General Employment News
SME guide on managing older workers 15 April 2015
A new guide on hiring and managing older employees has been published by Healthy Working Lives, part of NHS Health Scotland. and is the first of its kind to specifically target smaller employers.
The guide, ‘ Managing Health Ageing Workforces ’ aims to provide advice to businesses on hiring and managing older employees and is the first of its kind to specifically target smaller employers. It was written based on discussions with SME business leaders in Scotland organised by Healthy Working Lives and in the South East of England organised by the Surrey Chamber of Commerce and South East of England Forum on Ageing. The UK population is ageing at a rapid rate; one in six people in Britain are now over 65, with 8 million workers aged 50 and over. Of these, 5.2 million work for businesses with less than 250 employees. The guide therefore looks to support these smaller businesses in managing their older workers, seeing an ageing workforce as an opportunity rather than a challenge.
The guide has been written by Dr. Matt Flynn of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce Ltd. and Kathleen Houston, Scottish Healthy Working Lives.
Dr Matt Flynn commented:
"Older workers present a great opportunity for businesses in being able to harness their talent and expertise. In many firms but especially in smaller companies, more experienced workers play a critical role in passing on not just technical skills to the younger generation, but also the tacit organisational knowledge that businesses need to retain their competitive advantage. Small businesses, for example, need employees who can be 'all-rounders', and jobseekers who are rich in experience are also likely to be multi-skilled. The problem small business leaders have is that they simply don't know where to find the experienced job seekers they want - this guide seeks to address that, as well as providing practical advice on how best to manage an older workforce. "The contribution of older workers to the British economy is undeniable. We must ensure that as people stay in work for longer, their extended working lives are healthy, sustainable and mutually beneficial to both employees and employers."
Kathleen Houston added:
"In the coming years, many more people will continue working into sixties and seventies. It is vital for business owners and managers to be able to get the best from ageing workforces."
Improving pay transparency is a major employer challenge 16 April 2015
More than half of employees believe they are not paid fairly for the work they do and just 37 per cent feel that there is a clear connection between their performance and pay, according to a recent study.
Pay & Benefits has reported that the research for Hay Group identified improving transparency around pay and other areas as one of five major challenges facing business across all sectors, concluding that organisations need to be more open and honest about how they reward, manage and develop their people. Martin Palimeris, Senior Consultant at the consultancy, said that firms rated highest for engaging and enabling their staff achieved more than four times the revenue growth of the lowest scoring companies and were far more successful at retaining staff.
“People are the lynchpin to sustaining performance in this rapidly changing world, and organisations need to wake up to this,” he added.
The other factors identified through the research, based on 500,000 responses from 100 organisations, were optimising productivity, greater innovation, fostering collaboration between teams and improving business agility in areas such as decision making.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 95 of 453
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