Harnessing Mature Talent through Fair

Employment Practices

1st Age Friendly Workforce Asia Conference

3 November 2011

Agenda

What is Fair Employment

Insights from TAFEP „s Research

How Diverse Teams Work

Productivity

Time

Homogenous teams

But Well-managed

Diverse teams

well-managed

Diverse teams

NOT well-managed

Why Being Fair Benefits Business

• Improved Talent Recruitment and Retention.

– Widens pool of potential talent.

– Gets best person for the job.

(avoid paying the price of prejudice)

– Better job fit.

– Increased morale.

– Lower turnover.

• Enhance Leadership Skills and Effectiveness in globalised

fast changing business environment.

Employees

want to be

treated

fairly!

• Enhances Image and Builds Goodwill.

• Raise Productivity through:

– Enhance Problem Solving.

– More New Ideas and Creativity.

– Better Feedback.

– Better Handling of Old and New

Customers.

– Better Deployment Flexibility.

Why Being Fair Benefits Business

About TAFEP

• Tripartite: Representatives from MOM, SNEF and NTUC.

• Co-chaired by Mr Bob Tan (Vice President, SNEF) & Mr Heng Chee How (Deputy Secretary General, NTUC).

• Promotes fair, responsible and merit-based employment practices.

What is Fair Employment

• Hire on Merit (i.e. non discriminatory).

• Focus on relevant criteria (i.e. not Age, Race,

Language, Religion, Gender, Family Status,

Disability IF not relevant to the job.

• Abide by Labour Laws and Tripartite Guidelines.

Why promote not legislate?

• Looking at other countries

- Compliance cost can be high

- Addresses more form than substance

• Challenge is changing mindset & practices

• Hence the promotional approach using Tripartite

partnership

• Worked before with non-discriminatory job ads

(Reduction from 1.7% in 2008 to 1% in 2009)

Research

•Leading Practices in Managing Mature Employee

*With SHRI. Local and Overseas examples

•Harnessing the potential of a multi-gen workforce

*Study involving over 3,500 local employees

•Hiring the Silver Generation

-Insights for Employers and Job Seekers

*Study involving over 300 mature job seekers and employees

Leading Practices for

Managing Mature Employees

• Conducted with SHRI

• 77 Employers responded to survey

• In-depth interviews with 16 firms

• Showcase leading practices locally

and internationally

Recommendations for Employers

• Top 3 strategies adopted by companies

Providing relevant training to upgrade skills of

mature employees

Hiring retired employees as consultants/

provision of flexible work arrangements

Regularly monitor health and well-being of

mature employees

•Over 3500 employees

•30 Singapore based firms

•Survey + Focus Groups

•Online + Hard Copy

•English & Mandarin

Multi-Gen Workforce Study

Key Findings

• Most (95%) work with different generations

• Most (81%) view that multi-gen teams improves organisational performance

• Most (69%) rarely or never have difficulty working with other generations. However: – Some Gen Ys (37%) have more difficulty than older Boomers (20%)

working with other generations.

– When probed, some Gen X & Y prefer to work with colleagues their same age or younger (the “parent” or “pai seh” effect)

• Gen X is now the majority supervisor (overtook Baby

boomers)

• Each generation considers themselves more committed than other generations (except Gen Y)

Hiring the Silver Generation

• Over 300 mature job seekers

and employees

• Focus groups + Interviews

• Practical Insights:

Employers – Review policies

to be more age-friendly

Mature Job Seekers – Enhance

Employability

Key Findings

“Successful” tended to have more age-diverse

interviewers

41.7%

55.4%

36.9%

28.7%

21.4%

15.8%

"Successful"

"Unsuccessful"

Age Composition of Interviewers

Young Similar Age/ Older Mixture of Young and Old

Findings/Suggestions

Review composition of interviewers / selection panel

– Include an older interviewer

– Ensure all interviewers are trained on merit-based

selection

Adopt age friendly practices

– Give regular feedback on performance

– Assign a buddy (ideally similar age) to ease settling in

– Seek to understand differing life-stage needs of

mature hires

– Continue to provide training opportunities for mature

hires

– Provide age management training especially for

younger supervisors.

Suggestions for Employers

Explore non-internet means of reaching mature talent

Offer part time or flexible work options to attract those

who can and want to contribute but can‟t commit to full-

time work

Implement health management programmes

Implications

•Important for organisations to understand the

issues and acquire required skills

• Capability development is for CEO, HR,

supervisors, colleagues and mature employees

themselves.

•Mindset change is key (difficult when defensive).

This is a long term effort.

• Link with Disability as we are ALL getting older

•More complex with multiple discrimination.

•Make accommodations for life-stage but beware of

dysfunctional rescuing

Thank You