THINKING AHEAD - Ageing Better...THINKING AHEAD: EXPLORING SUPPORT PROVIDED BY EMPLOYERS TO HELP...

THINKINGAHEADEXPLORING SUPPORT PROVIDED BY EMPLOYERS

TO HELP STAFF PLAN FOR THEIR FUTURE

Rosie Gloster, Megan Edwards, Kate Spiegelhalter,Becci Newton, Wendy Hirsh

REPORT

Thinking Ahead: Exploring support provided byemployers to help staff plan for their futurePublished in 2018 byCalouste Gulbenkian FoundationUK Branchwww.gulbenkian.pt/uk-branchand Centre for Ageing Betterwww.ageing-better.org.uk

© 2018 Institute for Employment Studies www.employment-studies.co.uk

https://www.Ageing-Better.org.uk

https://www.gulbenkian.pt/uk-branch

CONTENTS

SUMMARY 3

1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 51.1 BACKGROUND 5

1.2 RESEARCH AIMS 6

1.3 METHODS OVERVIEW 7

2 FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERVENTION CHOICE 82.1 CONTEXTUAL FACTORS 8

3 CONTENT AND DELIVERY OF INTERVENTIONS 113.1 INCLUSIVE INTERVENTIONS 12

3.2 INTERVENTION FOCUS 12

3.3 THE MODE OF DELIVERY 13

3.4 ENABLERS AND BARRIERS TO INTERVENTIONS 16

3.5 IDEAS AND INSPIRATION 17

3.6 EVALUATION OF INTERVENTIONS 17

4 CONCLUSION 184.1 WHAT ARE EMPLOYERS DOING TO SUPPORT THEIR EMPLOYEES IN

THEIR MID-LIFE TO RETIREMENT? 18

4.2 WHY ARE EMPLOYERS DELIVERING SUPPORT? 19

4.3 HOW COULD FURTHER EMPLOYER INVOLVEMENT BE ENCOURAGED? 20

BIBLIOGRAPHY 23

ANNEX 24DETAILED SAMPLING APPROACH AND ACHIEVED INTERVIEWS 24

The authors are indebted to the research participantswho kindly gave their time to inform us about their viewsand practices to support their employees’ mid-lifethrough to retirement, and provide us with rich insights.We are also grateful to Luke Price, Ali Hawker and PatrickThomson at the Centre for Ageing Better and EstherGoodwin-Brown at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation(UK Branch) for their thoughtful review of the researchtools, and insight during analysis and reporting. Ourthanks are also extended to Tim Willis and LoucaHepburn from the Department for Work and Pensionsfor their contributions at the analysis workshop. Finally,we would also like to thank the research team at IES,including our expert advisors to the project Wendy Hirsh,Stephen Bevan and Stephen McNair, and the widerproject team, Kate Arnill Graham, Liz Hey, Robert Gay,Dan Lucy, and Zofia Bajorek.

2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THINKING AHEAD: EXPLORING SUPPORT PROVIDED BY EMPLOYERS TO HELP STAFF PLAN FOR THEIR FUTURE

3

This project explores what large employers aredoing to support employees in their mid-lifethrough to retirement, to examine the deliveryof interventions, and explore the businesscontext that led to interventions.

The research used a qualitative methodologyand consisted of depth interviews with 25 largeemployers, five stakeholders and five trainingproviders.

The findings are not intended to berepresentative or generalisable to allemployers, or to be indicative of the scale ofemployer activity on this agenda. However,they do provide some useful insights intocurrent practices.

HOW ARE EMPLOYERS SUPPORTINGEMPLOYEES IN THEIR MID-LIFE TORETIREMENT?The support employers offered to employees from mid-life through to retirement varied between organisations,depending on organisational priorities. There werethree content areas that employers were active in:finances; health and wellbeing; and careers and workinglife. It was more common for employers to be deliveringsupport for employees in relation to their finances andhealth and wellbeing, than careers and working lives.There were a few examples of holistic support,encompassing all the themes addressed, but largelyinterventions tended to be narrowly-focused. Thedelivery modes were:

l Changes to employment policy and practice whichwere the context for interventions. Employersdiscussed their importance in relation to flexibleworking, and the role of the line management systemin supporting effective and consistent practice.

l Information, awareness raising and education: At abasic level, employers sought to raise awareness andprovide information to employees. This extended toskills development to support employees navigatetransitions in some workplaces.

l Strengthening capability to support others, forexample training employees to be career coaches ormental health first-aiders.

l Networks and peer support. Some employers unitedcolleagues with a common interest or concern todiscuss their experiences, provide support to eachother, and feedback any organisational issues.Networks could be face-to-face or virtual.

l Service provision. Employers contracted with a rangeof service providers. These included providers ofhealth and wellbeing services, and training providers.

SUMMARY


4

WHY ARE EMPLOYERSDELIVERING SUPPORT?Employers sought outcomes through the interventionsincluding increased uptake of learning/developmentopportunities; better employee engagement; higherstaff retention; reduced staff absence rates and ill-health; and increased productivity. They are deliveringsupport due to:

l Changes to pensions: Employers considered that theage profile of their workforce could change and thatemployees needed support to navigate changedcircumstances. They considered whether employeeswould retire at different ages than previously, thechanging affordability of retirement, and if workinglives were extended, the increased need to managehealth and engagement at work effectively.

l Supporting the health and wellbeing of theworkforce: Health and wellbeing was a priority for themajority of employers and viewed as critical tocommercial success.

l Being an employer of choice: Employers describedmany of the interventions as an employee benefit. Thebusiness case for being an employer of choice relatedto the recruitment and retention of employees,productivity and supporting existing employees towork effectively, and treating employees with fairnessand respect.

l The retention of (valued) skills: Employers wereparticularly motivated to retain expert staff, whoseskills and experience they had invested in, and toconsider ways to transfer knowledge over atransitional period as employees approachedretirement.

l The changing profile of the workforce: Employersvariously discussed the changing skills and ageprofiles of their workforces, and other aspects such aschanges to employees’ caring responsibilities, andtheir health and fitness.

HOW COULD FURTHER EMPLOYERINVOLVEMENT BE ENCOURAGED?The effects of the existing drivers for change inworkforce composition are likely to continue, andoverall employers indicated they would like to do more.In trying to encourage them to build on and developexisting practices, considerations could include:

l Increase understanding about longer working lives:As people extend their working lives it would beworthwhile to build the evidence base in order tounderstand from an employer and employeeperspective the influences on working lives, health atwork, productivity, engagement and motivation, andability to (re)train.

l Promote inclusive approaches: Employers felt thatinterventions should be available to support allemployees who found it relevant to theircircumstances. It was not helpful to limit access ortarget them based on age alone. Life stage, rather thanage, might therefore be an effective way to engageemployers about interventions.

l Helping staff to have more holistic conversations inthe workplace: Regular career conversations couldoffer a way of open discussions around transitionsand flexible working for employees at all life stages,and give space for the consideration of health, andfinances, alongside careers and skills development.

l Working with business focus on skills and health:Employers focused on the skills and health profile oftheir workforce rather than age. While there areundoubtedly substantial demographic changes, afocus on the messaging of interventions to improvehealth and skills may chime more readily withemployers’ strategy.

l Gap in the market? Support for employees could bebetter joined up and more rounded. One option wouldbe a mid-life review, with a holistic initialassessment, leading to various provision, andsignposts/referrals to specialists.


