Tapping into the Ageing Population

Mature employees will become more of a feature of all our workplaces over the next decade.  Astute employers are working now to develop a strategy for how to be an employer of choice for mature age workers.  Phased retirement, training for new skills and flexible working practices, these are the buzzwords for mature workers and the way to capitalise on the growing presence of this group in all Australian companies over the next 10 years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 85% of all workforce growth will be supplied by people aged 45 and over by 2012. In Australia we have a double edged sword to deal with, a skills shortage and also an ageing population. 

Mature age workers (45+) have been proven to have lower absentee levels, higher productivity levels throughout the day and also obviously the benefit of longer term career experience (www.deewr.gov.au/experience).  Getting to know the needs of this highly productive group of employees can be your key to staying ahead of the game.

Did you know that mature age workers are as likely to want new challenges and stimulating projects as are your Gen Y employees?  They may place less value on career advancement, but they are looking for job fulfilment and challenges, not an easy ride at work.

“Contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of older workers are not seeking an easy transition to retirement, with 75% of our survey respondents preferring a challenging and rewarding role.” (Chandler McLeod White Paper, Coming of Age, The impacts of an ageing workforce on Australian business)

Perhaps your younger managers may feel uncomfortable about managing someone older than them.  However, this is a great learning opportunity for the manager and a chance for them to demonstrate level headed and objective management skills.  A skilled manager has the flexibility to work with employees from many different backgrounds and ages.

You could be finding that mature age workers just don’t apply for roles at your company.  Older applicants are less likely to use online job boards and services than younger workers.  This doesn’t mean they won’t have the skills for the job, however, if you’re phrasing your ads to appeal to a younger market, using terms like career opportunities, then you could be missing out on the benefits of hiring mature age workers into your organisation.

With a worldwide trend occurring of employees planning to delay retirement and work longer, it makes good business sense to get better at retaining these workers and keeping them happier for longer. Mature aged workers value training and new challenges at work, to keep them engaged and stimulated.  Having plans in place to facilitate a phased retirement with flexible working practices can be easier and less expensive than making a new hire. 

At Trevor-Roberts we talk to companies every day about workforce planning.  If you would like a confidential discussion about your people strategies for the next five years, call Deborah Wilson, Thought Leader and Client Services Director at Trevor-Roberts.

Better for longer. Beat the retirement boom.

Better for longer. Beat the retirement boom.

Over the next 5 years, the Baby Boomers will hit retirement age.  Did you know that about 25% of Australia’s population are Baby Boomers?  And they’re reaching retirement age fast.   

According to ABS data anywhere between 15% to 18% of the Australian workforce will be retiring over the next few years.

This will create a new set of pressures on Australian businesses.  The skills gap that we are facing over the next 10 years is well documented, and we’re not the only country dealing with this same issue. These experienced and seasoned workers are proven to be one of the most productive and reliable age groups at work.

Mature age workers are an often underestimated goldmine of productivity:

• Mature age workers are less likely to take days off due to illness or to care for others, and are less likely to experience work related injuries than other workers;
• workers aged over 55 are five times less likely to change jobs compared with workers aged 20–24;
• mature workers can deliver an average net benefit of up to $1956 per year to their employer compared to other workers due to high retention rates, lower rates of absenteeism, decreased recruitment costs and greater return on investment;
• experienced workers have built up knowledge and skills during their time in the workforce;
• A study by Australian Health Management which examined the daily work habits of 4000 employees found that workers aged 55 years and over performed at their best for approximately seven hours out of an eight-hour day—an achievement that other workers in the study were unable to match.

(Source: Experience + Make age an advantage: Investing in Experience Toolkit, 2012, www.deewr.gov.au/experience.)

Consider the exponential and untapped value that baby boomers have. Value that is only discovered once they have left and at times this is lost to the business.

So, the issue for your business is, how are you going to attract and retain these workers?  Do you have a strategy? Do you understand the age breakdown of your workforce, and know the retirement plans of these key employees?

Replacing mature age workers, who understand your business, your goals and do a great job for you every day, may be more costly that you realise.

Providing flexible working opportunities, attractive superannuation arrangements and ongoing training are some of the keys to keeping mature age workers in your business longer.

