Boomer women are the key demographic for the next decade

Bridget Brennan author of "What women want when they shop" is asked:

" Which of the trends in your trend chapter has strengthened the most since you first published the book, and which do you expect to be the most important in the next decade?"
Her reply:

"Boomers! Boomer women are the key demographic for the next decade. They are enormous in number, they have the largest amount of wealth in this country, and yet most advertisers and marketers don’t spend any time marketing to people over the age of 54.It’s a huge miss for firms that choose to ignore this segment".

Life long learning: mindset makeover

On the 1st October the default retirement age of 65 was abolished. Regardless of whether you regard this as a positive or negative move, what it means for all of us with working lives of c 50 years is that individual skills have to be kept up-to-date across the decades. This will be the only way of ensuring that we maintain our employability with relevant skills and performance capabilities.

The common attitude of "self write-off" reflected in statements such as "there's no point me learning anything new at my age" or "self-smugness" reflected in "you can't teach me anything new, I've worked here for 30 years" will have to go and quickly.

Employers have a key part to play in this workplace cultural change by putting in place support to enable all workers to update there skills.

For the full version of this article see www.maturetimes.co.uk/mindset-makeover

Countdown to Cultural Change

We're now only 4 weeks away from the massive change about to hit employers and employees. On 1st October 2011 the default retirement age of 65 will become unlawful without "objective justification", giving older workers the choice and the right to continue working into their late 60s and beyond if they are still performing effectively.

This has big implications for employers if they do not have robust performance management processes in place and have not considered the issues in relation to succession/workforce planning and potential responses from employees of all ages and the potential threat of age discrimination claims.

Employment Tribunal figures show a 31% increase in the number of age discrimination claims lodged indicating that the 2006 Age Regulations are now starting to bite.

It is very likely that as a result of the removal of the default retirement age the number of age discrimination claims will continue to rise.It is important that employers respond positively to the opportunities and challenges that the October 1st changes bring which will also provide benefits in retaining experienced and skilled workers for longer.

Granny Au Pairs

Great news reported in the press this weekend for older women looking for adventure and something new and different.

A German company, see www.granny-aupair.com,was set up in 2010 to provide opportunities for older women to be au pairs. Their member register includes women from ages 49-76 with the most active users in their 60s.

This service provides older, independent women with a taste for adventure, opportunities to travel the world to new countries and to learn new languages. Many of the women have already raised a family and have all that experience and knowledge to draw on.

Hopefully someone in the UK will think about setting up something as the website is in German!

Social wealth and working

The latest Labour Force Survey provided by the ONS has revealed that there has been a significant increase in the numbers of people in their late 40s to early 60s living on their own ( and increase of a third in a decade). A number of reasons are given for this. One is that this may just be the baby boom of earlier years working its way through the population, another to do with the increase in the break-up of relationships.

A survey a few years ago also showed that there was an increase in the concept of "living apart together" where two people with some life experience behind them opted to be in an established relationship but did not actually commit to living togteher.

The BBC Radio 4 programme raised the issue that as these people get into their older ages then they may become more socially excluded and more vulnerable. While they may be relatively well-off financially compared to other younger generations, their "social wealth" could be severely impacted. It will be interesting to see whether single people chose to continue working for longer because they need and appreciate the social contact which work can provide. Whether employers can use the "social wealth" angle to attract and retain talent of all ages only remains to be seen.?

The day of more opportunities for older workers

Today, April 6th 2011, the default retirement age of 65 is abolished and older workers can continue working for as long as they need provided their performance continues to be effective.

It is therefore more important than ever before that older workers, say anyone over the age of 50, grasp the opportunities for training, on-going learning and development to keep skills up-to-date and to learn new ones so as to take advantage of workplace opportunities. A spokes person from the CIPD has stated that older workers are the group most likely to deselect themselves for training opportunties for a variety of reasons and it is therefore important for employers to have "more targeted engagement, encouraging older workers to engage in these opportunities or providing training which is more adapted to older workers' needs".

Living longer is having a profound and increasing impact on the world as we know it. It is therefore important that as individuals, employees and employers, we take the opportunities, and help others, to be as economically and socially active for as long as possible simply because there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative!