5

1.1BACKGROUNDThe UK’s working population is ageing. Theproportion of the population aged between 50 and statepension age is predicted to increase from 26 per cent in2012 to 35 per cent by 2050, representing approximatelyeight million people (Government Office for Science,2016). An estimated 650,000 people in the UK turn 65each year (CBF, 2018), and many leave the workforcebefore this age: the employment rate currently fallsfrom 86 per cent for 50 year olds, to 65 per cent for 60year olds and 31 per cent for 65 year olds (GovernmentOffice for Science, 2016). However, the number ofemployees aged 65 and over has been increasing. Therewere 1.19 million people aged 65 and over in work in theperiod May to July 2016, compared to 609,000 in thesame period a decade earlier (ONS, 2016). According toPwC’s annual Golden Age Index (PwC, 2017), the UKranks 19th out of 34 countries in its employment rate ofolder workers. Older workers can add value tobusinesses: they build up an extensive bank ofexperience, networks, and knowledge, particularly ifthey have stayed within the same organisation for anextended period (Franklin et al, 2014). With an ageingpopulation, employers need to draw on the skills andexperience of older workers to avoid loss of labour,knowledge and skills. In addition, working longer canimprove the health and wellbeing of individuals andbring employer benefits in terms of specialistknowledge and experience (DWP, 2017).

The pensions landscape significantly changed inrecent years. Most notable among these changes are theremoval of the default retirement age and theequalisation and raising of the State Pension age; it willrise to age 66 for both men and women by 2020, over atwo year period beginning November 2018. Furtherincreases will raise the State Pension age from 66 to 67between 2026 and 2028. In parallel, the number of yearsof National Insurance contributions to receive the fullstate pension has increased from 30 to 35 years.Furthermore, automatic enrolment into a workplacepensions has been introduced, as have greater Pension

Freedoms, giving people more control over what theycan do with their pensions. There have also beensignificant changes to employers’ occupational pensionschemes in response to deficits in private pensionfunds, and many employers offering defined benefitschemes are moving to defined contribution schemes.

The introduction of the right to request flexibleworking to all workers with at least six months ofcontinuous service is another legislative change ofrelevance to this project. These legislative pensions andemployment changes have created a ‘period ofuncertainty’ between when work ends and retirementbegins (Phillipson et al., 2018). The choices made byindividuals in this period are framed within publicpolicy and organisational contexts, as well as personalpreferences and circumstances, including affordability.The changes have and will create different incentives toretire for different cohorts of employees and havecreated uncertainty for individuals about their optionsand how they need to plan for them.

It is therefore useful to understand the current supportprovision for employees in order to most effectivelyengage more employers on this agenda. There havebeen a number of notable policy and projectdevelopments to encourage employers’ support foremployees in their mid-life to retirement in theworkplace:

l Fuller Working Lives: aims to encourage people tostay economically active for longer. The strategy setout a number of recommendations, developed inpartnership with employers, to ‘retain, retrain andrecruit older workers’ and the work is being takenforward by a group of employers, led by theGovernment Business Champion for Older Workers(DWP, 2017). In relation to retention, recommen -dations included that employers should: encourageflexible working for carers, together with practicalsupport; engage older workers through listeningforums and diversity network groups; analyseemployee skills and provide re-skilling advice;

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 5

1INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1. Reverse mentoring refers to an initiative in which older workers are paired with and mentored by younger employees on topics such astechnology, social media and current trends.


6 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

actively transfer knowledge between generations andencourage mentoring (including reverse mentoring1);and provide retirement transition preparation foremployees. The recommendations about retention,included that employees’ aspirations to retrain areincluded in workplace career reviews, and that olderworkers are included in training and developmentopportunities (DWP, 2017).

l Mid-life career review (MCR): MCRs were piloted asa publicly-funded service, managed by NIACE withthe National Careers Service and Unionlearn. Theyare a tool to explore whether employees’ skillscontinue to match their job demands, or whether achange in tasks or career is required. MCRs aim toenable employers to: facilitate further utilisation ofskills and experience; identify training opportunities;map out career progression; and identify the agileworking environment that will support all employees(BITC, 2016). The Cridland review (2017) of the StatePension Age extended this and conceptualised it as a‘Mid-life MOT’ to provide workers with holisticadvice, covering careers, health and finance, tosupport their transition to retirement. Most recently,access to a MCRs has been recommended to be a partof an employer-led mentoring service for businesses(Women and Equalities Committee, 2018).

l Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s (CGF) Transitionsin Later Life (TiLL) five-year programme: TiLL aimsto counter the lack of support available for people inmid-life to plan holistically, and to ‘future-proof’against chronic health and social issues in later life,based on the view that people will have betterwellbeing in later life, if they are supported by theiremployers to plan and prepare for their emotionalneeds in retirement, as well as their finances.

The issues affecting the ageing population cannot beaddressed in silos. For example, the productivity of theageing population will be influenced by the skills andhealth (both mental and physical) of older workers, aswell as caring responsibilities (Government Office forScience Foresight, 2016). In developing support for anageing workforce there is a need for a co-ordinatedresponse rather than addressing issues in isolation.

1.2RESEARCH AIMS This project aimed to scope and explore what (ifanything) large employers are doing to supportemployees in their mid-life through to retirement. Itsobjectives were to:

l identify what employers are doing to supportemployees and why, and examine the delivery andefficacy of interventions;

l explore the business context that led to interventionsbeing developed.

l The areas of interest related to two primary themes:

– interventions for planning and preparing for laterlife, including financial and careers and workinglife;

– health and wellbeing.

They included practical financial and career-basedsupport, as well as examples of holistic support,taking a whole-person approach including psycho-social support and transitions, both in and out ofwork. The study did not focus on flexible working,work-redesign, or the role of line managers, althoughclearly these are influential in the effective support ofemployees in their mid-life through to retirementphase.


INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 7

1.3METHODS OVERVIEWThe research used a qualitative approach and sought toprovide depth of understanding about whether and howemployers are active in supporting employees in themid-life to retirement phase, and to understand theirpractices and motivations. The findings were notintended to be representative or generalisable to allemployers, or to be indicative of the scale of employeractivity on this agenda.

Depth interviews were undertaken with:

l human resource (HR) directors (or equivalent) from25 employers, supplemented with interviews with HRmanagers in three employers;

l representatives from five training providers offeringservices to support employees planning andpreparing for later life and/or with their health andwellbeing;

l five interviews with wider stakeholders, includingresearchers specialising in this area.

Employers were recruited using purposive samplingbased on: a database of IES member organisations, thenetworks of the project experts, and supported by callsfor participation via social media, and approaches toemployers with publicised practice.

The achieved sample covered a diversity oforganisations, including a mix of public, private andvoluntary sector, and a broad range of industries,including manufacturing; financial and businessservices; retail and catering; health and education.Further detail about the achieved sample is given in theAnnex, Table 1.

Content-driven analysis of the qualitative data wasundertaken, exploring themes and points of similarityor difference between cases. This was supported by ananalysis meeting with the research team, projectexperts, and representatives from the Centre for AgeingBetter, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and theDepartment for Work and Pensions, to explore thefindings and consider the implications for policy andpractice.


8 FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERVENTION CHOICE

This chapter describes the contextual factorsinfluencing employers’ choice of interventions.Employers in the sample were at different stages ontheir journeys to implementing interventions tosupport their employees in their mid-life to retirementphase. Some had implemented interventions; somewanted to extend and develop the interventions theyoffered; and others were still exploring the issues.There were three content areas that employers wereactive in: finances; health and wellbeing; and careersand working life. In the sample, it was more commonfor employers to be delivering support for employees inrelation to their finances and health and wellbeing, thancareers and working lives. There were a few examples ofholistic support, encompassing all the themes. The waysin which interventions were delivered cut-acrossthemes, with some similar delivery mechanisms usedacross several. The context and delivery of interventionsis discussed in detail in Chapter 3, but can be groupedinto changes to employment policy and practice;information, awareness raising and education;

strengthening capability to support colleagues;networks and peer support; service provision. Theoutcomes desired through interventions were:

l increased uptake of learning and developmentopportunities;

l better employee engagement and satisfaction;

l higher staff retention and lower staff turnover;

l reduced staff absence rates and ill-health;

l increased productivity.

2.1CONTEXTUAL FACTORSEmployers described a variety of factors forming theirbusiness context and influencing their design anddelivery of interventions, illustrated in Figure 1. Theimportance of each factor varied between employers,and each is discussed in turn.

