Join AARP, the World Economic Forum, OECD and  50 employers in a learning collaborative to identify and share multigenerational, inclusive workforce practices.

Trends and Opportunities

As people live longer, healthier lives, many will want or need to work longer. Longevity thus presents an opportunity and responsibility for governments, employers, and people of all ages to reimagine what it means to earn and learn over a lifetime. This initiative seeks to engage 50 employers in a learning collaborative to identify and share multigenerational, inclusive workforce practices.

Action to be Taken
Although governments can and should support the development of multigenerational, inclusive workforces, employers are best positioned to lead the charge.

Webinar Series: Early Lessons & Promising Workforce Practices from COVID-19

During this webinar, Phillip Taylor, professor of management at Federation University Melbourne and an associate at Partners in Change, and Vievette Henry, global head of organizational effectiveness & inclusion at AIG, discuss the business sector’s early lessons & promising workforce practices from COVID-19..

Webinar Series: The Benefits of an Age-Inclusive Workforce to Your Bottom Line

Featured presenters Laura Tamblyn Watts, president and chief executive officer of CanAge, Canada’s national seniors’ advocacy organization, and Susan Johnson, chief diversity & inclusion officer at The Hartford, talk about their respective organizations’ work in building more age-inclusive systems that result in growth and economic security.

Webinar Series: Including Age in Diversity & Inclusion Strategies

Presenters Michael North, assistant professor of Management and Organizations at The Stern School of Business, New York University and Mike Mansfield, program director at the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement discuss research findings behind implementing age-inclusive workforce strategies.

Webinar Series: Reskilling and Upskilling Workers

Presenters Anna Dixon, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, and Lara Hallett, people consultant at Investec, talk about their organizations’ approaches to supporting learning and professional development of workers

Webinar Series: Investing in Your #1 Resource: Your Workers

In this webinar, our featured presenters are Dr. Vivian Lou, the director of Sau Po Centre on Ageing at The University of Hong Kong and Edward Moncreiffe, who is the CEO at HSBC Life (International) Limited. They discuss how Sau Po Centre on Ageing and HSBC Life have partnered to identify a local labor force concern and generate relevant workplace accommodations that better support workers.

Webinar Series: Building Multigenerational Teams Across the Workplace

In this webinar, Martha Deevy, Associate Director and Senior Research Scholar from the Stanford Center on Longevity and Haig Nalbantian, Senior Partner, Workforce Sciences Institute at Mercer will share research data and discuss the importance of “Building Multigenerational Teams Across the Workplace

Webinar Series: Creating an Age-Inclusive Workplace Culture

In this webinar, you will hear from Future-of-Work Strategist Heather McGowan and Jisella Dolan, from Home Instead Senior Care, who are thinking deeply about the benefits of implementing an age-inclusive workplace culture

Webinar Series: Why a Multigenerational Workforce is Becoming a Business Priority

In the first webinar of the Living, Learning and Earning Longer Collaborative series, OECD Labor Economist Shruti Singh and Bank of America executive Aubrey Long discuss the research on changing global demographic trends and why a multigenerational workforce is good for business.

LLEL Monthly Newsletters

LLEL Monthly - August 2021
https://mailchi.mp/0ad13b4199f6/llel-monthly-14803924?e=d18bbf246c 

LLEL Monthly – July 2021
https://mailchi.mp/6d1509380f82/llel-monthly-14538676?e=d18bbf246c

LLEL Monthly - June 2021
https://mailchi.mp/bd396c237deb/llel-monthly-14532084?e=f88d7caf90 

LLEL Monthly – May 2021
https://mailchi.mp/997d83c8454c/llel-monthly-13727156?e=f88d7caf90

 LLEL Monthly – April 2021
https://mailchi.mp/d2f3ff705998/llel-monthly-13394812?e=f88d7caf90

 LLEL Monthly - March 2021
https://mailchi.mp/7d02c42f186e/llel-monthly-13383260?e=57c4329087

December 21, 2020 - Early Lessons & Promising Workforce Practices from COVID-19

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=8875a86c27

November 30, 2020 – Early Lessons & Promising Workforce Practices from COVID-19

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=ba1eab2be2

October 28, 2020 – The Benefits of an Age-Inclusive Workforce to Your Bottom Line

https://mailchi.mp/70342097fe82/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-october-28-2020?e=f88d7caf90

September 28, 2020 - The Benefits of an Age-Inclusive Workforce to Your Bottom Line

https://mailchi.mp/eab0afec8a29/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-september-28-2020?e=f88d7caf90

August 19, 2020 – Including Age in Diversity & Inclusion Strategies

https://mailchi.mp/200525538851/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-august-19-2020?e=f88d7caf90

July 13, 2020 – Including Age in Diversity & Inclusion Strategies

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=d079a320cc

June 15, 2020 – Reskilling and Upskilling Workers

https://mailchi.mp/da97438a6753/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-june-15-2020

May 19, 2020 – Reskilling and Upskilling Workers

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=3286f702b5

April 20, 2020 – Investing in Your #1 Resource: Your Workers

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=1654e4d8be

March 23, 2020 – Investing in Your #1 Resource: Your Workers

https://mailchi.mp/03d26afe4e81/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-march-23-2020?e=f88d7caf90

February 20, 2020 – Building Multigenerational Teams in the Workplace

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=75961448e5f2f2e2c7c0cdee5&id=d1101dc23e

January 16, 2020 – Building Multigenerational Teams in the Workplace

https://mailchi.mp/0d52cd5329d7/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-january-16-2020?e=f0073289ca

