uncharted territory
There’s no shortage of research to prove that the U.K.’s population is ageing, and with it, our workforce.
By 2025, people aged under 30 in the workforce will fall by 300,000, while those aged 50 and over will increase by over 1 million according to Office for National Statistics UK Labour Market statistics (March 2018) and Mercer Workforce Monitor analysis.
We’re experiencing a labour market where job vacancies and the number of people in work have hit record highs, but by 2027 there will be an estimated 13.5 million jobs and only 7 million younger workers to fill them, leading to a shortfall of 6.5 million workers (CIPD).
David Blackburn, Chief People Officer at the FSCS, talks about why he chose to work with Renegade Generation, and why he's our most avid ambassador (video above).
With almost one in three workers now aged over 50, both employees and employers are facing a whole host of new and increasingly complex challenges - from sensitivity around managing age issues and highly experienced staff exiting the organisation and taking valuable knowledge and contacts with them, to rapidly changing needs of employees (e.g. caring responsibilities, flexible working, health conditions, can’t afford to retire), skill shortages, and managing multigenerational teams.
While these issues can affect all areas of business, they are specifically impacting recruitment and retention, workforce planning, corporate memory, productivity, company growth, and the long-term ability to remain competitive.
the OpportunitY
As Age Diversity finally gets its time in the spotlight, so do the accumulating benefits of having an age diverse workforce and adapting to the changing needs of older employees. It’s well documented that having a good mix of age and experience across teams and projects can result in better problem solving, more creative ideas, and improved business performance.
The business case for recruiting and retaining older workers is mounting as age-friendly employers benefit from increased loyalty, lower absenteeism, flexibility in their workforce, and increased tenure. The most forward thinking employers are ensuring that the age profile of their employees matches that of their customer base. Others are tapping into the experiences of their older workers to design new products and services specifically aimed at the older consumer.
Ageing Workforce Solutions
The Renegade Generation team has been fully immersed in the ageing workforce arena for four years – one of the first to focus solely on this space, we are continually in conversation with CEOs, HR Directors, mature employees, mature job seekers, and industry experts resulting in a truly unique view of the U.K’s ageing workforce landscape. We’re constantly picking up valuable insights and seeing first-hand what’s working and what’s not. We translate this knowledge into innovative ageing workforce solutions for switched-on organisations.
Our clients are predominantly professional services organisations (including FSCS, Atos, and Scottish Widows) who come to us for thought leadership and help with attracting, retaining, retraining, re-engaging, re-deploying and generally getting the best from their mature workforce.
What we offer:
Thought Leadership and Innovation
The ageing workforce is a highly complex topic. Our complete immersion in this space allows us to be constantly gathering insights, ideas and case studies which we can share with Executives and HR teams to delicately navigate this area whilst mitigating risk and unlocking huge opportunities.
We deliver our thought leadership sessions through consultancy or via interactive innovation games which can be fully customised.
Read about our recent innovation workshop with Scottish Widows.
Age Assessment Diagnostic Tool©
Firms are recognising that multi-generational workforces are key to growth and sustainability and want to focus on how to leverage current and future age diversity in their organisations by bridging generational divides.
Renegade Generation’s Age Assessment Diagnostic Tool© provides an independent and rigorous evidence-based framework for your organisation to assess where you are on your age equality journey and what progress you are making towards building an age inclusive workforce. The tool uses age-related data and insights across 10 key business areas to identify and score age inclusivity gaps and opportunities in order to improve outcomes for all ages of employees.
Completing the assessment will enable your organisation to apply for certification as an age-friendly employer.
Find out more and read our testimonial from OVO Energy, recently certified as an Age-friendly Employer.
Age-friendly Employer Profile
Many organisations have an array of age-friendly offerings behind the scenes that no one knows about. We collect all aspects of your ‘age-friendliness’ and put it all together in a compelling online profile that positions you as an employer of choice for high quality mature talent.
Our clients are purchasing Age-friendly Employer Profiles to enhance their employer brand, reach an untapped group of mature candidates, and benefit from targeted niche recruitment.
Take a look at the FSCS Age-friendly Employer Profile to see an example.
Update: This initiative has been shortlisted CIPD People Management Awards 2019 and received the Highly Commended Award for ‘Diversity Marketing & Recruitment Campaign of the Year at the FT Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards 2019. Read more here.
In-house information sessions and workshops
We have a range of career-related topics and training options expertly designed to benefit your over 45s. These include Becoming a Carer, Managing Menopause, How to Work Flexibly, Staying Tech Savvy, Planning for Career Transitions, Coping with Illness, and Managing Multigenerational Teams, and Mid-life MOTs.
These sessions can be tailored to your organisation and aimed at employees, line managers, or board level. They can be delivered in large groups, intimate workshops or one-to-one.
“It was great to work with Renegade Generation on this thought leadership event – it was all about trying to do things differently, bring an innovative start-up culture to some of the big Workplace Savings industry issues. Renegade Generation maximised the tech on show to create a really original and engaging gamestorming workshop around savings and intergenerational workforces – great work!”
“A huge thank you for your energetic session. Fabulous feedback on your session from employers who said it really made them think, in fact one said it was transformational! Now you can’t get better than that :)”
““Working with Renegade Generation really made us look deeper at what we are doing to support age inclusion in our workplace. The assessment and report have helped us create an action plan to ensure that we have a strategy to deliver continual improvement on age inclusion, ensuring that this topic is always on the agenda. Through updates to policies, images, data and our communication we can show our people that we are serious about age inclusion and value the diversity of all ages in our workplace.
Fiona and Jenny have been a massive support through the process, always there when we need them. They took time to really understand our business, recognise what we are doing well and took time out to go through the report in detail to ensure we are clear in our actions to improve in certain areas.
I am confident that with the help of Renegade Generation, people of all ages will grow and thrive at OVO.””
“I am an avid ambassador of Renegade Generation because I think their approach to the emerging challenges and opportunities for older workers is both innovative and exciting.
The team are hugely passionate and committed about what they’re doing and that comes across in everything they do, and every interaction that you have with them. They really want to deliver their clients the highest quality product possible.”
“Caroline participated on a panel session at our flagship international conference on the challenges and increased importance to employers of the baby boomer generation. Her contribution was greatly appreciated by all the delegates and gave a valuable and well-informed insight into the topic. I’d unhesitatingly recommend her and Renegade Generation to any employer wishing to address these important issues in more detail.”
explore your options
We (seriously) find nothing more exciting than sharing our experiences and talking about how to turn the challenges of an ageing workforce into a competitive advantage.
Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about our services, or explore how we could bring our ageing workforce insights and solutions to your team.