Turning Seasoned Workers into Future Workers
Businesses that work with their seasoned workers may reap the benefits of a treasure trove of skills and experience
When retirement, health reasons, or caring for a relative or spouse are factored out of the reasons seasoned workers are leaving the workforce, the motivators for departing are many and are often combined in individual cases. Such variety and complexity means nuance and agility will be required to combat the forces driving the seasoned worker exodus, with broad-brush incentives proving less effective than businesses may expect – why is this?
According to the Government, the number of men aged 50 to 70 years with a degree or equivalent leaving the workforce increased by 42,000 between Q2 and Q3 2021 than in 2019, and proportionally, professional occupations saw the largest exodus for those aged 50 to 70 years, with 30,000 more leaving the workforce during the same period. These workers were some of the highest paid employees in the UK, yet they chose to quit work and forgo their elevated income instead of staying on – an outcome which indicates that a blunt financial incentive may be insufficient to retain or recruit many highly-skilled workers, (as seen by the lukewarm response to the Government’s recent relaxation of pension ceiling rules to coax senior doctors back to work).
Source: UK Gov 2022
The same Government report stated that for those seasoned workers who would consider returning to work, flexible working was the most important aspect of choosing a new job (36%), followed by working from home (18%) and an occupation that fits around caring responsibilities (16%). This indicates that providing hybrid, flexible, or part-time employment could be a strong incentive for seasoned workers to take up a new job offer. However, the report also states that workers in their 50s were more likely to give stress or mental health issues as top reasons for leaving work. In such cases, offering flexible working conditions may not be enough to retain or recruit seasoned workers if they will still be employed in a high-stress, high-pressure type of role.
Source: British Safety Council Nov. 2022
A 2023 survey conducted by the charity Ageing Better found that 36% of workers aged of 50 – 69 had suffered age discrimination at work and believed their age meant they were less likely to receive offers and promotion opportunities. Even if these perceptions are exaggerated, the large number of seasoned workers who believe they are discriminated against indicates an underlying problem that must be addressed. Managers are in the frontline when it comes to hiring, promoting or assessing seasoned worker skills and career paths. It is here where much of the perception of ageism in the workplace can be eliminated. Manager training to overcome age bias, create attractive pathways to help seasoned workers extend their working lives, and understand and exploit the trove of human skills that many seasoned workers have is essential if employers wish to make veteran employees comfortable in their roles and stop them seeking an early exit.
Where broad-brush incentives do not work, tailored approaches will be necessary to attract and retain seasoned workers, with many employees requiring a ‘one of a kind’ combination of role, working conditions, pay, and project involvement to stay or return to work. Businesses should meet this complicated challenge by adhering to a five-step programme:
Step 1: Update and adjust your current and future workforce plan. Where are your skills gaps now and what skills will your organisation need to meet the long-term operational goals?
Step 2: Conduct a skills assessment of your workforce with a focus on your seasoned workers. Which skills (roles) will become obsolete, what are their transferable skills, which workers can be upskilled or reskilled to fulfil future skills needs and which gaps will still remain? Your leaders and managers may play a key role in this process by supporting the skills planning and encouraging open career conversations with your seasoned workers. Where necessary, change or train hiring managers to achieve the goals necessary to recruit or retain veteran employees. Consider re-designing roles to make more of the skill sets you currently have, and the skills and experience new seasoned workers will bring to your organisation.
Step 3: How will your organisation fill the skills gaps that still remain? Create recruitment and reskilling programmes that appeal to seasoned workers and that offer better role opportunities, equal involvement in projects, and a chance to sharpen their skill sets and extend their working life.
Step 4: Seasoned workers are seeking roles that fit their unique and personal criteria. Adjust operations to accommodate their needs: This means flexible roles and working conditions (full-time, part-time, hybrid, work from home), the choice of salary or consultancy (hourly) pay, solid project involvement (leader, mentor, coach), support to alleviate mental stress or physical impairments, and the removal of age-bias in your workplace.
Step 5: Maintain open dialogue with your seasoned workers. Provide alternative career paths as needed. Adjust and adapt the programme as seasoned workers represent a larger share of your workforce.
See the ManpowerGroup’s Ultimate Reskilling Guide – for everything you need to know to take your seasoned workers to the next level
For many organisations, their best future workers are their current workers – employees with deep familiarity of organisational processes, products, and technical knowledge. Training these workers to fill skills gaps is typically faster and more effective than hiring new talent and guiding them to full effectiveness. This may be especially true with seasoned workers who have the advantage of deep reservoirs of valuable experience to draw upon. Reskilling can build on these transferable skills to make them a star performer and a major asset to the business.
According to McKinsey, 75% of reskilling programmes pay off economically. However, this statistic reflects programmes that have been completed. Many training programs fail because the employees become disaffected and drop out of the course. Motivators – in the form of incentives that reward a seasoned worker with greater opportunity, or where the employees are offered promotion but can only achieve this if they pass the training, are essential to ensure participation.
Incentives that are linked to clear pathways and that give access to a more satisfying, better paid, or more responsible role must fit within your organisation’s strategic workforce plan – build towards a predetermined outcome, not towards general employee improvement. For example, you train to create a new pool of data programmers, not to elevate your workers’ general technology proficiency.
Managers are the talent scouts within your organisation. They are in the best position to identify and reskill high-potential seasoned workers. However, managers are often constrained by lack of time, poor belief in their effectiveness, and few tangible incentives to fulfil their roles as an incubator.
To succeed, they must be offered suitable incentives to manage differently – this means the provision of adequate training or coaching to conduct seasoned work training initiatives and being held accountable by way of monitoring and regular one-to-one check-ins with the internal talent team. Where managers cannot adjust to the requirements needed to recruit, retain or reskill seasoned workers, their role in the process should be eliminated and new managers hired to conduct and oversee seasoned worker programmes.
Source: Harvard Business Review
Deliver the right experience to deliver the right outcome by offering:
Exposure to ensure the job the seasoned worker is being trained for is an appropriate fit
Education to give individuals the skills they need to do the job
Experience to be successful within the job
Then consider the best way to implement them and what technology will be required. Any successful strategy will have technology to support it – be it LMS, LinkedIn Learning, talent marketplace, etc. Implementation strategies may include:
Create your own in-house academy
Employ external resources such as an RPO service provider with a pre-built academy/ training solution
Blend your strategy to include selected elements of all of the above
Successful training programmes are always a work in progress, with room for continuous improvement. Upon completion of each campaign, analyse the results to enhance the next training cycle.
Measure the programme, the trainers and the trainees at a regular cadence throughout the process, so that interventions can take place before the end of the programme. This will enhance your chances of success.
Manage the managers who are running the programmes. Ensure they have the tools and capabilities to successfully develop trainees, correctly onboard them after the programme, and get reskilled workers up to effectiveness.
Optimise the programme to address any problems or shortfall in the planning, delivery and results. Ensure your new outcome expectations will still align with your organisational strategy, values, and EVP.
Scale the programme to account for organisational growth and future skills requirements.
Adjust elements and modules as necessary to furnish the essential training to give your seasoned workers the skills they will need to fill those varied roles.
