The workforce is getting older

It’s official: the nation’s workforce is getting older as more and more people work on into their seventies. The rise in the ‘grey’ worker is being attributed to the chronic lack of pensions savings. One in eight women are now working past the age of 70, while for men the figure is one in ten. Experts predict that this statistic will only increase.

In a report, called Pensions Trends, the Office for National Statistics said people “will be increasingly likely to continue working” beyond the traditional retirement ages. The age at which people are retiring has begun to rise rapidly, the report also showed.  In 2004, a man typically stopped working at the age of 63 and ten months. The most recent figures, for 2010, show the average man quits when he is 64 and seven months. The scenario is similar for women. They used to retire at the average age of 61 and two months, but this has jumped to 62 and four months.

Government plans to raise the retirement age will also push more and more people into working for longer. This social trend does have an impact on businesses and the way they are run. Business owners and managers will need to learn how to enable a much broader range of ages to work together effectively. In teams, there is potential for 17- and 70-year-olds, whose outlooks, experience, expectations and aspirations will be vastly different.

Ensuring staff engagement in this situation will be challenging but, we believe, achievable and we’re here to help. If you’d like some advice on staff engagement please get in touch.