12 most effective older worker policies (plus FREE toolkit)

Yesterday I found out that 1 October is Older People’s Day. I am guessing it's a new thing this year (I tried Googling ‘Older People’s Day 2014’ and drew a blank) to coincide with UN International Day of Older Persons.What a good and necessary day it is! Hopefully it will gain traction and be one that many more employers will celebrate in 2016.Because a third of us in the workplace will be over 50 by 2020. This means big shifts in behaviour for employers.I've often written about the need for age management within the workplace. Now the voices are calling ever louder to get us cracking on, and not wait for the problem to catch us out.Luckily a couple of nifty aids are at hand to help us respond.First up: the government has launched a free toolkit to support managers of an ageing workforce to get you started. Secondly, the consultants Mercer released its Age-Friendly employer research (free download) this week. In among the useful stats was this list of effective age-friendly policies.12 most effective older worker policies(% = proportion saying this is highly effective)

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Yesterday I found out that 1 October is Older People’s Day. I am guessing it's a new thing this year (I tried Googling ‘Older People’s Day 2014’ and drew a blank) to coincide with UN International Day of Older Persons.

What a good and necessary day it is! Hopefully it will gain traction and be one that many more employers will celebrate in 2016.

Because a third of us in the workplace will be over 50 by 2020. This means big shifts in behaviour for employers.

I've often written about the need for age management within the workplace. Now the voices are calling ever louder to get us cracking on, and not wait for the problem to catch us out.

Luckily a couple of nifty aids are at hand to help us respond.

First up: the government has launched a free toolkit to support managers of an ageing workforce to get you started.

Secondly, the consultants Mercer released its Age-Friendly employer research (free download) this week. In among the useful stats was this list of effective age-friendly policies.

12 most effective older worker policies
(% = proportion saying this is highly effective)

100% Older workers apprenticeship or similar programmes
100% Measurement of productivity divided by different age groups in your workforce
86%   ‘Preparing for retirement’ programme
83%   Adaption of workspaces for older workers
82%   Performance-grading equity checks from an age-band perspective
81%   Advice and support for those caring for ageing relatives
81%   Age-specific wellness programme
78%   Flexible working for all age groups
75%   Reverse mentoring
69%   Review of pay and bonus distribution from an age perspective (an equality audit)
69%   Regular age discrimination checks
65%   Review of pay levels across the age bands (for the same jobs)

Source: Age-Friendly employer research (Mercer, October 2015)

The one that jumped out at me, over all the others was the age-specific wellness programme. So obvious, yet how many employers have considered this?

Implementing these might be a lot cheaper than trying to top up pension plans so staff can afford to retire.

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