Employers dip toe in mature age talent pool By Craig Donaldson
A MAJORITY of Australian employers are still failing to proactively seek to attract and retain mature aged workers, despite the nation’s rapidly ageing workforce and growing skills shortage, recent research has found.
Just over 40 per cent of Australian employers are proactively seeking to attract and retain employees from this valuable pool of talent, according to a Hudson survey of 8,345 organisations.
While the rate of employer pro-activity has increased by 8.9 per cent over the last two years, Anne Hatton, CEO of Hudson Australia and New Zealand, said a majority of organisations are still not tapping into this experienced demographic.
“Australia’s employment landscape is being shaped by the spectre of an ageing workforce and an intensifying skills shortage. These findings are a wake up call to Australian business,” said Hatton.
According to ABS statistics, the number of people aged 65 years and over is projected to exceed the number of children aged 0-14 years around the year 2016, and the median age of the Australian population has increased by 5.8 years over the last two decades.
“Even if some organisations are not yet struggling with the skills shortage, they soon will be as competition for skilled labour continues to increase,” Hatton said.
Employers must also think more creatively when implementing hiring and retention strategies, according to Hatton, and consider new ways to proactively attract and retain mature aged workers, who bring valuable knowledge and irreplaceable skills to the business.”
“Organisations need to seriously consider flexible work options as a real solution to the growing pressure to retain mature aged workers,” she said.
Of the industries surveyed, the financial services/insurance sector appeared to be the most proactive, with 47 per cent of organisations surveyed actively seeking to attract and retain mature aged workers. The IT (32 per cent) and telecommunications (24 per cent) sectors appeared the least proactive.
Employers in the IT&T sector have tended to be poor at re-skilling mature age workers, said Martin Retschko, Hudson’s director for the IT&T sector.