April showers in good news for the 60+

April 2011 is a significant month for those retiring. The default retirement age of 65 is effectively abolished and for many employers this will have a significant impact on performance culture and workforce/succession planning. The changes give employees the right to choose when and whether they wish to leave work and removes the nonsense of being effective and capable at aged 64 and 364 days and then suddenly pensioned off the following day. Hopefully businesses will benefit from the continuing experience and skills that older workers can bring to the workplace if they continue to be capable and effective.

In addition, from 6th April it will no longer be necessary to purchase an annuity at 75. More flexible "income drawdown" rules will allow greater control over an individual's pension fund during lifetime and on death. This again is a much needed improvment to the current position.

And finally, the Government has announced plans to increase the state pension to £150 per week. How this is to be funded has yet to be announced but it does seem another move in the right direction, again helping people to secure a better financial future in their later years.

Bras for 50+ Women

Underwear provider Playtex has just announced that it will be spending £1m on repositioning its underwear brand to women over the age of 50. They state that their research revealed that women over this age felt they were essentially "ignored", [a common finding in this age group]. The advertisements will feature a 42 year old model with the strapline " Feeling better than ever" and the approach is designed to appeal to women who are still "young at heart" and coping with a changing body shape.

Over the weekend the Guardian also ran a feature about films and the fact that stories never involve women aged over 50. A major cinema audience survey "reveals anger" at the film industry for perpetuating stereotypes.

It is good to see that these aspects are finally getting some airing but it seems incredible that it has taken so long for businesses such as Playtex to finally realise what a massive market the 50+ population is and how under-serviced their needs still are. The menopausal women is a good example of where age could help in targeting but there are many other life events triggering new needs for men and women in the following 4 decades of life which still need addressing. A huge opportunity for businesses to do something worthwhile and earn money.

Public Sector Pension Reform

Lord Hutton has just announced his proposals for the reform of public sector pensions. The proposals clearly demonstrate the impact of increasing longevity such that the extension to our lives has been calculated as an extra 5 hours for every day we live. This effectively means living 29 hours a day ie 24 now and 5 for the future. How we live our 24 hours today ie in terms of keeping fit and healthy will impact how we live our extra 5 hours in the future. And the cost of this is now having to be addressed due to the £30bn pension liability which means we all (not just the public sector) will have to pay more, work longer and receive less in retirement. We have to pay financially some how for our extra 5 hours a day.

While the public sector are losing their pensions linked to final salaries they are still retaining "defined benefits" even though this is changing to the lower "career average". This is still much better than the changes experienced by the private sector which has moved from "defined benefits" to "defined contributions" providing much more uncertainty for individuals in terms of what the market for annuity rates will be like at retirement age. The differential between public and private pensions still seems to have been maintained with the proposed reforms and we are now at last starting to address some of the very real issues of the ageing population.

The over 65s for marketing

Just to reiterate a couple of points made in the Observer newspaper yesterday.

Will Hutton's piece about the most dynamic part of the labour market is the growth in employment of the over 65s with 104,000 of the 218,000 job growth going to the over 65s, much of this part-time.This may suggest that employers are still wanting to reap the benefits of the skills and experience of older workers and are prepared to offer flexible options to enable them to do this. As Will says, this will accelerate from April when there is no requirement to leave work at 65.

The there is Andrew Clark's comment about the annual spending in the UK of households which include someone over 65, which passed the £1bn mark in 2009.

This might suggest where the potential growth in our economy could be for businesses if you put these 2 points together,an increase in the number of peope working beyond 65 ie being economically active, and the spending power of people in their mid-60s- mid 70s (who spend a higher proportion of their budget on food and drink, housing, furniture and recreation, per Saga research). However, the 65-75 age group doesn't tend to be where most marketers focus.

Hope for the future

There have been many negative issues trailed in the media in recent weeks about getting older. The fact that we're not saving enough for our old age, that we will have to work until 66 to get the state pension from 2020, and Saga's research into the overs 50s which shows that all the the measures of quality of life have declined in January compared to the previous year. In this survey, the 50-59 year olds are reported to be having the worst time, with happiness, health and living standards all falling (and no doubt concerns about having enough to live on in their old age preying on their minds in the run-up to retirement).

