Older workers andcareer management skills

Dr Lyn Barham NICEC, UKer management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Overview

Demographics and workforcePolicy responsesThe subjective experience of careerCareer development needsResponse from the profession

Older workers and career management skills

UK 1971

UK 1991

UK 2011

UK 2024

Canada – population trend•Canadian population: 33.7 million in 2009.•According to the medium-growth scenario, the Canadian population would reach 43.8 million by 2036 and 52.6 million by 2061•Migratory increase would be the main driver of population growth in all scenarios.

[Source: Statistics Canada]

Older workers and career management skills

Canada – workforce [1]

According to all selected scenarios, the number of people aged 65 years or over would surpass the number of children aged less than 14 years or under. This shift, a first in the history of the Canadian population, would occur between 2015 and 2021.

[Source: Statistics Canada]

Older workers and career management skills

Canada – workforce [2]•According to all selected scenarios, the proportion that represents the working-age population among the total population would decrease progressively up to 2036 to reach about 60% and would then remain fairly stable. In 2009, the proportion that represents the working-age population was 69%.•In 2009, for every 100 people in the working-age population, there were 24 children aged 14 years or under and 20 people aged 65 years or over. According to the medium-growth scenario, there would be 26 children and 39 seniors per 100 working-age people in 2036.

[Source: Statistics Canada]

Older workers and career management skills

Population projections, EU-27 (% of total population)[Source: Eurostat (proj_tbp_pop)]

Ageing in the 21st Century: a celebration and a challenge. (UNFPA, 2012)

Rapidly and surely the world is getting older. … The number and proportion of older persons is growing faster than any other age group, and will surpass 1 billion people in less the 10 years.Ageing is now occurring fastest in the developing world, which has limited resources and plans to deal with this unprecedented demographic trend.

Older workers and career management skills

Ageing in the 21st Century: a celebration and a challenge. (UNFPA, 2012)

The older generation -- which includes caregivers, voters, teachers, volunteers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and more – represents a growing reservoir of talent and experience that can be tapped to reap a 'longevity dividend'.This new report calls for new approaches to dealing with healthcare, workforce and retirement issues, living arrangements and intergenerational relations. This will help countries to harness the potential benefits and minimize the disruption that ageing will bring.

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Older workers and career management skills

Population change:

•Declining birth rate

•Increasing longevity

•Migration

Which of these have impact in your country?

Older workers and career management skills

Policy concerns

Extending working life is a public policy issue:

• Skills: UK prediction of 13 million vacancies in next decade, and 8 million young entrants (UKCES, 2008)

• Pension costs: Limiting state pension expenditure[UK pension ages of 60 (f) and 65 (m) equalising at

65 in 2018, then progressively rising together to age 68 in 2046].

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Responses:•Participation rates (age/gender)

•Extending working lives; raising pension age

•Immigration

•Re-thinking work and workforce

Policy responses in your country?

Older workers and career management skills

Internationally ….

“The nature of the final phases of the work-life span is evolving as workers live longer, remain healthier, and face economic challenges that require them to continue working beyond the statutory retirement age.”

Truxillo and Fraccaroli (2013)

Older workers and career management skills

In the UK …“Workplace (is) greying as companies turn to older employees. For first time there are now more than 1 million workers in UK aged over 65”

“… now 29.76 million people in employment ….. Of these, 1,030,000 were over 65, up by 38,000 on the quarter and by 96,000 on the February-to-April period of 2012”

The Guardian, 13 June 2013

Older workers and career management skills

What is ‘age’?•Age as a social construct•Deficit view of ageing?•Age as opportunity?

•Aspects of ageing•Chronological age – least informative•Biological age – deterioration•Socio-cultural ageing: society’s expectations•Psychological ageing: changes in ability, memory, attitude

Older workers and career management skills

From: Withnall (2008) … it was sadly the case that older people were more likely to be seen as a burden on health and social services than as potential learners and contributors to society with many years of life ahead of them.

… (the) multiplicity of influences over the collective and individual life course appears to operate in an inter-related but highly complex manner within a constantly changing and evolving social and cultural context.

Older workers and career management skills

Social construction … and change

(following Withnall, 2008)

Individual

Situational InstitutionalDislocation and change

Bourdieu

Habitus•Disposition: capacities and capabilities; personal values•Capitals: social, cultural and economicField•Position, amongst circumstances and structures•Other players

Older workers and career management skills

Hodkinson: CareershipDecisionsActual career decision-making is not rational in an abstract, logical way, but is pragmatically rationalCareer progressionCareer progression is often non-linear and is strongly influenced by actions, events and circumstances that lay beyond the control of the (young) person

Older workers and career management skills

Hodkinson: Careership theory

Careership adds to Bourdieu’s concepts three further constructs specific to its area of concern with careers:•horizons for action•pragmatically rational career decision-making•routines and turning points

Older workers and career management skills

‘Life design’ in later working lifeSavickas et al. (2009) pose a life design question:

‘What am I going to make of my life?’They emphasise ‘how to do’ over ‘what to do’

Both questions apply towards the end of working life, but the framing is different.

