TREASURY projections based on the intergenerational report have forecast that by 2050 there will be only 2.7 people of working age for every person over 65. Previously the question has been when we could afford to retire but now it’s whether the country can afford to let us put our feet up. But how do we rise to the prime minister’s call to increase productivity if no one will employ us?

This week, SuperLiving tackles ageism head on in an interview with Commissioner for Age Discrimination Elizabeth Broderick.

Treasury has predicted that low productivity growth due to the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation will lead to the economic growth rate falling to 2.7% over the next 40 years.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned Australia that it must boost its productivity if it is to cope with the ageing population and the growing demand on healthcare, or else face making some uncomfortable decisions down the track.

At some stage, the government (and voters) will have to decide whether to reduce government services or risk living in significant deficit in the second quarter of this century – an extravagance future generations will spend their working lives paying for, without themselves being offered the same perks when they retire.

Working longer and harder

With the pension age now set at 67 and the median age of Australia's population projected to increase from 36.8 years in 2007, to between 38 and 40 years in 2026, and between 41 and 45 years in 2056, clearly the age of Australia's workforce will increase as well.

“The government is sending a clear message that we will have to work longer – and that’s not just the Australian government, it’s a global trend,” Commissioner Broderick said.

“People need to be given the choice to decide to work longer either because they want to because they love what they are doing or because they need to after the global financial crisis.

“However, if you are willing to work but can’t find a work environment that values mature workers who are 45-plus, then that isn’t a choice.”

Work hard to find for over-45s

According to research from the Commission for Age Discrimination, age discrimination is most likely the greatest unrecognised barrier to older people participating in the workforce.

“Our research has found that after the age of 45 finding a supportive work environment becomes much harder and if you fall out of paid work after 55 it’s even more difficult,” the commissioner said.

It’s not that Boomer’s don’t have the right skills either.

“Many of the people who write to us have contemporary educational experience. Recently one man who had up-to-date qualification in HR and great experience applied for 500 jobs, got four interviews and at every one he was told he was overqualified.”

The invisible barrier

A significant reason why people aren’t being employed is age discrimination and it’s often unconscious.

In an interesting social experiment a range of CVs were put before 200 managers and all that was changed were the ages on the CV. Managers were asked whether they would hire, train or promote each person based on their CV.

“Women 45 and over were the most discriminated-against group as not even women managers 45 and over would hire or promote them.

“When we got down to what these unconscious biases were it was that they were seen as too opinionated and low in energy, those types of things usually aren’t articulated but the unconscious bias that was certainly there – as a woman over the age of 45 myself, it’s extremely depressing to see,” Commissioner Broderick said.

Don’t call me old

Baby Boomers are tired of bad press – and rightly so. As one of our readers pointed out – being labelled as the ageing generation is bad enough but to have worked hard all your life and to now be seen as a burden on the state just doesn’t seem fair. Whatever happened to a healthy respect for our elders?

According to Commissioner Broderick, the trend is widespread.

“A lot of the language and rhetoric that is being used is about a message of decline, words like burden, dragging the country down, in the red. Unfortunately, even the word ageing sends a negative message rather than one of opportunity and part of addressing age discrimination is to change attitudes about what it means to age – and what they call positive ageing,” she said.

However, there are more barriers to increasing productivity than age. According to Diane Olsberg, an expert on ageing and senior research fellow at New South Wales University, what’s needed is a major change in attitude towards retirement expectations and the capabilities and value of older workers.

“There is a sort of disregard for the skills which older people have,” she said. “Employers focus on the fact that we may be unfamiliar with the latest technology instead of recognising that people have different skills to offer.”

At the same time, older people need to recognise their own ability to pick up the latest skills and recognize that technology is moving so fast that everybody is having to constantly learn.”

Opportunities for 45+ Australians

Along with the release of the intergenerational report, the government has announced it will start putting funding into issues surrounding age discrimination and helping transition older Australians into retirement.

This is great news especially for physical-labor industries where working longer isn’t really an option.

As Diane Olsberg explains: “People are living longer and healthier, and it makes sense to try to encourage people to stay in the workforce. We have the skills and commitment but employers are reluctant to take on people over the age of 50 and people have to have a job in order to work later. Now that’s fine for professionals but what about labourers or those who don’t have the option to stay?”

According to Commissioner Broderick, the answer lies in finding new ways to make the most of people skills.

“Laborers still have skills that the country needs but they need to be deployed in a different ways through mentoring, supervising, that type of thing.”

According to Australian talent management software company Taleo, Australian businesses will need to look closely at their internal management in order to accommodate the generational shift.

“As Australia's population ages sharply, many companies are having to manage up to four generations of employees, making it critically important to develop internal systems for mentoring and knowledge transfer so that the vast corporate knowledge of older employees is shared with younger workers,” Taleo spokesperson Lynne Salmon said.

Commissioner Broderick is also calling on the government to stop underestimating the capacity of older Australians for innovation and business nuance.

“I had one guy contact me the other day who wanted to start a new business at the age of 75 – and he had looked at whether he could access some government business incentive funding but found the incentive was capped at a younger age,” the commissioner said.

It makes sense that if we are trying to encourage a longer working life that innovation and incentives should be equally encouraged in young people as older Australians.

For those currently seeking work, there is no question that keeping your skills up to date is important but that by itself is not necessarily enough.

For Boomers having trouble in getting a job, it’s really about perseverance.

“It’s also incredibly important that they understand that age discrimination exists so that they don’t internalise the rejection and lose confidence in their abilities,” Commissioner Broderick said.

It’s also important that employers change their attitudes towards employing older Australians. There are a lot of negative myths about employing people over the age of 45 and they need to be debunked.

Debunking myths about older workers

Myth 1: Mature age workers will cost the business more for their experience.
Fact: Mature age employees can save costs to employers through increased rates of retention.

• Workers aged over 55 are five times less likely to change jobs compared with workers aged 20-24, reducing ongoing recruitment and training costs.
• Mature workers deliver an average net benefit of $1956 per year to their employer compared to the rest of the workforce – a result of increased retention, lower rates of absenteeism, decreased costs of recruitment and greater investment returns on training.
• Retention of mature age workers can help maintain corporate memory and save employers the cost of re-inventing the wheel.
• There is a strategic business advantage of having employees who reflect the diversity of the customer base as the Australian population ages.

• ABS reports show that the current life expectancy is 78 years for men and 83 years for women – a two and three-year increase respectively since 1994.
• A 2005 ABS survey found the proportion of Australians aged 55-64 reporting their health as good, very good or excellent was 75.5% – an increase of 4% since 1995.
• A 2006 ABS survey found that mature workers were the least likely group to take days off due to their own illness or as a carer. In the two-week period prior to the survey, mature workers had nearly half the number of days off compared to colleagues aged 25-34.
• ABS data indicates that mature age workers are less likely to experience work-related injuries compared to younger workers.

• Research of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries shows those countries that provide a higher level of training to older workers have workers leaving the labour market at an older age.

• A study of OECD nations concluded that verbal skills, communication and intelligence remain unchanged as a person ages.

• ABS data shows that Australians aged 55-64 are the fastest growing users of information technology.
• International studies indicate that appropriate training provided in a supportive environment can greatly assist older workers to learn new technology systems.
• A survey of employers showed they were more likely to recruit someone with direct experience in the industry but with limited computing skills compared to a person who is good with computers but has no industry experience.

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