Are you an age-friendly employer?

In a recent study, over 75% of businesses told the Department of Work and Pensions: “The experience of workers aged 50 or older was a main benefit of employing them in their organisation, followed by the reliability of workers in this age group and the mentoring older workers provide to new workers.”

The number of over-65s living in the UK keeps increasing and in ten years’ time, this figure will represent well over one-fifth of the entire UK population.

The Government recognises the skills shortages crisis; after a record year for vacancy rates, plans are now in the pipeline to encourage the over-50s back into work and tap into their knowledge with a year-long exemption from paying income tax.

The Centre for Ageing Better recently created a pledge to promote the maxim that everyone has the right to a good life as they get older, including the right – and opportunity – to return to work if they choose to.

The pledge
As an Age-friendly Employer, we will…
✔Identify a senior sponsor for age inclusion in our workforce – and publicly state our commitment to the pledge
✔Ensure that age is specifically named within our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies
✔Take action to improve the recruitment, retention and development of workers over 50 from one of the following areas:
✔Create an age-friendly culture
✔Hire age-positively
✔Be flexible about flexible working
✔Encourage career development at all ages
✔Ensure everyone has the health support they need
✔We will commit to taking action in at least one area every year and will report back on our activities and achievements annually.

Reducing age bias in recruitment and promoting flexible working will be crucial if we’re to attract the over 50s back into work, and this pledge will give bosses all the support they need to become ‘Age-Friendly Employers’.

To make the pledge and for more support information, click on the image link below

https://ageing-better.org.uk/age-friendly-employer-pledge