Age awareness is not simply about knowing the age of the workforce, it is about making sure that age awareness reaches beyond usual employment practice. Using an understanding of the age demographics across the organisation to inform effective workforce planning and making sure that age diversity is promoted and understood is key. Over time, age awareness should become a thread that runs through all policies, practices and operational matters.
The resources in this toolkit are intended to be used on an ongoing basis and continually reviewed to make sure organisations are able to regularly track improvements and continue action planning for success.
It is recommended that HR directors lead on this work, working in partnership with other colleagues, departments and trade unions to complete the various steps in the process. Following the steps one by one within the toolkit and reviewing these on a regular basis will help ensure your organisation is prepared.
The resources will help you to:
- assess your workforce demographics and your organisational readiness for the opportunities and challenges an ageing workforce will bring
- plan for the future and support a raised awareness of the issues your organisation may encounter as the workforce ages
- embed these actions to make sure practices or policies within your organisation reflect workforce demographics of the future.
Resources
This toolkit includes a number of resources which are intended to support a process of continual improvement:
- Age profiling tools enable you to profile your workforce by age, helping to predict trends and identify areas where there may be a higher likelihood of retirement requests in the future. You can also use our age and working hours analysis tool to show you the distribution of full and part time work across your workforce.
- The checklist to assess organisational readiness is designed to help you assess how age aware your organisation currently is and to help you action plan for the future. The senior management team presentation slide pack is intended for use with your senior management team. The template slides contain national information relating to workforce demographics, pension scheme changes and information about the UK and Scottish Working Longer Group. This resource can be tailored to add in details of your workforce demographics and local information about strategies to support your staff to work to a later, raised retirement age. This will help you raise the profile of the ageing workforce with your senior team.
- The engagement approaches page includes learning from NHS organisations, and a range of suggested approaches for you to consider when planning your own engagement with employees, senior management and trade union colleagues. There is also a useful checklist for planning an engagement event.
Read the case study from Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust in England to find out how it is using the age awareness toolkit to assess organisational readiness and raise awareness with the senior team. There are also tips on how you can raise awareness of an ageing workforce in your organisation.
The UK and Scottish Working Longer Groups have produced other resources to support you, including a range of factsheets on the retirement flexibilities which are available within the NHSScotland Pension Scheme at the Flexible Retirement Hub. There is also a Further Reading Library of relevant research and publications.
Background
In October 2014, the UK Working Longer Group was formally commissioned to deliver a body of work based on the eleven recommendations made in the Preliminary Findings and Recommendations Report, designed to support staff and employers to work to a raised retirement age.
The toolkit has been produced in the first instance by the UK Working Longer Group and adapted for NHSScotland by the Scottish Group. Both Groups are tripartite initiatives, working in partnership with national recognised NHS trade unions, NHS employers and Health Departments.