well are offering part-time working, flexi hours or working from home for part of the week. Offering sabbaticals for long- serving workers is also another option which has worked well in our company. Giving people the tools to work flexibly, such as providing employees with laptops and ensuring that the intranet and any other resources they need are accessible from outside the office, is key to making this work.
Employers must accept that traditional career structure is changing. To keep the best employees, they will have to adjust. Tis means thinking harder about how to support employees of every age, as work patterns and needs change
To recruit and retain the most talented people, managers need to understand that not everyone will be driven by the same things. Whilst traditionally people have gone to work firmly focused on generating ‘financial assets’, younger generations now have other priorities such as; achieving a good work-life balance, which many see as more important than financial rewards. Employers therefore need to consider what Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, authors of The 100-
Y ear Life (2016)7
When people lived to sixty-five, seventy- five or eighty, their lifespan could be divided into three distinct phases - education, career and retirement. They spent most of the middle phase, which lasted for around forty years, in a small number of companies, recieving successive promotions and earning a living. As longevity increases, that middle work phase might now last for fifty or even sixty years. People’s careers are also following a more circuitous path today. Instead of working for three or four companies over a lifetime, they may work for seven, eight or even more. They might switch between departments far more often. They may be part of a fluid workforce, which goes from contract to contract (gig to gig) with their role (and pay) going up and down accordingly. They might stop work for a while to take another degree in their forties or fifties, switch careers altogether, go on a sabbatical to refresh themselves, move into part-time work (and then back again) when they have children or elderly parents to support, start their own business and, in some cases, never retire at all.
, call
‘intangible assets’. These are the skills and resources that will help people survive and thrive when they live longer than ever before – perhaps working into their seventies and even beyond. Cultivating lifelong learning, bringing variety to employment and supporting individuals’ capacity to transform are just some of the ways that managers can help employees to develop their intangible assets.
Navigating that complex career path takes more than money. Workers also need intangible assets. These are outlined by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott as: Productive assets - the skills, knowledge, reputation and professional networks that an individual will need to find interesting work over several decades. Vitality assets - mental and physical wellbeing, a good work-life balance, and supportive relationships that allow people approaching the traditional age of retirement to continue to work. And Transformational assets - the self-knowledge and diverse networks that help your staff go through personal changes and transitions. Developing these intangible assets will help employees stay highly skilled, engaged, resilient and healthy, which is also essential for businesses to remain competitive. Good candidates are also likely to prioritise workplaces that can help them develop these skills and acquire these assets, because they will become every bit as vital as salary. To keep the best employees, they will have to adjust.
Here are some starting points: Introduce a mid-career review for staff in their forties which will help workers to analyse where they would like their career to go and make plans accordingly. Broaden the range of career trajectories. Introduce more options for flexible, part-time and remote work. Be proactive about training managers to support workers of all ages and skill levels and provide additional management training as needed. Be transparent and open about the age demographics in the company, so that any potential biases or age-related issues can come to light. Ideally, the age demographic of the business should match the client base. Introduce mentoring to match younger and older workers so they can mentor each other and share their knowledge and skills. To reap the benefits of intergenerational working, the right balance is essential - and that will mean making some compromises so that everyone can feel included. Understanding people as individuals, and then rewarding and supporting them, is the first step to bringing them together as seamless, motivated, high-functioning intergenerational teams.
•
Steve Butler is the author of Manage the Gap: Achieving success with intergenerational teams, which is available at Waterstones and Amazon.
1.
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/ birthsdeathsandmarriages/ageing/articles/how wouldyousupportourageingpopulation/2019-06-24
2.
www.willistowerswatson.com/en-US/Insights/ 2017/11/2017-global-benefits-attitudes-survey
3.
www.parliament.uk/business/committees/ committees-a-z/lords-select/intergenerational- fairness/news-parliament-2017/tackling- intergenerational-unfairness-report/
4.
www.ageing-better.org.uk/news/uk-employers- unprepared-ageing-workforce
5. Smith, S. & Galbraith, Q., 2012. Motivating Millennials: Improving practice in recruiting, retaining and motivating younger library staff. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 38(3), pp. 135-144
6.
age.bitc.org.uk/issues/Agileflexibleworking 7.
www.100yearlife.com
FOR FURTHER INFO
www.psaspire.com
14 | thehrdirector | DECEMBER 2019
SPECIAL REPORT
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