4. Reskilling and Retraining Older Workers | Age Pioneers Action Panel Report

Read the Speaker Conclusions

1) Reframe As “Skills Augmentation”

Older workers have many skills and competencies that will add enormous value to any organisation. So, try not to think of this age group as reskilling or having a career change at 50, but instead as a group that is in the process of skills augmentation. They haven’t suddenly lost 40 years of engagement, corporate communications, empathy, workplace practices and understanding others. They are just adding new skills to an already impressive wide range. Even if an individual may not have specific skills, he or she will bring many transferable skills and that should be recognised, as well as remunerated.

Sometimes, previous skills and qualifications may not be an obvious fit for a new role or to start a new career. However, as Paul Chapman of Health Education England noted, with his work for those leaving the armed forces, if you can map those wide range of skills and qualifications against what you need, you may find you are a lot closer than you imagined. And with a training course or two, you could have an ideal fit. Paul explained: “It's about taking their skills and knowledge, and identifying where those skills and that knowledge could be used in any organisation.”

2) It May Not Be Retraining or Reskilling, but Reintroducing

There is a large group of over-50s who left their chosen career due other commitments – bringing up children, working as a carer to a relative or moving locations to support a partners’ career. These people do not need a full training course to do the job, but a reintroduction to the workplace.

Paul Chapman said, “These individuals have already got the skills, they've already got the T-shirt. They are highly skilled people who, for some reason, chose to step away from their chosen career path. They are now at a time of life that allows them to return to their primary occupation. They never lost their skills and enthusiasm. It's about us bringing them in, building their confidence and allowing them to work in that environment they trained so hard to get into in the first place.”

The big four accountancy firms have been running initiatives based on this principle for over a decade. They target people who have been out of the workforce for two to 10 years (often women who have been looking after families but not exclusively), who have the skills and knowledge, but just need the flame rekindled. From a business perspective, it’s much quicker cheaper to recruit someone who has already been trained, than starting from scratch with a trainee. Clearly, those who have been absent from the workplace may need to have some practices updated, but they already have the foundation and the knowledge. They’ve done the training, so why not try to get them back?

3) It’s Not All About Money

As people move through life, their values change. What is important for workers in their 20s and 30s, is not of such importance for the over-50s. Younger people tend, as Lucy Standing said, “to care more about things that are self-enhancing. Power, achievement, stimulation and hedonism.” As we get older, we tend to place higher value on community, the performance of a team, wider society and so on. And salary, while important, is not necessarily the biggest driver; what appeals is the social side of work life, so that is one way to entice older workers back to the workplace.

Many studies have shown that people who enjoy and gain satisfaction from work, age better. This is seen in such markers as life expectancy, physical health, cognitive health or social networks. The converse is also true.

As one attendee put it, “older workers know they want to do something, they know they don’t want to retire and they know they don’t want to do what they have always been doing.” Instead, they are left grappling with the existentialist concept of “purpose” – essentially, the reason to work, beyond salary. And it can lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

This can result in them looking for work in the charity sector or social enterprise, only to discover it is very competitive and they may not be able to have the chance to make the impact they want. Employers can help older workers find purpose by focusing on things that make a meaningful difference to their colleagues and peers. One attendee noted that “knowing what you don’t want to do can quickly focus you on the breadcrumbs of your existing skills” – and that can lead to finding contentment in the workplace and life.

4) Apprenticeships and Retraining

Apprenticeships are one of the success stories of workplace training in recent years. They aren’t just for teenagers and those in their early 20s. Older workers are often happy to take the long view on a career change at 50 – a couple of years training now will set them up for the next 20 years. As money may not be the be all and end all, they are prepared to earn less while they retrain, to have the life they want later. Barclays has an apprenticeship scheme specifically aimed at people over-50 who have not worked in financial services, called Barclays Bolder.

When creating an apprenticeship scheme aimed at this cohort, ensure any campaign is marketed appropriately using images of the demographic (not photos of teenagers!), empathetic language and stories that resonate with them. Or avoid using imagery altogether, leaving the end users to make up their own minds.

Key Recommendations

1) Support The Over-50s Demographic

If you are trying to recruit the over-50s, aim to use a recruiter who is in the same demographic. It makes it easier for the candidate and recruiter to relate to each other, and it shows you are talking the talk, walking the walk. Katrina Hutchinson O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of Join Talent noted that her company has many recruiters who are in their 50s and they are very successful in bringing in over-50s. EY now requires their recruiters to look across the entire age range when seeking candidates.

It’s no surprise, but setting targets also helps. Rachel of Saga noted, “We track our data, both internally and externally, with the focus on age. We want to ensure the age demographic of our staff reflects that of the working population. We continually measure this and other markers, and really challenge ourselves to meet our targets.” So, whether it’s aiming to change the age demographic of the company, rewriting recruitment policies, altering mentoring programmes or opening up training opportunities, setting targets gives organisatitions something to aim for.

2) Let People Test Drive a New Career or Role

When people reach their late 40s and into their 50s, they know what they will and will not tolerate as part of working life. The difficulty with a job description is that it doesn’t distill the reality of the people in the team, the office culture, the workplace environment and so on.

These are very important considerations for the over-50s. Try to encourage insight sharing – one of the best ways to do this is to arrange work shadowing or work experience. That way, candidates can get under the skin of the role and see what it is really like. If the potential employee likes it, they will buy much more into the role.

Ultimately, recruiters may feel they can make a selection decision but it is the candidate who will make the engagement decision. Do everything possible to help that process.

3) Consider Helping Employees To Plan Their Future

By helping people consider what they want to do with their life, retirement can be delayed or staggered until actual retirement begins in their 70s or later. Action Panel member Liz Gray, from accountancy firm EY, said she called this period in between work and full retirement the “Encore” years.

It’s a time when full-time executives move to part-time roles, and they can use the extraordinary skills, networks and experiences they have gained through work to benefit others. Consider creating a programme that these people want to associate themselves with – it will be good for them and good for society.

4) Create a Community

Meeting others in a similar situation is really powerful. It’s why self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers are so effective. Creating a community of over-50s workers enables people to have conversations with those in a similar position and to see there is a path to the future that can work.

When over-50s can relate to each other on the issues they all face, it can be incredibly enabling and empowering – and this can only help workplaces celebrate the benefits of multi-generational teams. You may even be able to find a “poster child” of an over-50s employee who is happy to be an example to others.

Maintaining an effective alumni network has significant benefits: not only does it allow employees to see the possible future, but it is also a pool of known, skilled and knowledgeable employees who can be encouraged back into the workforce.

5) Make Continuous Learning Part of Company DNA

In the NHS, staff have to maintain their skills and knowledge. And this keeps the health service moving forward. Other industries are different – one insurance company recently noted that workers over 50 were 37% less likely to be offered learning and development than their younger colleagues. By offering all colleagues, regardless of age, the chance to learn new skills and knowledge, the organisation can add real value to the business. As Rachel Reddan of Saga said, “We have lots of initiatives aimed at older workers and we keep them running all the time; to keep the drumbeat going, so that it doesn’t fall off the radar.”