Who do I want be now? (Hawthorn, 2007)How do I make the next transition?

Older workers and career management skills

What’s different in later working life?

•Future time perspective

•Respect for experience; the psychological contract of employment

•Generativity

Older workers and career management skills

“what matters for older workers”

• ‘what matters’ to them. What are their concerns?

• ‘what matters’ in the sense of what it is important to offer them from people supporting their continued earning and learning career.

Enhancing the value of ageEnhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

People in their fifties vary hugely in terms of their work situation, their expectations, their attitudes to work, their financial position, their health and their personal lives.

Many difficulties, which they encounter, stem not from an inability to face up to the trade-off between income and leisure in later life, but from a lack of choice and control.

(Philipson and Smith, 2005)

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Aspects of motivation to continue in work

Working key to emotional wellbeing

Working not key to emotional wellbeing

Enhancing the value of age

Working key to financial wellbeing

Working not key to financial wellbeing

NZ Dept of Labour (2006)

Older workers and career management skills

Social and intrinsic work valuesIndividual differences outweigh the commonality of

age, but a strong shift:- away from building work identity or seeking

hierarchical and financial advancement- instead, a belief that there is more to life than

work, and a greater unwillingness to compromise core values, especially those related to family

- generativity, in many forms but all evincing care for people, things or ideas

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Time• Time horizons change over the life course• ‘Time’ emerged as an (unforeseen) theme• Time is valued; not to be ‘wasted’• Money is little compensation for wasted time• ‘Future time perspective’ affects orientation to

values, particularly family• Employers and career advisers need

awareness of perspectives about time

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Generativity - care‘Care’ is a central aspect of generativity-To care about-To care for-To be careful‘…fashioning legacies of care that will survive them’

(Vantilborgh et al., 2012)

Older workers and career management skills

Generativity

Forms of generativity:

•Productivity•Nurturance - interpersonal•Nurturance - societal care•Leadership

Clark and Arnold (2008)

Older workers and career management skills

Generativity relates to:• Productivity: passing on skills, standards, ‘folk history’

of the organisation/profession• Nurturance: help others achieve skill, standards and

understanding*** not mentoring schemes ***

“the contribution inherent in the substance of their role would remain their most important source of intrinsic satisfaction” (Clark and Arnold, 2010)

“to be recognised for their life experience”(Barham, 2008)

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Generativity in men’s work-related life goals: quotations collected by Clark and Arnold (2010)

“I typically try to...• make it easier for my staff to work and enjoy it.• ensure my experience is used to help work tasks become successful, this

making work rewarding/satisfying.• offer support to the people I work with – to lend an ear if needed.• lead by example at work.• develop new processes and procedures to improve the business.• never ‘walk past’ an issue or problem I see at work.• pursue opportunities to apply my ideas to benefit society.• organise my parish so that everyone’s talents have the opportunity to

shine.• improve my own skills to improve my service to others.• find a solution to problems.”

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

“Organisations need … to welcome, facilitate and reward older workers’ generative contribution to mainstream activities” through formal policies and through active interventions by managers (Clark and Arnold, 2010)

Career guidance services need to engage deeply with individual motivations, including forms of generativity (Barham, 2008)

At recruitment, employers need to recruit for ongoing potential, not just for the tasks of a specific vacancy

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Messages for career counselling

Pay attention to

•Life experiences

•Life circumstances

•Time and generativity concerns

•Transition to …..

Older workers and career management skills

RetirementAs a process …

… not an event

Retirement as a self-managed process over a period of time produces better outcomes through to oldest age in terms of physical, social and financial well-being.

Older workers and career management skills

Not ‘when’ but ‘how’ to retire

• Phased retirement – a ‘process’ not an ‘event’• Self-managed, with support• Inter-linking financial, social and intrinsic work

satisfactions• Produces better social, health and financial

outcomes into oldest age.

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Financial advice

• Poor links between advice for financial planning and advice about employment

• Policy and PES focus on the move from out-of-work benefits to pension income

• Frequently an assumption from career advisers that pension income ‘solves’ the problem

• Financial advice may be a regulated activity (eg. UK), so actions by career advisers are limited

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Agenda: guidance services

• Develop conceptual frameworks about the later stages of career

• Respect individuality within common trends• Consider methods of initial engagement

(publicity, staff, premises and delivery modes)• Training and development need for staff

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Agenda: employers

• Value experience• Harness generativity; identify useful

contributions• Recognise development potential of older

workers• Enable retirement as a process• Extend role as a trusted source of support

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Age management strategiesfollowing Plant (2012)

Individual: focus on individuals, on working ability, health, well-being, social relationships, and the contribution that older workers can make to companiesCollective: developed through collective negotiations between unions and employersOrganisational: focus on retention of competence and labour, knowledge transfer, changes in work organisation and working timeSocietal strategies: developed by governments. On active ageing, improved health/well-being, reduced costs for pensions, and welfare services.

Older workers and career management skills

Take off and flight mode

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Preparing to touch down

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills

Thank you

Dr Lyn BarhamFellow, NICEC, UK

lynbarham@gmail.comwww.nicec.org

Enhancing the value of ageOlder workers and career management skills