Balancing Act

There are the tech-savvy, Facebook-obsessed Generation Ys who will walk away from full-time employment to join a Contiki tour. There are the Baby Boomers who have worked hard their entire lives and are faced with imminent retirement at the new age of 67. While sandwiched in between are Generation X who are highly educated, will insist they are quiet outcasts, and are more than happy to hold down a decent job with a decent wage. As the combination of the three generations becomes an increasingly difficult balancing act for employers, businesses are being forced to effectively manage generational diversity, in order to remain successful.

While sweeping generalisations about any of the generations will not accurately describe or reflect the individuals that make up the generation, it is fair to say that the increasing trends, influences styles and preferences of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y in the modern workplace, are all impacting on recruitment, training and the output and performance of organisations.

 

It is generally recognised that Baby Boomers belong in the age cohort born between 1946-1964, Generation X fits into the 1965-1981 category, while Generations Ys were born between 1982 and 2000. While in many ways, members of different generations are seeking the same standards in their work environment, research has found that it is essential for the conflicting ideas and stereotyping caused by generational diversity to be managed well in the business environment.

Australian generational diversity expert and author of Australia’s Changing Workplaces Dr Roslyn Sayers conducted research that looked at changing trends and influences in the workplace of the age cohorts that make up the demographic character of Australia.

Roslyn surveyed Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y, as well as experts across the corporate, education, government and not-for-profit sectors. She focused on these groups’ attitudes towards technology, communication, work-life balance, organisational loyalty, attraction, engagement and retention.

Roslyn’s findings concluded that the future of work was not about a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

“Effective organisational policy in areas such as work-life balance, training and development, attraction and retention are going to play a major role in the future if organisations are going to remain competitive and employers of choice,” Roslyn said.

“Management training needs to incorporate generational diversity to ensure managers are able to effectively identify and manage situations in the workplace,” she said.

“Employees need to be made aware of the differences between generations for all workers to understand the needs, preferences and expectations in the workplace.”

Diversity@Work CEO Mark Heaysman, agreed that employees played a major role in diversity, inclusion and building collaborative relationships in the workplace.

He said that there was no substitute for interrelating groups of people and that it was essential to look at ways to link people in different age groups to important business-related activities.

“It is a personal value thing,” said Mark. “It is also about what level of intelligence one wants to apply to the way they interrelate to people and what one sees as a benefit to themselves and their broader responsibilities.”

“Firstly, people must see the true worth of another person, what does this person have to offer, who is this person? There is no doubt that personal leadership is the most imperative trait for someone to have if they are going to take time to learn about others,” he said.

The main issue Mark has drawn from his experience with intergenerational diversity is age-stereotyping and the lack of engagement by people due to others not valuing what an individual has to offer.

“Critically, do not assume that everyone young or old has negative traits … Generation Y, Generation X and mature age workers are all people. Our age only presents that we may have differing views and approaches to things, based on our experiences and attitudes,” Mark said.

“Retention of people and their discretional input are costly outcomes if not harnessed. It’s too easy to make assumptions based on age and as we are seeing now in our younger and more mature people, they are all capable of amazing things.”

The Queensland Government defines people of mature age to be over 45 years old but in general, employers view ‘mature workers’ as those aged over about 55 years old. In many cases, there can be up to a 50-year age gap between the youngest and oldest staff members of an organisation.

The director of both SageCo and niche job board Adage, Alison Monroe, said employers tended to fall into the categories of ‘youthful’ and ‘ageing’ according to their workforce age profile, as organisations started to understand the benefits of a workforce that closely mirrored their customer base and the community.

“Examples of ‘youthful’ industries include IT, telecommunications, financial services and retail,” explained Alison.

“However, we have really only started to see a tangible shift towards mature age positivity in recruitment campaigns in the last five years, as the labour market began to contract and the cries of a ‘skills shortage’ were heard,” she said.

“Small to medium businesses seem to be turning to more experienced workers and it is a good match. They can offer flexibility in return for a versatile skill set, stability and loyalty.

“When the inevitable upswing in the economy comes, organisations who do not tap the mature workforce will feel the full force of a tight labour market and costly staff turnover amongst younger workers.”

However, a Hudson survey discovered that only 60 per cent of Australian employers were ready for this shift, leaving 40 per cent that were still failing to attract and retain mature aged workers.

Mark from Diversity@Work also commented that he did not believe organisations were actively removing the barriers that restricted mature workers from successfully gaining employment.

“The reality is that until it becomes a business critical need … many companies will adopt the view that there are enough workers out there to attract, without having to make any investment or change,” Mark said.

Businesses that choose to be complacent and do not address the ageing workforce issue will inevitably begin to face an unprecedented loss of skills and expertise, and their competitive edge in the market.

