People Management: 'A new era for age'
Published 14 January 2010
A new era for age, People Management, 14th January 2010 p.19-22
Commenting on the debate about the management of older workers in a CIPD article on “A new era for age”, Professor Paul Sparrow of the Centre for Performance-led HR cautions that whilst on the positive side there is now more understanding about older employees as a segment of the workforce, set against this not very many organisations have picked up the real issues.
He argues that, “If the design of work and careers doesn’t change, the assumption, for example, that older people are more engaged, will end up being false.” He also asks whether this older demographic at work will start to place a different type of demand on organisations: “... they will be at the vanguard of demanding change. Highly talented people have traditionally put their energy into negotiating salaries – will they now divert that into demanding flexibility?”