2FACTORS INFLUENCINGINTERVENTION CHOICE

Pensions

Local labour marketand skills

The organisation● Employer brand

● Retaining skills

● Diversity

● Culture and values

● Nature of the work, job roles

● Career paths

The workforce● Skills and occupational profile

● Age profile

● Engagement and preferences

● Health and fitness

Technology

Legislation and regulation

Intervention

Economic contextand austerity

FIG 1: The business context for interventions to supportemployees, mid-life to retirement

Source: IES, 2018


FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERVENTION CHOICE 9

Employers reported that the changes to pensionprovision had affected the affordability of retirementfor some employees and would extend the working livesof employees in coming years. The extent of this effectand organisational impact would be realised over thenext ten years or so. Employers were mindful that theage profile of their workforce could change significantly,and some were starting to consider the implications forthe organisation and workforce and any interventionsthat might be required to support them with thesechanges. Most employers had been active in providingtheir employees with support to develop their financialunderstanding for many years, and interventions wererelatively well-established. Yet, many employers saidemployees lacked financial awareness about pensions,and since the abolition of mandatory retirement agethere was confusion, as one public sector employerexplained: employees ‘are floundering a bit when theyhave to now invent their own retirement age: how to makethat decision and how to communicate that reason [to theemployer]’. There is therefore an increasing businesscase for supporting employees to understand theiroptions, and to provide information to support youngeremployees to save adequately for retirement.

Changing technology was described by severalemployers as another influence on their organisationand workforce; they highlighted the likely future impacton the working practices of their organisations. Whilechanges in technology can be seen as external toorganisations, the method whereby and rate at whichthey are adopted, as well as the implications for jobroles, are internal decisions. Some employers discussedthe potential influence that artificial intelligence androbotics could have on the nature of work in theirorganisation, reducing the need for physical strengthand manual working; and if these technologies reducedthe need for human work, this could reduce the numberof jobs. These potential changes were reported to belikely to affect certain roles and/or groups of employeesmore than others.

Another issue framing the business context forinterventions was complying with legislation andregulation. Employers focused particularly on ensuringthe health and safety of employees, acknowledging thatthe types of work employees do can affect their health.Hence, they set out a responsibility to minimise anynegative health impacts of work, and to look for ‘earlysigns’ in order to intervene ahead of any significantissues.

A further issue discussed by some of the employers wasthe economic context and drive for efficiency in publicsector organisations as a result of spending constraintsand austerity. This drive for efficiency was onlymentioned by public sector employers and threadedthrough their strategy and operations as they looked toreduce costs.

Several employers discussed the importance of beingseen by both their employees and the wider populationas a ‘good employer’. They reported that their employerbrand and organisational sense of corporate socialresponsibility was an important motivator for theirpolicies and interventions. Many employers activelyworked to improve and promote their employer brandby providing interventions to support the health andwellbeing of employees and in planning and preparingfor later life. Interviewees discussed the business casefor being a good employer, which reflected both wherethey saw themselves now, as well as where they wantedto be. The business case included:

l Recruitment: to attract new employees. For example,one public sector employer discussed the importanceof their employer brand and offer as part ofrecruitment because they felt that the salary theycould offer was not always comparable to equivalentroles in the private sector.

l Productivity: supporting existing employees to workeffectively (eg be fit and healthy). As one described:‘The business arguments are around the ethos we want tocreate for the business. We want to see really goodproductivity and to be known as a good employer and toget that needs a commitment to our people.’ – Privatesector, Utilities

l Treating all employees with fairness and respect:employers were mindful that their ‘good employer’offer should be systematic and available to allemployees who needed support because they believedthat employee engagement was positively influencedwhen employees saw colleagues in different situationsbeing treated well. More generally, there was a need torespond and adapt to employees’ changingcircumstances.

l Retention: retaining staff, skills and knowledge inthe workforce; demonstrating an understanding ofand responding to employees’ circumstances andresponsibilities outside of work; and supporting themthrough transitions.


10

Retention of staff and skills in the workplace was alsoviewed separately, outside employer brand, as critical toensuring that the organisation had access to thenecessary skills and expertise in the workforce. Someemployers discussed the considerable length of time ittook for an employee to become fully productive in theirrole. For example, one private sector manufacturingemployer said that it took employees between three andfour years to become fully productive and able to use thespecialist equipment. This required significantinvestment in training, and therefore retaining theseworkers was vital to getting a financial return on theirinvestment. There was a sense that older employeeswere more likely to need skills development in thecontext of changing technology than youngeremployees. Yet, generally employers believed there wererisks to confining discussion of these skills to workersin the mid-life to retirement age demographic. Oneprovider explained that the employers they support‘aren’t thinking in terms of age, they are looking at skills’.They felt that the organisations they work withrecognise the benefits of equipping employees of anyage with the skills required for successful transitions.

Some employers had a workforce strategy which soughtto actively promote diversity in the workplace. Therewas recognition that having a diverse workforce, interms of age and many other dimensions, had businessbenefits such as a broad range of skills, capabilities,knowledge and experience, and could help theorganisation to better reflect its customer base.Employers sought to ensure workforce diversity bysupporting and facilitating employees at all life stages towork, such as those with caring responsibilities.

The promotion of workplace diversity was just oneelement of workplace culture and values. Alongsidethis, employers discussed other elements that couldinfluence their interventions. These were organisation-specific, and included attempts to counter perceivedageism by ensuring that all workers had access totraining and development. Some employers expressed awillingness to tackle the perceived stigma of mentalhealth conditions in the workplace and recognised thatsome employees may feel reluctant to discuss theirmental health and seek support. These employersperceived that the benefits of a healthy workforce (eglow absence) could be achieved by encouragingworkplace conversations about mental health. Lastly, aprivate sector employer in utilities described a culturaldifficultly resulting from the removal of the defaultretirement age, with the workplace culture morerestricted and less open to conversations withemployees about retirement plans and planning, due inpart to fear of age discrimination.

The nature of the work, job roles and career pathswithin the organisations were a central part of thebusiness context and shaped the design of employeeinterventions. For example, a private sector employer inthe utilities industry had a large proportion of itsworkforce working remotely, and believed they neededto increase connectivity among employees to combatisolation. This employer had promoted a network-based intervention. Other employers discussed therequirement to travel for business, and shift working,which had implications for workforce health andwellbeing. While some employers, such as a privatesector health organisation, described clear career pathsfor different roles ‘so that employees can see what is on thehorizon for them’, others said that the nature andstructure of the job roles in their organisation meantthat career paths were not always available, limiting thecareers support they could offer to employees.

The profile of the workforce was also discussed as animportant contextual factor. Employers variouslydiscussed employees’ skills profile, their age profileand likelihood of having caring responsibilities, theperceived engagement with the organisation and theirjob performance. Some employers recognised thatparticular job roles were undertaken predominantly byemployees within a certain age demographic, and weremindful of how changes, such as those related topensions, might affect the age profile of the workforcein future if they could not afford to retire at ages theyhad previously. Several employers, particularly thosewho had employees undertaking manual work,discussed the effects of the changing health and fitnessof the workforce on their organisation. In general, theyobserved that their workforce was getting heavier andless fit and this could impact on their ability to performtheir work effectively. A private sector employer fromthe Transport and Communications sector reflected thatthere remained many unknowns about how the health ofolder employees might affect productivity and theorganisations’ ability to adopt new technology; as theworkforce ages, this employer said they would face newchallenges as it was not known what workers in their60s were capable of: ‘We need more psychological andphysiological evidence of what people of different ages in ourindustry can and cannot do.’

