Is exclusion and bullying adding to the numbers of over-55s who’ve escaped the workplace? If so, what should employers do about it?
You can’t have failed to notice that, since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a growing over-55s-shaped hole in the UK workforce. We’ve tended to accept the oft-repeated view that this is down to health reasons. Yet evidence over the past few months countered this.
As the FT reported in 2022, of those in their 50s and early-60s who had recently retired, the prevailing reason was not for ill health, although ill health was the major reason for older retirees not feeling able to return to the workplace.
A recent ONS study found the drivers for retirement often overlapped and were inter-related (although not always health related). Seeing the data and realising the UK has a big productivity hole to fill, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was quick to announce that he wants the over-55s back in work.
But there’s a problem. Because just as the UK economy has realised how valuable its over-55s are, new evidence suggests over-55s are more likely to face exclusion in the workplace compared with younger workers.
Over 55s excluded
This evidence comes from CareerWallet who, as HR News reports, found 19% of over-55s admitted to having been affected by exclusion at work. Almost a third (32%) said they had experienced bullying. Other disturbing behaviours included “inappropriate comments (24%), sexist behaviour (13%) and offensive comments (19%)”.
As a Demos report noted in late 2022, it is factors like these that can nudge people towards retirement and early retirement when they might otherwise be happy to stay.
So what can UK businesses do to attract over-55s back?
Reengineering the workplace
The cost-of-living crisis does appear to have led more recent retirees to consider returning to the workplace. As City AM noted in a report citing research from Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management: “86 per cent of those aged between 50-54 are thinking of going back to work, in a bid to get more cash.”
It’s worth noting that word “thinking”. Other research suggests such thoughts haven’t yet turned into action. It’s clear, however, that removing the exclusion, bullying and offence from their work experience will smooth the path for many of those wishing to start again.
As the FT noted, “Demos called for the government to work with employers to boost access to occupational health services, tackle ageist recruitment practices and redesign jobs to better accommodate workers’ needs.”
The newspaper added that more effort needed to go into “redesigning employment support services to help older people who have left work but do not claim benefits”.
Yet there seems to be a bigger issue, as Craig Bines, CEO of The CareerWallet Group pointed to “a fundamental cultural problem with millions of businesses in the UK that are not often utilising the most experienced and valuable employees or giving them the respect they deserve.”
How to avoid ageism
For payroll and HR departments eager to encourage over-55s back onto the payroll, culture needs to change. That starts by having policies in place that tackle age discrimination, which is something Monster explores here.
If yoWhat’s Stopping Over-55s Working?u’re bringing over-55s back onto your payroll, talk to us about making the process easier for everyone.
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