Ageing workforce defines next decade

The workforce spans the generations from 'young kids' to 70-year-olds. Photo / Getty Images

After 10 years of war for talent, the Noughties ended with unemployment at a nine-year high of 6.5 per cent. Job security died during the decade, and "employee engagement" emerged as the defining theme.

Leeanne Carson-Hughes, HR manager at Christchurch Airport, says the biggest challenge facing cash-strapped companies is how to motivate staff.

"When there is no such thing as a job for life, in the past few years you may not give pay rises, and now you want them to do longer hours, how do you engage the hearts and minds of workers?"

JRA's New Zealand Engagement Poll last year found only 29 per cent of respondents were engaged in their work while 51 per cent were ambivalent and 20 per cent were disengaged. Actively disengaged employees erode an organisation's bottom line, breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process.

Carson-Hughes, who recently won the Canterbury Human Resources Institute HR Person of the Year for leadership in people management, says an added complexity is companies have to manage very different types of workers.

"We've got young kids who want all the latest toys, training and advancement as well as 70-year-old workers after financial security."

HR consultant Denise Hartley-Wilkins says the differing needs, motivators and workplace expectations of today's inter-generational workforce have been a catalyst for workplace change, including flexible working.

When workers were scarce, the need to recruit talent from a wider pool gave rise to flexible working strategies. But Hartley-Wilkins says with a tight job market over the past year, the pendulum has swung back, with fewer part-time and home-working opportunities available. However, in some cases where pay increases have been off the agenda, she has seen employers using flexible working to make up for it.

"So what we are seeing is flexible working being used less as a recruitment driver and more as a retention strategy. As the job market picks up we will again see a shift at the recruitment stage."

Meanwhile, Carson-Hughes says, "A lot of us are still working nights and weekends."

Like flexibility, stability is near the top of the list for many job seekers.

Ben Pearson, director of national recruitment company Beyond, says in the early Noughties, attrition was high - more than 25 per cent, with many changing jobs annually or more frequently for significant pay increases. With the dotcom collapse, the 2002-03 downturn and the last recession, this all changed.

"Funky start-ups and cool tech companies are no longer as sought after - banks and large public sector organisations are the new employers of choice."

Pearson says earnings have been stagnant for several years, and "people are less happy given the year we've had. But workers should remember the Noughties as a memorable and prosperous decade."

The decade ahead will be shaped by the workforce ageing and people working longer. The proportion of the workforce aged 55 years and over is likely to grow from about one in six in 2007 to around one in four by 2020. Population ageing will result in a dramatic slowdown in growth. The labour force is forecast to grow by only 15,000 per year after 2016, less than half the recent rate.