10 FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERVENTION CHOICE


CONTENT AND DELIVERY OF INTERVENTIONS 11

This chapter focuses on the content and delivery ofinterventions that employers offered to their employeesto help them to plan and prepare for later life and tosupport their health and wellbeing, first, in terms oftheir focus and second in relation to their delivery mode.Along the bottom axis Figure 2 shows the main contentthemes that employers delivered interventions on:finances; health and wellbeing; and careers and workinglife. The ways in which interventions were delivered cut-across these themes, with some similar deliverymechanisms used across several themes, although not

always. These are: changes to employment policy andpractice; information, awareness raising and education;strengthening capability to support; networks and peersupport; and service provision. This chapter exploreswhat employers were delivering on each of these themesand the ways in which they did so, providing examples.The circles indicate the presence and scale of theinterventions. In the sample, it was more common foremployers to be delivering support for employees inrelation to their finances and health and wellbeing thanto support their careers and working lives.

3CONTENT AND DELIVERYOF INTERVENTIONS

Service provision

Networks andpeer support

Strengthening capabilityto support

Information, awarenessand education

Changes to employmentpolicy and practice

Finances Health andwellbeing

Intervention focus

Mode

of

del

iver

y

Careers andworking life

FIG. 2: The focus and delivery mode of interventions

Source: IES, 2018


12 CONTENT AND DELIVERY OF INTERVENTIONS

3.1INCLUSIVE INTERVENTIONSTo engage senior managers and gain buy-in forinterventions, HR Directors said it was important tofocus on the business case, links to business andemployment strategy, and the problems that theorganisation and its senior management team weretrying to solve. Many employers valued inclusivity anddiversity and did not want to be seen to ‘segment’support or make assumptions about the supportdifferent age groups require. In these cases, ‘age-neutral’ interventions were prioritised and madeavailable to all employees as a ‘pick and mix systembased on individual needs’, driven by the overallstrategy or business issue they were trying to address.Age issues would not be addressed separately from thedrivers expressed in the strategy, as this public sectoremployer discussed: “It is more the case that we thinkabout the employee life cycle and think about what types ofsupport might be useful. We don’t really have interventionsthat are specific to older workers, more interventions thatmay be useful to them and are likely used by them given theproportion of older workers in the workforce”.

However, employers acknowledged that some issues aremore likely to affect workers from mid-life onwards andthat interventions targeted at everyone may be taken upby some groups of the workforce more than others.Indeed some interventions aimed primarily at olderworkers, such as pre-retirement planning, may also endup benefiting the wider workforce if participation isextended. There were a few examples of employerstrying to extend training and developmentopportunities to all qualified and relevant employees,removing age restrictions to programmes such asapprenticeships and graduate schemes.

3.2INTERVENTION FOCUSThe ways in which employers in the sample discussedtheir support for employees to plan and prepare forlater life can be broadly grouped into interventionsfocusing on supporting finances; health and wellbeing;and careers and working life. The area of focus in eachof these varied between employers, depending in parton the links to their business context, strategy, and theaffordability of any procurement and external servicedelivery. In addition, as discussed in Chapter 2, someemployers said aspects of their business context, suchas lack of in-company career paths or ability to offerflexible working limited the extent to which they couldoffer support career-based interventions foremployees.

l Financial education: Many employers in the sample,across a range of industries, discussed supportingtheir employees with their awareness andunderstanding of financial issues. At the most basiclevel, this consisted of explaining the companypension, and some employers noted that theirpension providers offered information sessions aboutpensions for employees in their schemes. As well aspension providers, Employee Assistance Programmeproviders could be a source of support for employeesplanning and preparing for later life. The exact natureof the information they provided and the services theyoffered varied between employers, but there wereexamples of retirement planning, dealing withfinances after death, emergency care plans, how tomake a living will, and many others areas focused ontimes when employees might be dealing with changesin their financial circumstances.

l Health and wellbeing: this was important for all theemployers in the sample, and most employers wereactive on this theme to some degree. Alongsideproviding information, for example about healthylifestyles, some supported networks for employeesliving with specific health conditions or caring for afamily member. Recently, in recognition of workplacestress, and from a desire to combat the stigma ofmental health conditions in the workplace, a fewemployers had trained and configured staff as mentalhealth first-aiders. Some aspects of employerinterventions offered on this theme were delivered byexternal providers, such as via an EmployeeAssistance Programme (eg a 24 hour helpline) or theoffer of a Healthy Heart Check and subsequent healthand nutrition advice.



l Careers and working lives: There was less evidenceamong the employers of interventions to supportcareers and working lives. Some believed that theysupported career transitions via their standardpolicies and procedures (eg relating to flexibleworking and via line management systems). Therewere some examples of networks aimed at bringingtogether employees at specific points in their career(eg early career or retirement). There was an exampleof an employer who had created an online resourcethat mapped the career pathways across theorganisation and identified ‘job families’, providinginformation to support employees to identify theirtransferable skills and change job roles within theorganisation should they want or need. Lastly, someemployers had trained employees as career coaches tooffer support to colleagues.

Among employers in our sample, interventions tendedto be narrow in their focus; yet there were a fewexamples of holistic interventions, such as in a publicsector local government organisation, where employeescould take part in workshops covering all three themes(finances, health and wellbeing, and careers andworking lives) and discuss and consider therelationships between these and their personalsituation as a whole. A provider described a workshop-based intervention commissioned by an employer toretain the skills of senior staff in the organisation. Itfocused on career in later life, and its content andcoverage was tailored to each group of participants. Itwas targeted at employees who wanted to continue theircareer with the same employer, as well as those whowere starting to think about leaving the workforce.Ahead of workshop sessions, participants had a face-to-face, one-to-one consultation that was holistic andconfidential; this asked people to start thinking aboutwhere they were now, where they wanted to be in fiveyears, and about the transitions that they might want tomake in that time. The discussion covered finances andfinancial planning, and considerations of futurefinancial needs as well as the health and wellbeing of theindividuals. As a result of the consultations, workshopswere tailored to the needs of participants and coveredtailored inputs on finances, health and wellbeing, andcareers and working lives.

3.3THE MODE OF DELIVERY There were a number of different ways in whichinterventions were delivered, and some organisationsused the same delivery method for most content,discussed in turn below.

3.3.1 Changes to employment policyand practice

Employers discussed their interventions in the contextof their wider employment policies and practices, andparticularly the role that the line management systemhad in supporting effective and consistent practice.They suggested that their standard policies andpractices around flexible working supported the lifetransitions of their employees. A few organisationsfocused recent efforts on trying to increase and embedflexible working within their organisations, and workedwith organisations, such as Timewise, to do this.

Interventions were intended to build upon andcomplement existing processes and ways of working.Organisations’ policies and practices were dynamic, andcould also be influenced and updated followinginterventions. For example, an employer started anetwork to provide a forum for support and discussionabout menopause in the workplace. An outcome fromthe network was the development of a guide for linemanagers about managing employees going through themenopause.

3.3.2 Information, awareness raisingand education

A second group of interventions sought to provideinformation, increase awareness and develop skills.This ranged on a spectrum of raising awareness ofissues and providing information, to providingeducation and developing employees’ skills to be able tonavigate various life stages and transitions effectively.

Many employers said that their pension provideroffered services to employees in the scheme (ie runninginformation sessions). One described that theirpension provider had an online portal explaining toemployees how much they needed to save for the future.Examples of interventions to give employeesinformation and to raise awareness included campaignsrelated to health-related issues or conditions, such asthe menopause or mental health, as well as providingmore detailed online resources and materials, forexample about managing pressure and dealing withdistress in the workplace.



