Both workers and employers need to be aware of key trends, writes Steve Hart
Employers wanting to hire young New Zealanders will need to think again as the country faces a topsy-turvy future with fewer people joining the workforce. At the same time, people are living longer and will need to work for years after normal retirement age to make ends meet.
While the trends of an ageing workforce and skill gaps in certain areas are well established, research that Dr Mervyl McPherson has just completed for the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust shows that employers will need to be more proactive and open-minded when it comes to hiring and retaining staff in the future.
McPherson says the labour market during the next 20 years will be increasingly made up of non-New Zealanders as the country heads toward a more multi-cultural workforce.
"In the coming years employers will have to be open to a more diverse pool of workers," says McPherson. "Going forward 20 years we know that the workforce is going to be increasingly multicultural. One reason for this is that the skills we need are coming from people in countries such as India and China.
"Businesses accustomed to relatively easy access to younger employees face a declining labour market. If they cannot match stiff competition for younger people, they may need to adjust their employment practices and recruitment campaigns to be more attractive to older workers.
"In addition, women are coming through to dominate traditionally male professions such as law, accounting, planning and veterinarian jobs. All these jobs have a profile of older men and younger women.
"The issue with this change, says McPherson, is that woman will generally tend to reach a point where they can step into a management role but will leave mid-career to have children - creating a hole in company structures that risks it losing vital institutional knowledge.
"Employers will need to accommodate these new mums because if they don't there will be a huge loss of skills to the firm," says McPherson.
"There are definitely some issues for women when it comes to having a family while working in professions that have traditionally had long hours. To counter this, employers will need to have more flexible ways of working to retain those women and allow them to progress to senior positions."
And while workplace creches are one answer, many New Zealand firms are just too small to fund them. But there are options, says McPherson.
"I know of one legal firm whose owners and staff had children and between them they hired a nanny," she says. "Employers need to look at creative ways to solve issues and this kind of flexibility has to apply to men as well as women because of the growing number of dual-career couples."
The skills gap will increasingly put pressure on employers over the next 20 years, particularly those firms operating in industries such as health, engineering, IT and most trades.
In addition, McPherson says firms that need senior accountants, auditors, senior policy analysts, microbiologists and graphic designers will be hard pushed to find staff.
"Employers will have to prepare for that and ensure they have set in place succession plans and made sure they draw the knowledge from staff leaving their firms and store it in some way."
She also recommends staff be retained for longer by offering part-time work options.
"Offering them periods of extended leave so they can travel and return to the employer later on is one option," she says. "Or offer them work on a project-by-project basis."
McPherson's research also shows that industries that have typically employed younger people - such as call centres and the IT industry - will need to employ older people to fill their vacancies.
"They are not going to be able to rely on continuing to get enough young people to fill these and similar positions - so these employers are going to have to change their thinking," she says.
"They will have to employ older people and then consider what that might mean in terms of the way they do things and changing the culture of their workplace. The fact is that we now live longer and people are starting to work for longer but less intensely. More part-time work could be a way of the future but that is still open for debate. However, the routine of working full-time, retiring and then not working at all, is coming to an end. That kind of pattern is disappearing.
And the reasons for this change in behaviour, surmises Dr McPherson, are financial drivers and the fact that some people just like to work for the people contact and structure it provides them with.
Higher divorce rates are also affecting people's decisions to work beyond normal retirement age, says Dr McPherson.
"We have had higher rates of divorce than our parents or grandparents," she says. "So if you are divorced and in your 40 or 50s, then you may still be paying a mortgage as you go into retirement - that's another reason why some older people may need to work."
McPherson also points to the knowledge economy saying office staff will be able to continue working for far longer that those working in manual jobs such as building and construction.
"Employers will have to be realistic about people who do hard physical labour - they may not be able to continue working into later years," she says. "So employers will have to find ways to keep these people on to retain their skills while releasing them from hard physical work."
And McPherson puts a question mark over the future of state pension payments to retirees saying there may not be enough people in work to support them. "No New Zealand government has said that," she says. "But a lot of people fear that that day will come.
"The baby boomer bulge means there will be more people in retirement supported by a shrinking workforce," she says.
"Traditionally we had a pyramid shape in that you would have a few older people at the top, a larger group in the middle and an even larger group of children at the bottom," she says. "But today, the pyramid shape has been replaced with one that looks like a coffin. And that bulge near the top is the baby boomer group about to move into retirement.
"People heading for retirement have far greater expectations than those who retired 20 years ago. Today, people expect to retire and travel. And people are living far longer than they used to. They are living into their 80s and expect to receive a pension until they die."
From what Dr McPherson says the next 20 years will bring many changes to our workplaces and personal lives. Employers will have to be more proactive in attracting and retaining trained staff and the rest of us may have to work longer and plan even harder for a comfortable retirement.
Make the most of older workers
Focus on performance, not age, to ensure workers have the skills, knowledge and motivation for the job and ensure your performance management system is flexible to cater for a diverse range of employees.
Address performance issues proactively as soon as possible to avoid hard conversations about poor or deteriorating performance and ensure all employees are treated fairly and with dignity. Consult older employees about decisions that affect them and what would motivate them.
To ensure your organisation has up-to-date skills, offer older workers appropriate training and development opportunities and ensure different learning styles are catered for.
Redesign jobs to reduce demands such as risk of injury or burnout and consider older workers for mentoring, "buddy" systems, quality control or trouble-shooting roles. Offer phased retirement opportunities to extend the working lives of older employees.
MIND THE GAP
Long-term skill shortages
* Auditors
* Construction project managers
* ECE, secondary and tertiary educators
* Engineers, professionals and technicians
* Environmental researchers
* Food technologists
* Health: anaesthetists, various specialist doctors and surgeons, dietitians, medical scientists, nurses and midwives, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists
* ICT professionals
* Multimedia designers
* Project managers
* Social workers
* Surveyors
* Trades: electricians, mechanics, fitters, carpenters/builders, joiners, boat builders, cabinet makers, plumbers, chefs
* Urban and regional planners
* Various farmers
* Veterinarians
Source / Dr Mervyl McPherson, EEO Trust
Steve Hart is a freelance writer. Contact him via his website at www.SteveHart.co.nz