Other strategies to consider are around knowledge management in your business.  Make sure that your intellectual property and customer relationships don’t retire along with some of your most loyal employees.  Having long term “easing out” strategies in place can help to minimise the impact on customers and day to day productivity in your business when long term employees retire.

Deborah Wilson is a Thought Leader at Trevor Roberts.   She works with companies every day on their people strategies.  If you would like advice on career transition, including retirement, career development, leadership development or recruitment advice, call today for a confidential discussion.  p 1300 876 118

Why Leadership will Make or Break the Community Services and Health Industry

Why Leadership will Make or Break the Community Services and Health Industry

An assumption that staff have the basic skills to change to customer-service focus is a key barrier for the Community Services and Health sector.  This emerged in discussions among senior HR managers at a series of forums that we ran in Sydney and Brisbane.

The ‘new’ world of person-centred care requires a different mindset that many people do not hold innately. Almost twenty years ago, Hugh Gunz from the University of Toronto wrote a great article called Right Strategy, Wrong Managers. His core argument is that if you shift strategy, such as from government funded delivery model to person centred care, then you need managers that think in a different way.

At our breakfast functions, we discussed the leadership behaviours that are the most effective to lead the health and community services organisations into the future. A great leader was described as:

1. Energetic and passionate,
2. who take ownership and drive change,
3. through a style of trust, honesty and support but,
4. are one with the organisation’s vision and,
5. can communicate ‘the why’ to people at all levels.

 There are few industries undergoing as much change as Health and Community Services (here’s a great environmental scan from the Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council).

Strong Authentic leadership will make or break organisations over the years ahead. Organisations that don’t adapt will shut down or be merged into those that do.

Retrenchment reactions reflect sentiment

Retrenchment reactions reflect sentiment

Violent outbursts are rare at retrenchment announcement meetings, in fact I can only recall one chair being thrown in our 19 years of operation. The vast majority of people experience a mix of anger, disappointment and anxiety about the future. These emotions are usually measured and often emerge in the early part of their outplacement program.

Strong emotional outbursts, however, have escalated in the past few months. This worrying trend reflects the negative sentiment in the employment market with people being increasingly concerned about the probability of finding another job. Professionals and middle managers are particularly concerned as many companies are trimming these roles.
 
Unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between emotions and intelligence: as emotions go up, intelligence goes down. Thus the increase in strong emotional outbursts at retrenchment announcements.

Our team of career development consultants are finding that the intensity of support during outplacement programs has increased, however, people are still finding jobs within a reasonable time frame. The jobs are there, they are just harder to find.

More than ever, now is the time to ensure retrenchment processes are handled as effectively as possible to minimise the negative impact on those effected, and those staying.

The number one redundancy mistake organisations make.

The number one redundancy mistake organisations make.

 

The number one mistake organisations make when undertaking redundancies processes is going too fast.

Speed introduces the risk that either the people or processes are not fully prepared. By people I mean the managers that have to actually make the announcements. Processes refer to the backend calculations of payout entitlements, legal checking etc. There is nothing more unprofessional than redundancy letters that have the wrong amount on it. Worse still is the message this sends to departing staff: “you care about me so little you couldn’t even get a simple figure right”. Now that’s a strong statement, but we’ve heard it more than once.

Here are the two reasons why organisations fail to get the pace of redundancies right.

#1: Human Nature. It is natural for people to get unpleasant things over and done with as quickly as possible. As a manager, telling someone they don’t have a job is the most unpleasant part of managing. I heard recently that a decision to layoff staff was made by the Executive of an organisation on the Friday, communicated to the HR Manager on the Monday to begin two days later on the Wednesday. The key learning from this process was that the managers at the coalface did not have sufficient time to prepare. It was too fast.

#2 Artificial Deadline. 30^th June. End of financial year is the typical artificially created deadline to have redundancy processes finished and staff off the books. We see it every June – companies moving fast to meet this date when they simply did not start early enough or the decision was made in June, not April or May.

There is an ideal pace for redundancy. Starting from the planning stage through to post implementation requires thoughtful planning and consideration of the impact of decisions on all those involved.

Pace Matters.

Clickhere for our tip sheet for Managers and for HR Managers

 

Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding the Announcement Process, we are happy to talk you through it.

 

Cultural fit or Fit for Change?