Other interventions focused on developing the skills ofemployees, either to provide them with the tools toprepare for later life and/or manage their health andwellbeing effectively. These interventions tended toinvolve structured time away from the job and could bedelivered by either existing staff or external providers.Examples included:

l A Future Directions workshop for senior staff withinfive years of retiring, where employees discussed thepsychological implications of stopping work andconsidered how they might best use their time andskills.

l A workshop session for employees to consider theirskills and experience. This employer offered thesession more widely, and included all employees whowere making a transition or leaving the organisation,either as they were soon to be retiring or(considering) leaving the organisation for anotherjob, or if they were being made redundant. Thesession, led by an external company, providedsupport for employees to consider their skills,whether they needed to reskill and future careeroptions.

l A digital literacy intervention, aimed at upskillingemployees in their use of technology, both within andoutside of the company IT systems. One of thepurposes was to try to increase employees’ digitalcompetence because the organisation had noticed thattraining take-up (much of which was providedonline), was lower among older employees, andwanted to try to remedy lack of digital skills as abarrier to training participation. The intervention wasprovided as a series of workshops.

l Pension planning workshops. One employer hadsessions entitled: Why do you need a pension? Howdo you plan a pension? What are the pension options?When can you retire?

l One provider in the sample described a recentlydeveloped intervention largely delivered in publicsector organisations to date. It was called ‘Changinggears’ and aimed at people in their mid-life to supportthem to build resilience, take stock and considerchanges. The programme of six sessions wasdeveloped with a co-design group, consisting ofpeople (not employers) who were either retired orthinking about retirement. This group encouraged afinancial element to be included. The provider plansto market the intervention to employers in future.

In other organisations, financial education and supportfor employees extended beyond retirement andpensions to earlier in life and to wider financialplanning, as the following example of a private sectoremployer in the transport and communications sectorillustrates. The employer ran a suite of financial

education programmes, pitched at different financialstages in life, and offering varied depth based on thecomplexity and nature of the choices employees aremaking at each stage. While the programmes broadlymapped to age, participation was not restricted on thebasis of age.

l ‘Planning for your financial future’ – taken up mainlyby employees in their mid-career, and with anemphasis on savings and pension. The session lastedaround three hours.

l ‘Planning for retirement’ – taken up primarily byemployees aged 50 or over, and focusing in depth onpension options, state pensions, and retirementreadiness. This session lasted around four hours.

l ‘Coming up to retirement’ – this programme wasfocused on life-career planning rather than purelyfinance and could involve partners too.

Mid-life development reviews were discussed by oneprovider, and were being delivered in a number ofemployers through union learning representatives(ULRs). The mid-life development reviews, built on theMCR activity, and covered life as well as work skills.These were aimed at employees applying for apromotion or for new roles, who were being maderedundant, or for whom the physical demands of theirjob had become too much and wanted to considerwhether to retrain. The ULRs used a skills card sortingpack, developed as part of the MCR pilots, withindividuals as part of these reviews.

Providers emphasised the importance of adaptingprovision to the context of the employer and employeesso that their needs drive the intervention design. As oneprovider said: ‘There is a huge amount of flexibility, whichis vital to deliver a programme which is effective and usefulfor the employer, adapting to the context is vital for delivery’.

3.3.3 Strengthening capability tosupport others

Some employers had provided training to a group ofstaff to enable them to support other employees. Asnoted earlier, a few reported that they had trainedworkplace mental health first-aiders, who could helpand support colleagues presenting with issues such asstress, anxiety or depression. For example, a privatesector utilities organisation had decided to provide aninternal mental health first-aider service in response toobserved high levels of sickness absence and stress.Trained staff wore a different coloured lanyard in orderto be identified and could support employees duringwork time.



A public sector organisation had trained a network ofinternal volunteer career coaches. The internalnetwork had been established some years ago, but morerecently had waned as the staff originally trained hadleft the organisation. The employer believed they coulddo more, more consistently, to support employees inmanaging their career. As a result, the organisationchanged some of their performance managementpolicies and practices to steer line managers to haveregular career conversations with their direct reports.To facilitate this, the organisation provided managerswith career conversation workshops, and theycontinued to buy membership of a coaching poolservice, which provides access to a coach outside theorganisation should an individual need it (see Section3.3.4).

3.3.4 Networks and peer support

Networks were a frequently used intervention approachby employers to support employees with planning andpreparing for later life, and/or to support their healthand wellbeing. There were examples of face-to-facenetworks, and also virtual networks, facilitated bydigital platforms. One example was a bespoke platformto promote health and wellbeing, both providinginformation on health and nutrition and connectingemployees, such as those with specific healthconditions.

The focus of these groups was typically driven byemployees and they were relatively dynamic, as theywere self-sustained; when interest faded, or keymembers of the network left the organisation, networkscould lose momentum and cease. A private sectororganisation in financial services described over 26networks that ran across their operations. Each wasthemed and discussed the specific needs of employeeswithin the network, and fed any issues and/or solutionsback to management. Several employers in the samplediscussed the relatively recent emergence of networksand peer support groups relating to the menopause, andone the recent emergence of a carers’ network.

There were also examples of employers using networksand peer support to assist the transition of formeremployees into retirement. Some established networksof retired employees, and involved them postretirement in alumni events, work social events, andsometimes to support significant events in theorganisations’ calendar.

Finally in relation to networks, an employer describedbeing part of a network of over twenty local employersthat supported a coaching and mentoring pool. Eachorganisation paid a membership fee and providedtrained coaches to the pool, who hold Institute ofLeadership and Management Level 5 qualifications. Thecoaches provide their profile online and employees ofthe organisations in the pool requiring support arematched to a suitable coach. The coaching role is anaddition to employees’ day job; as such they usually onlysee one person at a time. Employees could access acoach from the pool for a range of reasons, includingsupport with managing a career transition.

3.3.5 Service provision

Most of the employers in the sample discussed theservices provided by their Employee AssistanceProgramme (EAP), which assisted employees withpersonal problems and/or work-related problems thatmay impact their job performance or health andwellbeing. Some employers also liaised with externalhealth and fitness providers to offer their employeesaccess in the workplace (eg during lunchtimes) tohealth, fitness and wellbeing classes, such as yoga, andmindfulness.

Interventions and service delivery could also be centredon technology. A private sector employer in the retailindustry had recently developed an app to provideemployees with support on mindfulness, centring, andmeditation, and encourage them to undertake thesepractices in the working day. These employers aimed tobuild a company culture and ethos that you may need to‘go slow to go fast’. Other employers providedemployees access to specific equipment or tests to helpthem monitor and manage their own health andwellbeing, for example healthy heart-rate machines, orcholesterol tests - the results were not shared with theemployer. An employer in the voluntary sector offeredall employees access to a healthy heart check by anexternal provider. Take-up was greatest amongst olderemployees.



3.4ENABLERS AND BARRIERSTO INTERVENTIONSClosely linked to their business concerns and strategies,employers discussed enablers and barriers to thedelivery of interventions.

The skills and attitudes of staff in various job roleswere an important factor. Senior managers, staff in HRand learning and development roles, line managers,and employees could be the seed for an intervention,but to succeed, interventions needed the support of allstakeholders in the organisation. At the top, seniormanagers needed to believe in the importance of theissues being addressed and the links to the businesscase and strategy. Employees in HR and learning anddevelopment roles, and line managers, needed to beeffective at marketing the interventions, increasingawareness among employees for whom they might berelevant, and supporting and enabling them toparticipate (ie allowing employees to attend workshopsin work time). Several employers noted that someemployees may need encouragement to see that anintervention is relevant to them (at their current lifestage). In general, employers wanted to move away froma ‘cure not prevention’ way of working, and to encouragetheir (younger) employees to engage with planning andpreparing for later life, and managing their health andwellbeing throughout their career. Some intervieweesalso noted that staff in these positions needed to havethe confidence and capability to plan, design, andprocure (if relevant) solutions in order to supportneeds. Employees also needed to recognise the value ofinterventions and to see the relevance to theirsituations, and this was one reason for engaging withand involving employees in developing solutions. Asone employer described, ‘Ask people what they want – it isusually very pragmatic, reasonable and low cost. Mostimportantly it comes from the workforce, so you know youare implementing something they want.’ In line with adesire to be seen as inclusive, several employerssuggested that a narrative of interventions around ‘olderworkers’ would not work well in their organisationsbecause of a perceived reluctance among employees toidentify themselves as part of this group. Employersfound it more effective to offer interventions to allemployees, or to target them, but not restrict them onthe basis of age. There is a risk, however, that withoutactive encouragement take-up of interventions may notencourage diversity.