According to the State Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (DEIR) within the next four decades, the number of people aged over 65 years will almost double from 13 per cent in 2003-04 to 24.5 per cent in 2044-45.

In May 2009 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that of the 3.9 million currently employed people aged 45 years and over, 85% intend to eventually retire from the labour force, while the remainder intended to not retire.

The statistics also revealed that of all employed men and women who intend to retire:

• 24% intend to retire aged 70 years or over
• 40% intend to retire aged 65-69 years
• 24% intend to retire aged 60-64 years
• 9% intend to retire aged 55-59 years
• 1% intend to retire aged 45-54 years

“There are millions of Baby Boomers approaching retirement over the next decade, coupled with less young people entering the workforce,” Alison said.

“This will lead to a labour shortage and when organisations start to feel the pain, they will work harder to attract and retain staff who fall outside of their traditional candidate pools. This will include mature workers amongst other diverse groups in the labour market,” she said.

While the full effects of the ageing population will not be felt for several decades, businesses will need to find ways to transfer knowledge, engage and retain mature workers, and upskill our people leaders to tackle the challenge.

“We are starting to see specific job advertising campaigns targeting mature workers and organisations putting pressure on the recruitment industry to supply a more diverse candidate shortlist,” said Alison.

“Businesses are also assessing the risk of knowledge loss as some of their long tenure, subject matter experts head into retirement. They are finding new and innovative ways of capturing and transferring this knowledge from master to apprentice while at the same time, helping their staff plan for retirement, or rather, plan to stay in the workforce longer.”

Alison said that the public sector and local councils had shown leadership in introducing more flexible work practices across all employee age groups.

“We have also seen the banking sector investing in mature worker initiatives (Westpac’s Age Balance and St George’s Grandparental Leave), which has paid dividends in terms of their branding, profile and ability to more closely align with an ageing customer base," she said.

“When we started the SageCo journey over five years ago we did seem to spend a lot of time on educating organisations. For example, myths around mature workers being more costly to an organisation and taking more sick leave. Both unsubstantiated by research.

“However, we have really seen the worm begin to turn in recent years and businesses are beginning to understand that having age balance and diversity in the workforce leads to higher levels of engagement, productivity, and customer service.” 

In fact, the DEIR reported that “people over 45 years stay longer in their jobs, contribute to the long-term performance of the company, have low levels of absenteeism and are flexible in their working hours and conditions.”

However, it also warned that those businesses with a high proportion of mature age workers, may experience a significant loss of people and corporate knowledge as employees reach retirement age. 

According to the Federal Budget 2009-10, the Government will begin to transition the qualifying age for retirement for both women and men to age 67, a decision that Alison believed to be inevitable.

“The retirement age in Australia has not changed in 100 years along with the actual average retirement age of 59. Yet, we are now living 20 years longer on average,” she said. “Retirement is not what it used to be – a few years of passive inactivity. It is now a period where individuals are combining work, leisure and education.”

In fact, Griffith University research has found that women continue working past retirement age because of social networks and flexibility in the work place, while men stay working longer because they value their work.

Either way, the dawning of the new retirement age will undoubtedly have several ramifactions on both employers and employees in the labour force.

“Employees will be impacted on an individual basis, according to their industry, their role and the level of physicality involved,” said Alison. “It goes without saying that mature workers who have spent a lifetime in physically demanding occupations may struggle to push back their retirement by several years.”

“Employers will really have an opportunity here to engage their mature workers in a dialogue about working longer – but working differently,” said Alison.

However, she emphasised that employers would need to create a work environment and culture that encourages mature workers to stay on and continue to contribute by asking questions such as:

• How can the working week become more flexible?
• How can a job be redesigned to accommodate the needs and physical ability of the staff member?
• How can the workforce evolve to more ‘project based’ teams where individuals in the latter stage of their career can continue to contribute skills and knowledge, in a way that suits their life stage and desire for work/life balance?   

“It will also enable them to retain some of their most loyal, dedicated staff members for longer than the traditional retirement age and benefit from their accumulated years of knowledge, expertise and wisdom.”

According to Roslyn, the key to future success is “workplace harmony”.

She explained that differing values, varying work styles and opposing attitudes towards work amongst the generations have encouraged the emergence of a quest for understanding exactly what is required to ensure people of all ages work together successfully.

“The future of work is about a flexible, highly-trained, adaptable workforce, and with that comes flexible and adaptable employment contracts that relate to the individual employee’s needs, abilties and talents.”

It would seem that finding ways to balance age diversity in the workplace and manage the varying mindset between Generation X, Y and the Baby Boomers is a sound business strategy.

 

---