[Dear Readers, I'm delighted to share this guest contribution from Deborah Wilson.
Regards, Edwin]

How do you evaluate whether your new employee is right for your workplace? Assessing whether your new employee has the right cultural fit is critical to giving them the best chance of becoming a happy and productive team member. When employees have the right cultural fit, this means that they feel challenged and supported at work. It’s that great feeling we all look for when we feel like we’re surrounded by like-minded people who are motivated by the same values as we are.

If you are the kind of person who loves a challenge, then you love working with others who see life in the same way. If you value contributing to the decision making process and having your own projects to work on, then you will thrive in an autonomous working environment.

That’s why human resources departments spend so much time and resources articulating the culture of the organisation and trying to find the right people they know will thrive there.

But what happens in a restructure? A new senior executive can change the nature of the culture overnight. When a new CEO moves in, the old ideas and culture can quickly become the way of the past. In fact employees who identified so strongly with the past culture can soon feel like outsiders!

Which employees survive in a restructure? Is it the ones who we so carefully selected based on their cultural fit? Probably not. Maybe we need to change our recruitment processes so that we look for employees who can thrive in different work environments.

Employees that rate high on flexibility and resilience are adaptable to change. They respond to change by seeing the opportunities, and the chance to take on new career directions. Instead of feeling threatened – their reaction is optimistic about new career pathways that may be opened up.

If you can find employees who have the innate capacity to be optimistic in times of change – then these are the type of people who will be more willing and prepared to adapt to changing business strategies.
So, as well as focussing on cultural fit, as part of your next selection process, look for employees who can come with you on the journey, as your organisation changes and adapts to stay successful. A nimble organisation needs flexible employees who are prepared to come along for the ride, and greet the challenges as they arise.
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Deborah Wilson is a Thought Leader at Trevor Roberts. She works with companies every day on their people strategies. If you would like advice on career transition, career development and leadership development. Linkedin Profile

 

The Labor Debacle:

Failure of Leadership or failure of team?

 

 

 

The Gillard/Rudd farce is more a failure of the team than a failure of leadership. The federal government runs a $1.3 trillion business with the Senior Leadership Team being the Cabinet. It is rare (although there have been examples) of a Senior Leadership Team behaving so ineffectively that it jeopardises the entire organisation.

There are three reasons why the Labor team failed.

First, and most important, they lost sight of their purpose. High performing teams cling tenaciously to why they are there. The ‘why’ unites a team by providing a clear picture of the future. It also keeps the strong ego’s in check.

Second, inconsistent behaviour of MP’s undermined the team’s effectiveness. High performing teams agree on the behaviours that will build trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results (see Lencioni’s work on dysfunctions of a team). These behaviours are displayed by all members of the team and are firmly enforced. Oh, did I mention trust?

Third, the actual workings of the team contributed to its collapse. The processes and mechanics of a team including decision making and communication rhythm are hygiene factors. In other words if you don’t have them a team won’t perform, but having them won’t guarantee high performance.

Will Team Labor come back from this crisis? Everything occurs in cycles, so yes, they will bounce back in time as long as the focus is on the team not just the leadership.

 
Team trumps ego any day.

3 reasons why Linkedin isn’t working for you...

 

Over half of Linkedin’s revenue comes from its advanced backend tool for recruiters. Take 2 minutes to read this article to convince yourself of the powerful hold that Linkedin has on professionals. So, lets assume that you have a profile.  Most professionals, however, fail to fully utilise the power of Linkedin. Here’s three reason’s why:
  

#1. Inadequate or out of date information

If you don’t have enough information with the right keywords then the recruiting fraternity can’t find you.  (I disagree with the above article, however, don’t put all the detail of your history on linkedin – you don’t want recruiters to cull you before they’ve spoken with you.)

#2. Passively waiting for the next amazing job

While recruiters are extensive users, remember that they have less than 20% of the available jobs. If you really want to find your next job, first, know what you want to do, and second, use Linkedin to speak to people that may be able to help you get there.
 

#3. Use it only to get a job

Linkedin is a relationship building tool. Don’t just use it for getting a job, use it to build strong relationships and, in the process, build your brand in the market. These relationships will help you at some point in your career, you just can’t tell how, or when. Its called the Theory of Abundance.

