Organisations urged to consider older and / or disabled workers

by Herpreet Kaur Grewal

It is becoming clear that businesses must do more to accommodate workers over the age of 50 to successfully manage their way through a challenging economic climate and to tackle current labour shortages.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that many over the age of 50 took the opportunity to step away from the workforce during the pandemic. Over-50s saw the most significant increase of inactive people among all age groups since the start of the pandemic. The number of people aged 50 to 70 who moved from economic activity to inactivity between the second and third quarters of 2021 was 87,000 higher than in the same period in 2019.

Parallel to this, the UK unemployment rate sits at a very low 3.7%, and job vacancies continue to go unfilled. Such circumstances present a clear need not only to manage existing resources effectively and expand the workforce, but to entice early retirees back to work.

Despite all of the above, recent research from the Chartered Management Institute suggests that businesses are less open to hiring older workers than they are younger prospective employees. Of 1,000 people managers working in UK businesses and public services, just four in 10 said they were “to a large extent” open to hiring people aged between 50 and 64.

Seasoned employees

Liam McNeill, vice-president, EMEA at UKG, said: “With so many businesses struggling to recruit enough workers to plug gaps in their teams, it’s vital that people managers show an openness to welcoming more seasoned employees back into the workplace. The UK is fast approaching recession, business leaders must assess their current workforce –which are largely Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X – and look to empower employees and managers as part of their retention strategies.”

McNeill added: “Across all industries, we’ve seen that workers over 50 years of age have left the workforce en masse. To combat this, HR leaders must carefully consider the diverse needs of their employees and cater to the varying approaches to work and life. This includes allowing your people to manage their schedules and easily communicate with managers and teammates to better meet work-life balance via technology – something we like to call life-work technology – which contributes to a better employee experience and boosts the overall engagement at your organisation.”

Research by the Learning and Work Institute (L&W) shows that the number of people not working and not looking for a job has increased by around 600,000 during the pandemic, growing Britain’s so-called economically inactive group to nine million working-age people.

UK is the worst G7 country affected

The research found that the UK had seen the biggest rise in people leaving the labour force in G7 countries through the pandemic, leaving employers short of workers. L&W said that this is part of a long-term demographic crunch as the baby boomer generation retires, and there is a class and gender divide between those who can afford not to work and those who are unable to without much more support.

Better-paid and male-dominated roles like managers and directors, IT professionals and other professional roles account for around one in three people who took early retirement.

By contrast, people from lower-paid, traditionally female-dominated roles were more likely to give up work for health reasons. Housekeeping; caring personal services; cleaning; and other elementary services occupations account for over a quarter of such moves.

There has also been a sharp rise in the number of people with long-term sickness, reflecting a rise in ill health in the population, the impacts of the pandemic, plus lengthy NHS waiting lists. In addition, there are huge geographic variations: the proportion of working-age people economically inactive because of long-term sickness varies from one in 100 in parts of Surrey to one in seven in parts of Merseyside.

Targeted help

By the 2040s, there will only be 2.3 people of working age for every person above state pension age – down from 3.5 in the 2010s. Expanding the workforce by helping more people with health conditions and caring responsibilities to work will be key to avoiding labour shortages over the coming decades. Employers will also have to overcome any ageism to make sure that they can employ the best people for their roles.

Stephen Evans, chief executive at the Learning and Work Institute, said: “The rise in economic inactivity has contributed to labour shortages, but it is the bigger demographic crunch of an ageing population that we should focus on most. There are 1.7 million outside the workforce who say they want to work, but only one in 10 are getting help to find work. Our analysis also points to an important diversity and potential inequality between those unable to work due to health or caring responsibilities; those who don’t need to work with people in better paid roles more likely to have retired early; and those who need help to work.

“We need to see a fresh approach from government and employers to ease the current situation and prepare for the demographic changes ahead. That means targeted help for anyone who wants to find a job, investing in childcare and health services, and tackling ageism across our society.”

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS BRITAIN’S INACTIVITY PROBLEM

9m

The number of Britain’s economically inactive working-age people (Learning and Work Institute)

1.7m

People want to work, but only one in 10 get help finding it (Learning and Work Institute)

87,000

The increase in people aged 50 to 70 who moved from economic activity to inactivity between Q2 and Q3 in 2021 from 2019 (ONS)

40%

Only four in 10 managers working in UK businesses are open to hiring people aged 50-64 (Chartered Management Institute)

3.7%

This current and very low UK unemployment rate means that inactive workers need to be enticed back into the workforce (ONS)