The future's bright?

There was a really interesting feature in the Guardian about solving Japan's ageing problem. (It is a country ageing faster than any other). It's an interesting case study because in the UK we could be faced with similar issues when the baby boomers start to need additional support in older age. Japan is addressing many of its issues through technology (helped in a big way by the motivations of the private sector who see massive market opportunities, particularly in relation to pharmaceuticals, nursing care and medical care.

So our futures could include:
"intelligent toilets" where our waste is automatically analysed and results sent to the GP for action.
Cars which monitor brain activity in older people so that anything out of the ordinary is spotted before an accident happens.
Medical care delivered in the home but remotely, a version of tele-medicine and tele-care.
Easy to swallow food.

I guess if these developments are aimed at keeping people independent in their homes they can be seen as positive, and even hopeful, improvements but only if they also involve lots of human contact too, even if this is via video link, so that we can all be socially included as we get older.

Right to request a second life

The Government will be introducing its next employment legislation in April with its latest employee “right to request” initiative. This time the right is to request training and it follows the now familiar employment process used in its right to request flexible working and right to work beyond retirement age. It is something that for older people could be wrapped up neatly with the impending review of the default retirement age (currently 65) as a right to request a “second life”. A second life as mentioned in a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article:

“Organisations need to take radical steps to help their executives understand that given current life expectancy, everybody in the company will leave at some point and begin a second life. The only question is at what age”. But there are other questions. How do we shape our second lives? What role does the employer play in the transition, if any? How well-equipped are we to deal with, and finance, a life where employment no longer dominates?

Older workers have a further 30 years of influencing and buying and how they are treated on leaving employment and how they view an organisation in the future is a much neglected aspect of managing the “employer brand”.

Employers might like to consider the business benefits of having an ongoing programme of development for older workers to help with their second lives. The approach could also help the employer to address and engage their:
• corporate social responsibilities
• future brand stakeholders and
• potential brand advocates.