 

Retrenched? Why “she’ll be right, mate” won’t make it right.

This is a Blog we posted last year, but with the currently economic climate the say it is, and everyone knowing someone who has been recently made redundant, we felt it a good time to re-post.

Australians are notoriously bad for asking for help. It’s in our psyche to just get on with it, not quite knowing what “it” is and trusting that somehow it will all work out fine.

This is particularly evident when people are retrenched. It never ceases to amaze me how many people hesitate to start an outplacement program when it is offered to them. Having provided outplacement services to thousands of people, I’ve seen four different types of responses to being made redundant. Individual’s responses can be categorised according to Agency (that is, how much action a person takes) and Self-awareness.

1. The Victim has low self awareness and low agency. Victims withdraw after retrenchment and take little action to find something else. Occasionally victims are saved by an unexpected opportunity from a contact.

2. The Lone Wolf is “She’ll be right, mate” personified. This group launches into a job search with energy and vigour believing that they have everything under control. Sometimes they do, but more often than not they don’t. Lone wolves are usually derailed by what they don’t know.

3. The Park Bench realises that they need to take action but don’t. Park benches spend too much time processing the emotions of the change rather than shifting focus to a positive future. This failure to take action is the most common career derailer.

4. The Phoenix is self aware enough to move quickly through the difficult emotions and takes action to make a positive change in their career. These people are the most successful careerists as they take action throughout their career.Today’s labour market is increasingly sophisticated. A transition to a new role will see you pitched against those in the Phoenix category so take every opportunity offered by an outplacement program to enhance your career management skills and self awareness.

Why the biggest obstacle to effective networking is you.

I had lunch a few weeks ago with Frank, a senior HR Manager who was in between jobs and generally seeking advice about the market. The organisation he had been working for was wound down and, as all good HR Managers do, he was the last to turn the lights off, lock the door, wander out and then start his job search. He had a holiday, rode his motorbike, did a few contracts, let his wife work hard, but a year on he felt it time to start looking for a job in earnest.

Over lunch he asked me “I’ve applied for a few jobs, some I’m not even shortlisted for so was wanting to check to see if all that stuff about networking, is still important to do?”

There was a pregnant pause. “I assume that question is rhetorical Frank?” I replied.

“Well, that’s a pretty clear answer!” he laughed.

The message here is simple. Networking is critical, and even seasoned managers find it difficult to do.

You see, networking itself isn’t hard. Removing the barriers in your own mind is.

Frank is one of the most humble, values driven people I know. He’s all about giving to others. This is a wonderful asset and his greatest strength. It is also his weakness as he overplays this strength. Frank thinks that networking is about taking and that he is imposing on others. His perspective only shifted when I pointed out to him that people will derive great value from conversations with him…but he has to pick up the phone and make those appointments.

Let’s reframe it entirely. It's not networking. It's relationship building.

Oh, and by the way, if Frank calls you, have a coffee with him – he’s a great guy.

Why your relationships will be tested this year

Reading the weather warnings current for Australia the other day really made me realise what a harsh country we live in. Not many countries would have fire and flood warnings across all their states. I wouldn’t swap it for anywhere else though.

The economic climate shows similarly signs of it being a tough year, although fortunately there aren’t any ‘severe’ warnings out there. The last few years have been similarly tough, in fact, since the GFC of 2008 the business environment has been challenging. During this time many individuals have faced difficulties, whether it being as severe as being retrenched or needing help with their job. Many of us have called in favours from people we know such as asking for advice, seeking leads for job opportunities, or sharing leads.

The challenge I see for the year ahead is that many individuals have used up a great deal of social capital, that is, the goodwill in their networks. And many people are going to need more help in the year ahead which will test the strength of the relationships we have with people. This doesn’t mean don’t ask, in fact, you don’t know the strength of a relationship until it is strained, but be conscious you don’t push it too far.

My advice is to redouble your efforts of what you put into your relationships. We all have something to give – advice, ideas, contacts, leads, content, emotional support – and now is the time to give more. Who you give to won’t be exactly who you’ll receive from, but the law of abundance works in mysterious ways. The more you give the more you’ll get back…you just don’t know when, from whom, or how. That’s part of the enjoyment of our working life.