The extent to which different employees and teamsworked together could affect whether or not they wereholistic. In the employers in the sample, members ofstaff had responsibility for different aspects of theplanning and preparing for later life, and health andwellbeing agenda. For example, some HR staff focusedon diversity, others on learning and development, andsome covered the health and wellbeing of employees,while others had responsibility for overseeing pensions.Therefore, employers are likely to require cross-teamworking to bring aspects of this agenda together.

Whilst there was generally a desire to accommodateemployees’ flexible working requests, there weredifferences in how readily organisations believed theycould accommodate flexible working and/or theredesign of jobs within their structure and operations.For example, some described how they required groupsof employees to work as part of a 24/7 shift system, or totravel. However, a private sector employer in the retailsector, supporting 40 per cent of its employees to workpart-time, explained that they were embedding flexibleworking into all job descriptions and advertising allroles on a flexible basis ie they were moving away fromoffering flexible working on request, but seeking todesign it in to job roles. Other employers said theirorganisational structure affected the opportunities foremployees to change job role within the organisation.For example, a private sector employer in themanufacturing industry, said production staff made upthe majority of employees, and other job roles were inshort supply. This meant that opportunities to changerole within the business were limited which influencedthe extent to which the business could actively supportemployees to consider career change and provide careerinterventions.

The costs of interventions varied, but generally, costsand resources were not raised as a specific issue byemployers in the sample. Some interventions requiredno additional budget beyond internal staff costs todeliver, whereas others, especially those that weredeveloped and provided externally, required investmentfrom a specific budget. Some public sector employersindicated that recent cost reduction measures hadlimited the budget they had to support suchinterventions, which meant they leant towards thosethat could be developed and run by existing staff andresources.



3.5IDEAS AND INSPIRATIONEmployers indicated that there was no lack ofinformation about how they could support employees toplan and prepare for later life, particularly financiallywhich was of most concern to employers, or regardinghow to promote the health and wellbeing of employees.None had experienced difficulties accessing relevantinformation, however, employers had tended not toseek information about how to support employees toplan and prepare emotionally and psychologically fortransitions, such as retirement. Employers looked tomultiple sources both within and outside theirorganisation when gathering ideas and inspirationaround prospective interventions. Both internal andexternal sources of ideas and inspiration were equallytrusted and listened to.

Externally they engaged with a range of charities,research organisations, employer networks andprofessional associations, and government groups andbodies such as: Mind; Chartered Institute of Personneland Development (CIPD); Employers Network forEquality & Inclusion (ENEI); The National Institute forHealth and Care Excellence (NICE); Local EnterprisePartnership (LEP) Networks; Institute for OccupationalSafety and Health (IOSH); and Business in theCommunity (BITC). Contracted service providers ofemployee benefits, such as providers of EmployeeAssistance Programmes (EAP), or employer pensionproviders could also be an external source of supportand ideas.

Within their organisations, employers reportedinspiration stemmed from their employees, based ontheir expectations of them as an employer and reflectingthe circumstances they were facing; and in someinstances from trade unions, for example via ULRs.Involving employees and responding to theirsuggestions was considered particularly beneficial byinterviewees, as they believed staff ideas were directlylinked to the workplace challenges, and would promotehigher take-up and increased employee engagement.

3.6EVALUATION OF INTERVENTIONSEmployers found it challenging to isolate the impact andeffectiveness of interventions, and therefore did notevaluate them in most cases beyond measuring take-upand gathering feedback from participants (viaquestionnaires or informal discussions). Whenemployers monitored key metrics, such as sicknessabsence, they were aware a number of other factors thatcould affect change in these measures. For example, aprivate sector organisation monitored sicknessabsence, and found it challenging to identify causationbetween an intervention and reduced absence: whilerecent sickness absence statistics showed a trend thatabsence for musculoskeletal health conditions wasfalling, at the same time absence for mental healthconditions had increased. The interviewee noted that itwas impossible to know whether this meant that mentalhealth conditions were on the increase, or whetherreporting absence due to mental health had becomemore acceptable. There were no examples of employersmeasuring the direct return on investment ofinterventions. Many described logic to the support theyprovided, linked to the business case, but cited noquantitative evidence to demonstrate impact. Oneemployer used a ‘ready reckoner’ on costs and returnsfor their health and wellbeing programme. A publicsector organisation which supported the health andwellbeing of the workforce, reported that they hadjustified the organisational investment using nationalresearch from other contexts to make this argument tosenior leaders.


18 CONCLUSION

4.1WHAT ARE EMPLOYERS DOING TOSUPPORT THEIR EMPLOYEES IN THEIRMID-LIFE TO RETIREMENT?The support that employers offered to their employeesin the mid-life through to retirement phase was diverseand varied between organisations, depending on theirorganisational priorities. There were three contentareas that employers were active in: finances; health andwellbeing; and careers and working life. In the sample,it was more common for employers to be deliveringsupport for employees in relation to their finances andhealth and wellbeing, than careers and working lives.There were a few examples of holistic support,encompassing all the themes addressed. The ways inwhich interventions were delivered cut-across thesethemes, with some similar delivery mechanisms usedacross several. These were:

l Changes to employment policy and practice: Whilenot necessarily interventions themselves, policiesand practices provided the context for interventions,and employers discussed their importance in relationto flexible working, and the role of the linemanagement system in supporting effective andconsistent practice across the organisation.

l Information, awareness raising and education: At abasic level, employers sought to raise awareness ofissues and provide information to employees. Thisextended to providing education and skillsdevelopment to support employees in their navigationof various life-stages and transitions in someworkplaces.

l Strengthening capability to support. Someinterventions sought to develop the skills and buildthe capability of employees to support theircolleagues. Examples included career coaches andmental health first-aiders.

l Networks and peer support. Some employers unitedcolleagues with a common interest or concern todiscuss their needs and experiences, provide supportto each other, and feed any emerging organisationalissues back. Networks could either be face-to-face orvirtual.

l Service provision. Employers contracted with a rangeof service providers. These included EmployeeAssistance Programme (EAP) providers, providers ofhealth and wellbeing services, and training providers.

4CONCLUSION

In the sample, it was more common for employers tobe delivering support for employees in relation totheir finances and health and wellbeing, than

careers and working lives


CONCLUSION 19

4.2WHY ARE EMPLOYERSDELIVERING SUPPORT?Employers identified a number of reasons why theysought to support their employees in their planning andpreparing for later life, and their health and wellbeing.These included:

l Changes to pensions: As a result of changes includingthe rise in the State Pension age, and removal of thedefault retirement age, combined with shifts fromdefined benefit to defined contribution pensionschemes, meant that employers believed the ageprofile of workforces could change considerably. Theywere starting to think about the implications for theirworkforce and how they could support employees, forexample, whether employees were going to retire atdifferent ages than in the past, the affordability ofretirement (and variations between different groupsof employees), and where working lives wereextended, an increased need to manage health andengagement at work effectively.

l Supporting the health and wellbeing of the (older)workforce: Health and wellbeing was a priority for themajority of employers. Employers believed that thehealth, safety and wellbeing of the workforce werecritical contributors to future commercial success.Employers were relatively confident thatinterventions to promote health and wellbeing wouldhave a positive return on investment, as they believedthat a healthy and happy workforce would be moreproductive.

l Being an employer of choice: Employers describedmany of the interventions as an employee benefit. Thebusiness case for a strong employer brand and beingan employer of choice related to the recruitment andretention of employees, productivity and supportingexisting employees to work effectively, as well astreating employees with fairness and respect.

l The retention of (valued) skills: Employers wereparticularly motivated to retain expert staff, whoseskills and experience they had invested in, and toconsider ways to transfer knowledge over atransitional period as employees approachedretirement.

l Advances in technology: Employers anticipatedfuture advances in robotics and artificial intelligencewhich could change the nature of work and, forexample, reduce the need for physical strength andmanual working in some industries. Affectedemployers discussed the potential changes to theskills they valued among the workforce and arequirement to prioritise ‘digital literacy’ in order tosupport and enable all workers to feel confident andhappy using technology.

l Deploying people effectively: Where an employee’scircumstances had changed, for example they haddeveloped a health condition, employers wanted toensure that the employee was deployed effectively,within their organisation if possible as this wouldretain knowledge and experience relevant to theorganisation.

l The changing profile of the workforce: Employersvariously discussed the changing skills and ageprofiles of their workforces, and other aspects such aschanges to the employees’ caring responsibilities, aswell as to the levels of health and fitness among theiremployees.

