The Work Audit April 2012 report published by the CIPD with the title "Age, gender and jobs recession" reveals two "stand-out" groups. Firstly there are 271,000 more women aged between 50-64 in the labour market than at the start of the recession and secondly 200,000 more women aged 65 and over, actually in work.
Some of the reasons for this, the report claims, is a combination of population ageing and fewer workers retiring early either for financial reasons or a desire to prolong their working lives.
It would be good to attribute these changes also to the removal of retirement age in employment, increasing employer awareness of the skills and experience older workers can provide plus the workers themselves not writing themselves off too soon.
Clearly the so called "Madonna generation" still has a great deal to offer and a lot more besides!
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
65 and still buying
The ONS today published figures to show that of the 395,000 men and 417,000 women aged 65 in 2012, 10% and 14% respectively are expected to survive until the age of 100.
That's another 35 years of these age groups wanting and needing all kinds of existing and new products and services. It presents a massive marketing opportunity for anyone willing to research, develop insights and understanding, segment and target. It is still such an under-serviced market and one that will become increasingly relevant as families experience multiple generations growing older together!
That's another 35 years of these age groups wanting and needing all kinds of existing and new products and services. It presents a massive marketing opportunity for anyone willing to research, develop insights and understanding, segment and target. It is still such an under-serviced market and one that will become increasingly relevant as families experience multiple generations growing older together!
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Dignity for older people
In today's news there is coverage about the need for dignity for older people within the NHS as some older pateients are reported as being patronised and treated without compassion or understanding. The report suggests that this behaviour lies deep within the organisations' culture and ageism needs to be addressed in the same way as sexism and racism were tackled. Bearing in mind the rampant ageism still within the UK and the West, even with the recent age discrimination legislation, this deep- rooted mindset is indeed very likely and is set to continue without action.
2012 is the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. One of the objectives is to promote activities to combat age discrimination, overcome age-related stereotypes and remove barriers (particularly from employment).
As the year unfolds, it will be interesting to see which activities (if any) the politicians and policy makers support to ensure that both the spirit and the letter of the law are addressed. Not least because cultural change is a long term problem and everyone is likely to suffer from ageism at some point in the future.
On-going age awareness learning and development within organisations, as part of an equality and inclusion strategy, could be a useful starting point to build sustainable cultural change. This would also add the benefits of improving the pool of workers, improving inter-generational understanding, reducing the cost of potential discrimination claims and doing something socially useful for employers .
2012 is the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. One of the objectives is to promote activities to combat age discrimination, overcome age-related stereotypes and remove barriers (particularly from employment).
As the year unfolds, it will be interesting to see which activities (if any) the politicians and policy makers support to ensure that both the spirit and the letter of the law are addressed. Not least because cultural change is a long term problem and everyone is likely to suffer from ageism at some point in the future.
On-going age awareness learning and development within organisations, as part of an equality and inclusion strategy, could be a useful starting point to build sustainable cultural change. This would also add the benefits of improving the pool of workers, improving inter-generational understanding, reducing the cost of potential discrimination claims and doing something socially useful for employers .
Friday, 13 January 2012
More Older Women Marrying Younger Men
In the Harvard Business Review, there is the following report which is quoted here:
"The proportion of male-female partnerships in which the woman is at least five years older than the man increased sharply in the UK and US in the 1980s and 1990s.
Having remained at 3% for decades, it rose 8.3% in 2000 and is likely to be much higher now.
Today's wider career choices give women the opportunity to increase their desirability through financial success, an option that once was limited to males, the researchers say."
Another age boost for women?
"The proportion of male-female partnerships in which the woman is at least five years older than the man increased sharply in the UK and US in the 1980s and 1990s.
Having remained at 3% for decades, it rose 8.3% in 2000 and is likely to be much higher now.
Today's wider career choices give women the opportunity to increase their desirability through financial success, an option that once was limited to males, the researchers say."
Another age boost for women?
2012: tackling key issues of our age?
The business guru Peter Drucker once said (something like) "technology is not the greatest challenge of age, but demography is". 2012 is the year when two of the great issues of our age,retirement and long-term funding,are scheduled to (hopefully) get the attention they deserve.
In Spring, the White paper on social care is expected, following on from the Dilnot recommendations last year. Hopefully it will not fudge the funding challenges which we face.
From October, the auto-enrolment of employees into pensions schemes and the launch of NEST (National Employment Savings Scheme) will start to make their mark and will hopefully be well supported and promoted by employees.
These two areas are massive issues and let's hope that the financial services industry also plays a major part in this process, not just to boost their own business potential but to do some social good too.
In Spring, the White paper on social care is expected, following on from the Dilnot recommendations last year. Hopefully it will not fudge the funding challenges which we face.
From October, the auto-enrolment of employees into pensions schemes and the launch of NEST (National Employment Savings Scheme) will start to make their mark and will hopefully be well supported and promoted by employees.
These two areas are massive issues and let's hope that the financial services industry also plays a major part in this process, not just to boost their own business potential but to do some social good too.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
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".
" 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".
Monday, 3 October 2011
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
