23% of people starting a business are over the age of 55 and the term "olderpreneur" has been coined to describe them. Many are being forced into this option due to redundancy however there are some positive benefits of this key life change, not least the liberation of being able to make your own decisions.Luke Johnson, Chairman of the Royal College of Arts said last year that "Sustainable self employment can offer financial and social fulfilment. Not only can working for yourself bring material rewards, it is a great way to meet people and stay in touch with people from all generations- as customers, partners, suppliers or perhaps staff".
The case for older people continuing work in some form or other is also backed up by PRIME's Chief Executive Laurie South who states that "research shows that cross-generational companies seem to do better".
Working is not just about generating income but about social connectedness with other generations. Maybe if more and more people of us have to continue working as we get older we will have the added benefit of lower levels of social isolation and better inter-generational understanding.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
End to legalised age discrimination
Today the Government announces that it will be scrapping the default retirement age of 65 from October 2011. This effectively means it ends from April 2011 due to the required 6 month notification process. This is a great step towards ensuring that employers manage the performance of all their workforce effectively and will provide the business benefits of helping them to retain relevant experience, skills and the talent needed in their organisations. It also means that the employee has a real choice in deciding what is best for them based on their individual circumstances.
In reality, most people will continue to think about retirement in terms of when their pension becomes available, if they are lucky enough to have one,so there won't be a lot of change.
The key thing is that this announcement will start to help us rethink how we plan for our older lives and help us to see that as we get older we can still have a very valid contribution to make to the younger generations,society and the economy.
In reality, most people will continue to think about retirement in terms of when their pension becomes available, if they are lucky enough to have one,so there won't be a lot of change.
The key thing is that this announcement will start to help us rethink how we plan for our older lives and help us to see that as we get older we can still have a very valid contribution to make to the younger generations,society and the economy.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Thank you for taking carers seriously
"Thank you for taking carers seriously" is how HRH Princess Anne ended her speech at the 5th International Care Conference held in Leeds in July 2010. 22 countries were represented at the conference and Princess Anne saw the conference as a real "boost" for carers. She was preceded by the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley talking about care reform with an emphasis on Prevention, Protection, Partnership and Personalisation. He stated that the new Government's vision for the future of adult care is to be announced in the Autumn.
However, the real visionaries, providing hope for the future,came from inspirational speakers representing the conference sponsor Intel with a video from Eric Dishman and in-the-flesh anthropologist Simon Roberts. While both represented this large commercial company which is investing heaviliy in research and development to gain long term benefits from this massively profitable market, what was striking was that, as individuals, they seemed genuinely (refreshingly) passionate and committed to changing the face of care.The key to this seemed to be a big emphasis on understanding, and not forgetting, that technology was there to help,support and enhance the lives of individuals recognising all their foibles, imperfections and what makes us human.
Simon talked about the "magic of ethnography" and the thousands of hours of videos that were used to discuss with engineers who looked painstakingly for patterns of behaviours and ideas so that they could test and then iteratively improve products.He talked about creating products that people "could fondle" and wanted. He talked about being able to "reimagine" solutions and the need to build tools that connect and drive a "careforce".
Princess Anne had recognised earlier that "no-one expects to be a carer" (and everyone hopes they will not need care)but the positive outcome of commercial companies like Intel getting involved in this area is that in the future if, and when, we do become carers or indeed need care, we are less likely to be stigmatised and excluded from society because we have a range of desirable, motivational and life enhancing products and services to look forward to.
However, the real visionaries, providing hope for the future,came from inspirational speakers representing the conference sponsor Intel with a video from Eric Dishman and in-the-flesh anthropologist Simon Roberts. While both represented this large commercial company which is investing heaviliy in research and development to gain long term benefits from this massively profitable market, what was striking was that, as individuals, they seemed genuinely (refreshingly) passionate and committed to changing the face of care.The key to this seemed to be a big emphasis on understanding, and not forgetting, that technology was there to help,support and enhance the lives of individuals recognising all their foibles, imperfections and what makes us human.
Simon talked about the "magic of ethnography" and the thousands of hours of videos that were used to discuss with engineers who looked painstakingly for patterns of behaviours and ideas so that they could test and then iteratively improve products.He talked about creating products that people "could fondle" and wanted. He talked about being able to "reimagine" solutions and the need to build tools that connect and drive a "careforce".
Princess Anne had recognised earlier that "no-one expects to be a carer" (and everyone hopes they will not need care)but the positive outcome of commercial companies like Intel getting involved in this area is that in the future if, and when, we do become carers or indeed need care, we are less likely to be stigmatised and excluded from society because we have a range of desirable, motivational and life enhancing products and services to look forward to.
Friday, 2 July 2010
29 Hour Days
On the news today, the good news of life expectancy increasing coupled with the more disturbing news that the life expectancy gap between the poor and the better off is widening. Smoking was trotted out as the single, biggest contributory factor to this difference.
I attended a conference on health and age a couple of years ago and they talked about the increase in life expectancy in terms of us all gaining 5 hours a day, which seems particularly significant to me. But then this was even better expressed as a 29 hour day with how you live your 24 hours today, impacting on the quality of the extra 5 hours you will gain in the future.I like this concept as it is very simple. We need to live well today to ensure we live well in the future.
I attended a conference on health and age a couple of years ago and they talked about the increase in life expectancy in terms of us all gaining 5 hours a day, which seems particularly significant to me. But then this was even better expressed as a 29 hour day with how you live your 24 hours today, impacting on the quality of the extra 5 hours you will gain in the future.I like this concept as it is very simple. We need to live well today to ensure we live well in the future.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Vision of the future workforce
Friends Provident and the Future Foundation have recently released their "Visions of Britain- The Workforce 2020" report. In it, it states there are currently 5.14m "older workers" (defined as aged 55-70). This will increase to 7.16m in 2020, a pretty significant increase.
It has concerned me for some time that when older workers retire,and their will be significant numbers doing this over the next 15 years, that companies lose both tacit knowledge and corporate memory, both areas you can't easily document in a procedural manual for future workers. I was therefore very interested to read that the "recent recession has made business leaders appreciate the merits of retaining experience, placing older workers in a more powerful position than ever before". This has been partly triggered by the fact that most/ a lot of today's key managers have never had to deal with a recession before and the ones who have the experience are either no longer in the workforce or have been marginalised.
The other key point from the report was that older workers' contribution to productivity for example cannot be easily measured and that the "value of experience needs to be calibrated on a separate scale".
I hope this report helps us to focus more on the need to retain older workers in the workforce both for the mutual benefit of the employer and the individual employee.Both parties can win.
It has concerned me for some time that when older workers retire,and their will be significant numbers doing this over the next 15 years, that companies lose both tacit knowledge and corporate memory, both areas you can't easily document in a procedural manual for future workers. I was therefore very interested to read that the "recent recession has made business leaders appreciate the merits of retaining experience, placing older workers in a more powerful position than ever before". This has been partly triggered by the fact that most/ a lot of today's key managers have never had to deal with a recession before and the ones who have the experience are either no longer in the workforce or have been marginalised.
The other key point from the report was that older workers' contribution to productivity for example cannot be easily measured and that the "value of experience needs to be calibrated on a separate scale".
I hope this report helps us to focus more on the need to retain older workers in the workforce both for the mutual benefit of the employer and the individual employee.Both parties can win.
Friday, 26 March 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
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.
“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.
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