The business case for supporting employees wasimportant, and the nature and design of interventionsneeded to be specific and sensitive to organisations’priorities and culture. While employers sought toinfluence key business metrics, such as sicknessabsence or staff retention, they evaluated interventionslargely based on attendance or take-up data, alongsidequalitative feedback assessing whether it had made adifference to employees and in turn to other keyelements of the business drivers for involvement (egemployer brand). Employers were time-constrainedand used heuristics and rules of thumb to prioritiseinterventions. The research did not identify anyexamples of employers assessing their return oninvestment directly on interventions, and in part thismay be because the outcomes from some interventionsare likely to take several years to materialise.

The business case for supporting employees wasimportant, and the nature and design of

interventions needed to be specific and sensitive to organisations’ priorities and culture


20 CONCLUSION

4.3HOW COULD FURTHER EMPLOYERINVOLVEMENT BE ENCOURAGED?Employers in the sample tended to offer support toemployees on planning and preparing for later life, andtheir health and wellbeing, and they tended to value andrecognise the importance and the benefit of these fortheir business and employees. The sample wasqualitative and sought to engage with organisations thatwere active or considering this agenda, so this is notlikely to be typical of all employers.

Support tended to be more prominent and establishedin relation to finance and health and wellbeing, and lessdeveloped in terms of supporting careers and workinglives. Interventions tended to be narrow in their focus,rather than holistic and using a whole person-centredapproach, although in discussion of the issues there wasrecognition that the myriad of issues around transitionsand later life are inter-connected for employees.Employers were generally receptive to considering howto support their employees on this agenda. They wantedto understand the issues from their businessperspective and were mindful of consideringimplications for their employees. The effects of some ofthe existing drivers for change on workforcecomposition, such as pension reforms, are likely tocontinue in coming years. Employers were starting toconsider the implications of these changes and theeffect on their workforce, and overall there was appetiteamong employers to do more to support theiremployees’ planning and preparing for later life, andhealth and wellbeing.

In trying to engage with employers on this agenda, andencourage them to build on and develop their existingpractices, consideration should be given to:

l How to best build on existing momentum: There area number of drivers that are becoming more pertinentand together make it more likely that employees willwant/ need to remain in employment, and thatemployers will want to enable that to happen. From anemployer perspective, changing skills needs and anincreased emphasis on employer branding in thedigital age, among other reasons, are making themmore inclined to support a mixed age workforce.There is increasing discussion on this agenda amongemployers, such as via the Fuller Working Lives strategy,and employers in the sample recognised that theirpeers are increasingly active. From the perspective ofemployees, changes to the pension landscape meanthat many will want or need to work longer. Thereforeinterventions to support employees in their mid-lifethrough to retirement are likely to be welcomed byboth employers and employees.

l Increasing understanding about longer workinglives: Individuals working beyond historic retirementages is new in many occupations. As people extendtheir working lives it would be useful to build theevidence base of knowledge and practice throughresearch and dissemination in order to understandfrom an employer and employee perspective theemerging and changing influences on working lives,health at work, productivity, engagement andmotivation, and ability to (re)train. For example,more information may be needed about the health ofolder people at work and how productive they can be.

l Promoting inclusive approaches: Employersstrongly felt that interventions should be available tosupport all employees who found it relevant to theircircumstances and life stage. It was not helpful tolimit access or target them based on age alone. Lifestage, rather than age, might therefore be an effectiveway to engage employers about interventions. Indeedit reflects employer views that employees of varyingages may have caring responsibilities or healthconditions, and the likely increased diversity ofretirement ages in future. Interventions targeted ateveryone may especially benefit older workers, butalso interventions initially started for olderemployees (eg pre-retirement planning) may end upbenefitting the whole workforce. The idea of‘inclusion’ (ie making work feel welcome foreveryone) seemed more prominent in the minds ofemployers than ‘diversity’. Addressing the needs ofemployees in their mid-life to retirement phase mayfit into employers’ inclusion strategy, or equally underbroader strands of their mainstream employment orpeople strategy such as skills, attraction/retention, orwellbeing.

Overall there was appetite amongemployers to do more to support their

employees’ planning and preparing forlater life, and health and wellbeing


CONCLUSION 21

l Helping staff to have more holistic conversations inthe workplace: While age diversity in the workforce ismuch more accepted by employers and manyrecognised benefits beyond their legislative duties toensure open and fair recruitment and employment,the development of interventions to support mid-lifeto retirement transitions are much less common andfew programmes offer holistic coverage of theassociated issues. Some employers reported theybelieved that removing the default retirement age hadmade it more difficult for them to have conversationswith their employees about retirement, as they fearedbeing age discriminatory. Employers might benefitfrom advice on what is legally permitted in relation toage-related conversations. Furthermore, rather thanview this workplace transition in isolation,consideration could be given to making ‘careerconversations’ more a part of everyday work, both foremployees nearing retirement, as well as employeesat other life stages. Regular career conversationscould offer a way of open discussions aroundtransitions and flexible working for employees at alllife stages, and give space for the consideration ofhealth, and finances, alongside careers and skillsdevelopment too.

l Building line managers’ capability and confidence:While not a direct focus of this research, the findingsillustrate the importance of line managers and therole of HR in supporting them, to enable employees tocontinue working (effectively) when making lifetransitions. Line managers need to be confident andsupportive of interventions, able to have careerconversations, and adept at creating solutions thatenable flexible working, redeployment of staff,redesign of work, and encourage learning anddevelopment. Line managers also have a role insupporting employees, signposting them to relevantinterventions and building an inclusive workplaceculture.

l Industry specific messages about retention andflexible working: The drivers for engagement withinterventions will vary between employers. Whileemployer brand and being an employer of choice wasimportant for many employers, they were largelycompeting with and looking to benchmark themselvesagainst employers in their industry. The skills profileof their workforce, the level of investment made bythe organisation to create a ‘skilled employee’, and theextent to which employers feel that they can readilyrecruit will affect their drive to retain staff. Inoccupations where employers view staff as easilyreplaceable and quick to train, such as retail,retention may be less important, and other factors,such as representing the customer base, may insteadinform the drivers for this group. More generally,flexible working emerges as a key enabler to supportpeople working longer, and organisations need toconsider how best to implement this. Some industriesare further down the road of flexible working thanothers. For example in manufacturing organisations,the notion of flexible working for employees was feltto be more challenging, given the need to have 24/7operations. There is also a key distinction betweenemployer-driven flexible working and employee-driven flexible working, and the perception amongsome employers that they cannot accommodateemployee-driven flexible working within theirpractices.

l Working with business focus on skills and health:Employers did not always view their ownorganisations’ situation in the context of an ageingpopulation, and for this reason, it was not overtly partof the considerations explored as part of the businesscontext (see Chapter 2). Employers were morefocused on the skills and health profile of theirworkforce rather than age; although these were ofteninter-linked - the age dimension was a secondaryconsideration. While there are undoubtedlysubstantial demographic changes, and a largerproportion of the (potential) workforce will be agedover 50 in coming years, a focus on the messaging ofinterventions to improve health and skills may chimemore readily with employers’ thinking, and link intotheir business strategy. By leveraging these elementsfirst, then the age profile of the workforce could beinfluenced as a secondary outcome. This approachcould be undertaken alongside work to increaseemployers’ understanding of an ageing populationand changing aspirations, such as via the BITCdiversity benchmark, and Fuller Working Lives strategy.


