i-FM: The online resource for facilities professionals

Or, since there is a trend now to not put date of birth on a CV, perhaps you have quietly worked out how old the candidate must be on the basis of seeing when they were at school – and then cast it aside.

Let’s acknowledge right here that no one should be doing this because legislation makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age, including as part of the recruitment process. But it does happen and it will continue to happen until attitudes and preconceptions change. The maximum award against a company for age discrimination in 2008 was just over £12,000 and the average considerably less. There is an argument that says when the media start giving publicity to age-related discrimination cases and the compensation figures are worthy of headlines, companies will sit up and take note.

The question that we really should all be asking is: why does an employee suddenly cease to be suitable for a role after their 65th birthday when they were suitable before?

Let us look at some of the facts – facts which are beginning to feature regularly in the news: people having to work to and beyond age 70, UK birth rates in decline, longevity rapidly increasing over recent decades, the UK population edging towards more over-65s than under-16s. Stories also feature the closure of final salary pension schemes, billions of pounds being written off the value of pension funds and annuity rates sliding during the recession, meaning that the pension pot people thought they had accrued may not be quite so comfortable.

The issues of an ageing population bring into sharp focus new challenges elsewhere, too, as a generation of people are caring for elderly parents. Many are trying to balance their carer responsibilities with continuing to work. Many organisations take a positive view and make a point of accommodating flexible working requests because it means that invaluable experience is retained within the business. And of course reliable communications technology means that so many more people can work effectively from home.

Finding a balance
HR professionals are entitled to feel they are on the receiving end of a series of mixed messages. On the one hand, we wrestle with ever-increasing rafts of family-friendly legislation designed to maintain work-life balance and ensure that family life is not compromised. On the other, we manage people having to work beyond 65 to supplement their pension, when they would probably prefer to be spending time with family and even grandchildren.

Skills shortages are already creeping in due to the demise of apprenticeships and reduced numbers of young people entering the workforce directly from school, opting instead to go to university and thus delaying their appearance on the labour market for some three years or more. Some of the traditional industries and trade apprenticeships are crucial to the FM business – you only have to look at building fabric maintenance and handyperson roles which call for competence in disciplines such as plumbing, heating and air conditioning, electrical and gas engineering, painting, decorating and joinery. This puts pressure on organisations to source those roles from the older-end of the employee spectrum.

In a broader context, you can often judge a good FM on their knowledge of the building they manage – they know the history, the layout, the contractors, the tenants, the residents, and importantly, the internal organisational politics and the dynamics of key relationships. You can’t put a price on that sort of knowledge, which only comes with experience. So if your 65 year old FM might want to retire, this may not be financially attractive. The employer faces a challenge to maintain levels of motivation as well as needing cooperation to ensure that valuable knowledge is passed on through work shadowing, training and effective succession planning enabling an eventual seamless handover to the younger generation. It is also worth remembering that in the FM sector, TUPE is a way of life: at the best of times it can be worrying, but for employees in their 60s it may be both very stressful and unsettling.

Time for change
The biggest challenge with an ageing workforce is that attitudes must change. The ability to utilise and maximise the strengths and skills of an employee throughout their entire working life requires balancing employer and employee needs and adopting a different approach. This will almost certainly mean that employers must learn to recognise that employees have different aspirations and needs at various stages of their lives – there comes a point where career progression, say, may become secondary to job security. This might include introducing flexibility in benefits packages to suit those employees at different life stages. For example, the tax efficiency of increased pension contributions may be more attractive than a 40% tax liability on a car allowance or end of year bonus.

Employers must also recognise that training and development opportunities must be available for employees of all ages, both to enable them to continue to develop in their careers and to ensure that they keep abreast of compliance issues which form an important part of an FM’s skill set…not to mention more general CPD needs.

In the meantime, age dynamics in the workplace are undoubtedly shifting. With the steady flow of news stories about pensions and retirement ages, it is clear that this is an agenda item that will not go away. And, this is not just an employment issue – it goes far deeper into our social fabric. Times truly are changing.

Adrian Berwick is HR Director at SGP Property and Facilities Management.