We call on employers to create age-friendly workplaces

The number of people working over the age of 65 has more than doubled and these trends are predicted to continue. [1]

By 2022, there will be 12.5 million job vacancies that need to be replaced due to people leaving the workforce in addition to the two million new vacancies that will be created. However, there are estimated to be just seven million younger people to fill them.[2] Recruiting and retaining older workers will be critical to closing this gap.

In our survey with Ipsos MORI of people aged over 50 in England, 13% of those that had retired had done so due to ill health and 7% because they were made redundant. Despite the removal of the default retirement age, one in four reported retiring primarily because they had reached state pension age. [3]

There are examples of employers seeking to create age-friendly workplaces and retain the skills and experience of older workers. Business in the Community’s Age at Work Leadership Team, chaired by Andy Briggs, CEO of Aviva UK Life, and including companies such as...

• Boots
• Co-operative Group
• Nationwide Building Society
• Home Instead Senior Care
• Royal Air Force
• Department for Work and Pensions

...is leading the way in seeking solutions on age at work.

Many companies already recognise the benefits of older workers, retaining skills and talents, having a diverse multi-generational workforce and better understanding their customers (many of whom are of a similar age).

Ageing Better and Business in the Community will seek to strengthen the business case so that more employers can see the benefits of an age-friendly workplace, learn from what leading employers are doing and share the most effective policies and practices as widely as possible.

“Older workers have often built up years of experience and yet many employers are not making the most of this talent. They are either ignoring the opportunity of recruiting and retaining older workers or do not know how to create age friendly workplaces. We know there are employers that understand the benefits, both to their employees and to their organisation, who are making progress. We want to learn from them and share this knowledge across the country to speed up change.

“Our research has found that the most important factors for people as they age are health, financial security and social connections. We also know that these factors are influenced by people’s working lives. Our research Later Life in 2015 found that the benefits of work are important – work gives meaning and purpose, provides social contact and keeps us active. As we live longer it is likely many of us will have to work for longer. We want to ensure that people are able to make informed decisions and have control over where, when and how they work in later life.

People aged over 50 comprise over a third of the total workforce, and yet not everyone who wants to work is able to. ‘The Missing Million’ report by Business in the Community estimated that approximately 1 million people have been made ‘involuntarily workless’ – pushed out of their previous job through a combination of redundancy, ill health or early retirement.

Members of BITC's Age at Work campaign, which is made up of organisations who have committed to achieving change on age at work, will actively promote age friendly practices both within their organisations and more widely. They will test ideas generated through the partnership with Ageing Better so that their experience can be shared with employers across the country.

“Our population is ageing, but employment isn’t working for people over 50. Whilst some can choose to retire, too many people in this age group are pushed out of work, through redundancy, ill health, or because they need to balance work and care. 

“Business in the Community’s age at work campaign is here to help employers retain, retrain and recruit older workers, to tackle the dramatic drop off in labour market participation, and make the most of the talent and knowledge of our ageing population. We look forward to working with Ageing Better to test and develop new solutions to support older workers. 

“This is a new agenda for responsible business, and our Leadership Team on age at work is committed to developing and testing pioneering solutions, whilst our Championing an Ageing Workforce Award finalists, Barclays, Steelite, and St Ledger Homes of Doncaster are taking a lead in recognising the business case for valuing older workers.”

To share evidence on your workplace practices and find out how to make your organisation age friendly please contact [email protected]

• See Later Life in 2015: Work and retirement - data briefing which outlines findings from the survey related to work and retirement.
• Visit BITC's Age.bitc.org.uk website and find out more about their work on age,
• Join the conversation on by following @Ageing_Better and @AgeBITC on Twitter.

[1] ONS Annual Population Survey 2004/05 and 2014/15

[2] The Missing Million – Recommendations for Action, BITC/ILC-UK 2015

[3] Later life in 2015 (Ipsos MORI and Centre for Ageing Better, 2015)