Basav Ray Chaudhuri retired after a 30-year international career and has reinvented himself as a Leadership Coach at Coach With Basav.
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The three-stage life of school, work and retirement is something most of us are familiar with. However, things are different today. Fertility rates are dropping around the world and people aren’t just living longer; they are healthier for longer. At the same time, there is a continued decrease in the proportion of 20 to 64 year olds (i.e., the "working-age population") among the OECD countries. These trends are already having a societal impact.
My peer group are at a stage in life when some have retired and others are nearing retirement. It’s interesting to observe their choices as they navigate this chapter of their life. How can people remain financially resilient in their older years? How can they prevent mental health issues that arise due to a lack of direction or purpose? How can we reimagine the current plans that exist to cater for the retired population, as these plans may not be suitable anymore?
One obvious answer is to keep people employed for longer. However, this is easier said than done! There are a few challenges that Bain & Company identified, which need acknowledging:
• Not all jobs can be done by older people—typically, most jobs that involve physical strength and stamina.
• Not all old workers are the same. Their motivation to continue working (or not) could be very different and this needs to be understood.
• Not all career transitions can be made quickly or easily.
Why Change?
Before we discuss potential solutions, though, it is important to understand why organizations as well as older people should want to change things.
From an organization’s perspective, there is research that suggests that while mental stamina may start reducing after the age of 30, knowledge and expertise keeps increasing until the age of 80—and it is the latter that is the main predictor for job success. Additionally, organizations should not underestimate the power of cognitive diversity in successful teams—and older people form a crucial part of the diversity equation. I don’t see enough recognition of this when I visit organizations.
From an older employee’s perspective, the term "middle age" is being redefined—the Institute of Applied Systems in Vienna suggests that most people in Norway, Japan, Lithuania and the U.S. continue as "middle-aged" from a cognitive and even physical health perspective until they are 75! Developing research suggests a correlation between working longer and living longer too. Far too often, though, when I speak to my peer age group, they are unwilling to put in the thought and effort required to create a plan for the second half of their lives.
What Needs To Change?
Some organizations and countries have come up with innovative ways to address this issue. Japan—one of the first major countries to face this demographic shift—has created "silver human resource centers" to deliver support and advice to older job seekers. Mitsubishi offers its 60-year-old employees the option of re-employment until they’re 65 in a group subsidiary, but at a lower salary. Sumitomo has a principle of retirement at 60, but is open to considering post-retirement positions where the salaries are set based on the actual role rather than the position the person had achieved before retirement.
Things are happening outside Japan too. CVS Pharmacy in the U.S. has a "Talent is Ageless" program and older workers form the fastest-growing employment segment in the U.K. Even in India, which is one of the few large economies not to be faced with a similar demographic shift, organizations such as WisdomCircle are addressing this segment of the market.
In order for these initiatives to succeed, though, some things will need to change. As touched upon at the beginning of this article, our conventional view of the career timetable will need re-examination. Age discrimination and bias must be eliminated and organizations need to see the benefits of using the full breadth of talent available to them. Equally, older workers need to understand that a continuing career cannot imply continuing promotions and salary increases. They need to be open to reskilling and understand that while they play a role in mentoring their younger colleagues, some reverse mentoring is not amiss either.
Final Thoughts
None of this is going to be easy. There is a constant refrain from many business leaders I meet about how younger employees are a better fit for their culture. Equally, workers who feel entitled to their "retirement years" need to review this position. The resistance that we saw when France raised its retirement age to 64 from 62 is a case in point.
As Camilla Cavendish, who writes on the subject regularly, suggests: every ageing nation needs to keep people working longer—and people should be far more ambitious in the second half of their lives than they currently are.
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