The age group with the smallest decline in well-being was reported to be the 65-69 year olds who were not as worried about their health as older age groups, or about their standard of living as younger. (This might suggest that they are the people for marketers to target).

It was therefore quite refreshing to hear some positive news this morning that there is a potential medical breakthrough in the battle against Alzheimers which could have significant impact on sufferers, possibly in the next 10 years. This is a reminder that the reasons why we are living longer, and having to face complex social and economic issues, are largely due to massive improvements in public health and medical achievements over the last few decades and that these deserve a bit more emphasis and attention.

Saving for Retirement

Aegon published its latest research into the savings market recently (entitled Effective Incentives for Savings)and the report reveals a lot of the complex issues about why people generally don't save enough for their older age. Apart from the general point that most/many financial services institutions are not trusted it reveals that there is a lot of negativity about pensions because they appear complex and the term "pensioner" is old fashioned and presumably conjures up a fairly stereotypical image in line with the "deficit" model and view of ageing.

While the report is really targeting the policy makers and suggests action that could be taken by government to improve the position, it clearly reveals consumer behaviour, not least that some research participants regretted leaving things too late with a preference for lifestyle today over lifestyle tomorrow.

A spokesman from the seemingly more lightweight piece of research from the Lloyds Group about new year resolutions,also stated "for many of us, saving is a bit like going to the gym, we know we should do it but we keep on putting it off".

It seems that one of the points in the Aegon's summary to increase the "focus on encouraging employers to engage with pension provision and maintain valuable employer contributions" is therefore well placed. Another aspect is that the cost to the employer of these incentives can be measured and countered in terms of improved competitive position through increased employee retention, enhanced reputation and improved social impact by their ex-employees having more income/better lives in their older age.

One of the Positives of Ageing

This is taken from page 86 of Haruki Murakami's book entitled "what I talk about when I talk about running."

" My muscles can be as stubborn as -or more stubborn than-I am. They remember things and endure, and to some extent they improve. But they never compromise.They don't give up. This is my body, with all its limits and quirks. Just as with my face, even if I don't like it it's the only one I get, so I've got to make do. As I've grown older, I've naturally come to terms with this. You open the fridge and can make a nice- actually even a pretty smart- meal with the leftovers. All that's left is an apple, an onion,cheese and eggs, but you don't complain. You make do with what you have. As you age you learn even to be happy with what you have. That's one of the few good points of growing old".

2011: ageing population finally on the agenda

Today the Governments confirms that it is abolishing the default retirement age of 65 effectively from April this year. This means that older workers have more control over their later years although many will still want to retire when their pension, if they are lucky enough to have one, becomes available. The Government seems to have ignored the pressure from employers and the CBI to delay their plans, largely due to the high costs involved of leaving things as they are. A key issue for all of us is that we can no longer afford to be economically inactive in our 60s when we have another 20-30 years more life in us.

In addition,this year the Government will be making progress on its plans to raise the state pensions age to 66 and the review of public sector pensions will also be published, as will a report on long term care.

2011 is hopefully going to be the year where real progress is made in tackling the very real challenges presented by an older population and hopefully will also present key opportunities for us all as we age.

Learning from leaf cutter ants!

An unlikely feature on this morning's Today programme on Radio 4 about Leaf Cutter ants and their performance in the work place seems very relevant to 2011 when the default retirement age is going to be abolished and employees can work longer. The research from Schofield et al "measures the efficiency of leaf cutter ants' mandibles". These are the ants whose duty it is to cut and carry something like 50 times their size in leaves (Tom and Jerry style).

As the ants wear with age the individuals with the most worn jaws are less than half as effective at cutting. Instead of making the ants redundant or them just dying, their role changes and they spend more time transporting leaf fragments sliced from their sharper sisters IE they still have a valuable contribution to make but that contribution has changed. Maybe there is something for us humans to learn from these tiny and industrious creatures for the new year.