22 CONCLUSION

l How important is demonstrating the ROI ofinterventions? Employers stated that interventionsneeded to link to their business strategy andpriorities, but they did not necessarily need to see thatinterventions created a specific return on investment(ROI). Most were content to assess the value of theirinvestment in terms of qualitative employee feedback,as well as take-up and participation rates, which theysaid indicated an inherent value to employees andaffected drivers such as employer branding andretention. Tracing outcomes, for example, the impactof financial support on employee savings rates may bemost appropriate.

l Gaps in the market? Three overarching themes haveemerged as relevant to supporting employees in theirmid-life to retirement phase: finance; health andwellbeing; and careers and working lives. Pensionproviders and EAPs were commonplace, and thesupport they offered was usually limited to the remitsof finance and health and wellbeing. There was not anequivalent service procured by large employers tosupport their employees’ career development. Thiswas largely undertaken in-house, for example bytrained employees, line managers, or ULRs,supplemented by training providers or externalcareers coaches on occasion. To deliver effectiveservices on each theme requires specific expertise.While the issues affecting employees in their mid-lifeto retirement phase should be addressed holistically,support could be better joined up between strands ofdifferent delivery. One option would be a mid-lifereview, with a holistic initial assessment, leading toseveral different sets of provision and signposts andreferrals to specialists, depending on the issuesindividuals wish to act on. Some intervieweesdiscussed the requirement for services to beimpartial, across all these themes, and that anyconflicting employer and employee visions (eg stayingwith an employer/retraining for another career) werebest discussed with a neutral third-party. Whatworked well, across all three themes, wereinterventions that combined a mix of external andinternal organisational perspectives, and anunderstanding of opportunities within the company,for example to make adaptations at work with regardsto health, to re-design work or retrain given thecareer structures, or considering finances within thespecifics of the company pensions scheme. It is thenature of these issues that employees often needspecific information as well as general advice; a mix ofexternal, impartial advice but with insider knowledge.This is difficult to organise, and requires a twinningof external and internal stakeholders.

While the issues affecting employees in their mid-lifeto retirement phase should be addressed holistically,

support could be better joined up between strands of different delivery


BIBLIOGRAPHY 23

Business in the Community (2016) Mid-Life CareerReviews Toolkit.https://age.bitc.org.uk/sites/default/files/business_in_the_community_mid-_life_career_reviews_toolkit_2016.pdf

Cridland. J (2017) Independent Review of the State PensionAge, Smoothing the Transition, Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611460/independent-review-of-the-state-pension-age-smoothing-the-transition.pdf

Department for Work and Pensions: Fuller WorkingLives: a partnership approach (2017). Policy Paper. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuller-working-lives-a-partnership-approach

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ‘Employmentstatistics for workers aged 50 and over, by 5-year age bandsand gender’https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/568240/employment-stats-workers-aged-50-and-over-1984-2015.pdf

Franklin, B., Beach, B., Bamford, S., and Creighton, H.(2014) International Longevity Centre report ‘TheMissing Million’:http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/index.php/publications/publication_details/the_missing_million

Government Office for Science (2016). Future of anageing population. Foresight report.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-an-ageing-population

House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee(2018) Older People and Employment: Fourth Report ofSession 2017-19https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/359/359.pdf

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2016) ‘Five factsabout… older people at work’https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/fivefactsaboutolderpeopleatwork/2016-10-01 [Accessed10.7.18]

Phillipson, C., Shepherd, S., Robinson, M. andVickerstaff, S., 2018. Uncertain futures: Organisationalinfluences on the transition from work toretirement. Social Policy and Society, pp.1-16.

PwC (2017) ‘Golden Age index’ [online] Available at:https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/golden-age-index.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/golden-age-index.html

https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/golden-age-index.html

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/fivefactsaboutolderpeopleatwork/2016-10-01



https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/359/359.pdf

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/359/359.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-an-ageing-population

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-an-ageing-population

http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/index.php/publications/publication_details/the_missing_million

http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/index.php/publications/publication_details/the_missing_million

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/568240/employment-stats-workers-aged-50-and-over-1984-2015.pdf




https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuller-working-lives-a-partnership-approach

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuller-working-lives-a-partnership-approach

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611460/independent-review-of-the-state-pension-age-smoothing-the-transition.pdf




https://age.bitc.org.uk/sites/default/files/business_in_the_community_mid-_life_career_reviews_toolkit_2016.pdf




24

The research team primarily sought to engageemployers that were active and/or interested in thisarea, and were seeking examples of interventionstargeted specially at employees in mid-life onwards, aswell as those that were available to all employees butthat may have particular benefits for workers in theirmid-life onwards. Organisations that were consideringthese issues, but who did not yet deliver support, werealso in scope. The focus was primarily on organisationswith 250 or more employees, although smallerorganisations with interesting practices were notexcluded. Only organisations operating from within theUK, primarily England, were in scope.

TABLE 1. The achieved employer sample

Linked interviews with an employee responsible forstrategy, as well as an employee that was responsible forimplementation to cover the detail required by theresearch were undertaken in three organisations.

24 ANNEX

ANNEX

DETAILED SAMPLING APPROACH ANDACHIEVED INTERVIEWS

Source: IES, 2018

Sector/IndustryNo ofachievedinterviews

Private sectorPublic sectorVoluntary sector

12112

Central governmentLocal governmentUtilitiesTransport and CommunicationsFinancial servicesHigh tech manufacturing/engineeringEducationHealthRetailDefenceConservationFood manufacturingPublic administration

6332221111111

Total 25

Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationUK Branch50 Hoxton SquareLondon N1 6PB+44 (0)20 7012 [email protected]/uk-branch

Centre for Ageing BetterLevel 3, Angel Building407 St John StreetLondon EC1V 4AD+44 (0)20 3829 [email protected]

Institute for Employment StudiesCity Gate185 Dyke RoadBrighton BN3 1TL+44 (0)1273 763400askIES@employment-studies.co.ukwww.employment-studies.co.uk

ABOUT THE CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation isan international charitable foundationwith cultural, educational, social andscientific interests. Based in Lisbonwith branches in London and Paris,the Foundation is in a privilegedposition to support national andtransnational work tacklingcontemporary issues. The purpose ofthe UK Branch, based in London, is tobring about long-term improvementsin wellbeing particularly for the mostvulnerable, by creating connectionsacross boundaries (national borders,communities, disciplines and sectors)which deliver social, cultural andenvironmental value.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOREMPLOYMENT STUDIES

IES is an independent, apolitical,international centre of research andconsultancy in public employmentpolicy and HR management. It worksclosely with employers in all sectors,government departments, agencies,professional bodies and associations.IES is a focus of knowledge andpractical experience in employmentand training policy, the operation oflabour markets, and HR planning anddevelopment. IES is a not-for-profitorganisation.

ABOUT THE CENTRE FORAGEING BETTER

The Centre for Ageing Better is anindependent charitable foundation,bringing about change for people inlater life today and for futuregenerations. It draws on practicalsolutions, research about what worksbest and people’s own insight to helpmake this change. Ageing Bettershares this information and supportsothers to act on it, as well as tryingout new approaches to improvinglater lives.

The Centre for Ageing Better received£50 million of National lottery fundingfrom the Big Lottery Fund in January2015 in the form of an endowment toenable it to identify what works in theageing sector by bridging the gapbetween research, evidence andpractice.

https://www.Ageing-Better.org.uk

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.gulbenkian.pt/uk-branch

mailto:[email protected]

Date post:	07-Oct-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	1 times
Download:	0 times

THINKING AHEAD - Ageing Better...THINKING AHEAD: EXPLORING SUPPORT PROVIDED BY EMPLOYERS TO HELP...

Documents