overlook them and by redundancy programmes which seem to focus on them. The Age-friendly Employer Pledge focuses on the five areas of culture, recruitment, flexible working, career development, and health support to help employers to benefit from the underutilised potential of the 50+ workforce.

Becoming a more age-friendly employer delivers a number of benefits for an organisation’s employees, sometimes in surprising ways as a recently published independent evaluation of the Pledge reveals. 

Employees feel valued and listened to in an age-friendly employer

We learned that older workers report strong cultural benefits in Pledged organisations, which has led to them saying that they feel valued, listened to and included. They also enthused about positive intergenerational working relationships. 

Many of these benefits are less tangible but seen as important by employees. The culture of internal messaging about age inclusions was well received by older workers. 

A culture of listening can encourage open dialogue and avoid ageist assumptions and stereotypes. We heard that age was not reported to be a source of division in workplaces, and employees of different age groups working together was seen as the norm and productive. 

We know that an organisation’s age-friendly culture had influenced older workers to stay with their current employer. One example was of an older employee in the heath sector positively encouraged them to stay with their company. 

Improving career development for all employees

Employers told researchers that an age-friendly approach helped to emphasise the importance of creating clearer career pathways, especially as people work for longer and retire later. For example, the Pledge Lead at a small transport organisation said the organisation chose to sign the Pledge because they wanted to formalise career development for all of their employees. 

It is very important to us that our employees have the right skills to do their jobs, regardless of their age, so [signing the Pledge is] an opportunity to make this a more formal part of our employee engagement plan. 

Some Pledge Leads noted that older workers are less likely to take up voluntary career development opportunities, which are more often accessed by junior staff. In one example a Lead spoke of plans to introduce more structured development processes and to reassure experienced staff that their expertise is valued just as highly as formal qualifications. As with flexible working, Leads also felt that visibly committing to career development could support the recruitment and retention of older workers. 

Employees felt more emboldened to discuss their needs and raise concerns

Older employees working for Pledged organisations fed back that seeing their employer’s visible inclusivity made them feel more confident in raising concerns and challenge inappropriate behaviour. 

One employer said they wanted their younger staff to have empathy with older workers and be careful when tempted to use ageist language and cliches, in the same way that people would think about racist or homophobic language.

Older workers felt that they could discuss age‑related needs without the worry of stigma and negativity, secure in the knowledge that age inclusivity was part of their organisation’s ethos. 

The Pledge can be an important tool for ensuring that organisations actively consider the wellbeing of employees beyond the basics and focus on the needs of employees in later life. 

In this way, the Pledge reinforces legitimacy for employees to talk about age-related health conditions. 

Helped to identify a growing demand for flexible working 

Many Pledge leads and other employer stakeholders interviewed as part of the evaluation process reported a growing demand for flexible working among both current staff and job applicants, echoing the report’s survey finding that 43% of leads viewed this as a priority area. These requests commonly related to caring responsibilities or health conditions, with employees needing flexibility for appointments or changes to working patterns. 

Even though many employers said that they already had flexible working practices, the Pledge applies legitimacy and organisations appreciated that flexibility was valued by older workers in the recruitment process. 

We know that the Pledge has influenced employers to think about flexibility in a wider sense and influence policy. 

Health support can be as much about attitude as about policy

Pledge employers recognise the importance of improving access to health support. For organisations there was a concern that if support was lacking, staff might retire early due to ill-health and organisations would lose a considerable wealth of institutional knowledge and experience. There was widespread awareness among employers of the health implications of an ageing population and, consequently the workforce. 

And there was also recognition that improving access to health support could involve a range of approaches. Among the most popular steps taken to improve access to health support were making clear to staff that managing health conditions is a normal part of working life and that requests for support will not be stigmatised.

Making health and wellbeing part of regular conversations with staff of all ages, fostering open conversations about menopause in the workplace and supporting staff and line managers to have early and sustained conversations about health in the workplace were also common approaches from Pledge employers. 

This article first appeared in People Management on 24 August.