December 16, 2019 – Creating an Age-Inclusive Workplace Culture

https://mailchi.mp/fc17b5087d6c/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-december-16-2019?e=%5BUNIQID%5D

November 12, 2019 – Creating an Age-Inclusive Workplace Culture

https://mailchi.mp/4e982f0688ce/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-november-12-2019?e=f88d7caf90

October 16, 2019 – Why a Multigenerational Workforce Is Becoming a Business Priority

https://mailchi.mp/ad75682c823f/living-learning-and-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-october-16-2019?e=f88d7caf90

September 16, 2019 – Why a Multigenerational Workforce is Becoming a Business Priority

https://mailchi.mp/0a2b3803c0d1/living-learning-earning-longer-collaborative-newsletter-september-16-2019?e=0ce3eb0a73

• Infographic: Global Insights on a Multigenerational Workforce PDF
• Issue Brief: Global Insights on a Multigenerational Workforce PDF
• Full Annotated Survey: 2020 Global Employer Survey of OECD Countries: Annotated Questionnaire PDF
• Minigraphic: Covid-19 Has Changed the Way Global Employers Conduct Business PDF

During the May 19, 2021 Peer Learning Call, LLEL members from Canada, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, the UK and the US share insights on workplace re-entry. 

Meeting summary (pdf)

During the October 21, 2020 Peer Learning Call, LLEL members share promising practices and discuss age-inclusivity.

On June 24, LLEL Collaborative members shared insights and discussed ways they are integrating age equity in diversity and inclusion practices.

During the April 22 Peer Learning Call, exclusively for LLEL members, participants shared what their businesses are doing to support their employees and how they’re rethinking workplace systems in light of the spread of COVID-19. 

Issue Brief: Strategies for Assessing Employee Retention During COVID-19

This brief offers 5 considerations business should take when thinking about staffing priorities in the midst of economic uncertainty.
Read full Issue brief

COVID-19 Resources for Employers: An Interview with Muriel Roake, Principal Consultant, Muriel Roake and Associates, New Zealand

AARP's Senior Vice President for Global Thought Leadership Jean Accius speaks with Muriel Roake, Principal Consultant at Muriel Roake and Associates in New Zealand about what to consider when having supportive conversations with employees during COVID-19.

Issue Brief: Supportive Conversations with Your Workers as the Age at Work

This brief offers ideas to consider when having conversations with employees about transitions regarding retirement discussion, layoffs or other circumstances that may require delicate navigation.
Read full issue brief

Issue Brief: Supporting Workers of All Ages and Life Stages Through COVID-19 and Beyond

This brief outlines ways to support all of your employees and uphold the pillars of safety, respect, equality, and privacy. 
Read full issue brief

COVID-19 Resources for Employers: An Interview with Professor Phil Taylor, Federation University Australia

Jeff Gullo speaks with Professor Philip Taylor, Discipline Head of Management and a professor of human resource management at Federation Business School, Federation University Australia, about investing in employees during difficult times.

COVID-19 Resources for Employers: An Interview with Geoff Pearman, Partners in Change

Ramsey Alwin hosts a conversation about supporting employees during transitions with Geoff Pearman, managing director at Partners in Change, a consultancy firm based in Dunedin, New Zealand

LLEL Relevant Resources and Reports

AARP Resources

Ageism and Age Discrimination

• Age Discrimination Continues to Hold Older Workers Back: This factsheet shows where gaps persist even as the economy improves. Older workers are reporting a higher percentage of age discrimination in the workplace. 

• Age Bias That's Barred by Law Appears in Thousands of Job Listings. Article on how words in job listings keep experienced workers from applying.

• The Economic Impact of Age Discrimination Report, In 2018, American industries forfeited a boost of over 4% to GDP because of age discrimination in the workforce. This AARP study, conducted in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit, explores the economic growth that could be generated if employers address age discrimination through better hiring practices and workplace retention initiatives.

• The Value of Experience Study: AARP's Multicultural Work and Jobs Study, Most older Americans who work do so out of economic necessity, and many believe they are not treated fairly on the job because of their age. Older women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and those who are unemployed were more likely to feel they were the subject of discrimination.

Business Case for Multigenerational Workforces

• An AARP-sponsored Washington Post Live Event: Diversity in the Workplace: The New Multigenerational Workforce: Fran Katsoudas, EVP and chief people, policy and purpose officer of Cisco, and Lindsey Pollak, career expert and author, explored the benefits of a workforce that spans across generations as well as the innovations that are helping organizations retain and train valuable employees as we move further into the digital age. Jo Ann Jenkins and journalist Chika Oduah also engaged in a preliminary discussion on what will be needed to raise further awareness in helping employers build, support, and sustain multigenerational workforces. 

• Growing with Age: Unlocking the power of the multigenerational workforce. LLEL's new digital learning platform offers tools and the latest research to help employers build, support, and sustain multigenerational workforces.

• OECD Report Executive Summary and Action Plan. Our new Growing with Age platform also includes a shortened summary that includes the Executive Summary, Foreword, and “Action Plan: Reaping the benefits of the multigenerational workforce” from the recently released 2020 report from OECD, Promoting an Age-Inclusive Workforce: Living, Learning and Earning Longer.

• Employer Resources. AARP Work and Jobs team has a collection of useful articles and resources.

• A Business Case for Workers Age 50+: A Look at the Value of Experience 2015.  A study evaluating the business case for the recruitment, retention, and engagement of these workers.

• The Business Case for Older Workers, The Journal. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ retired workers want to share their experience with the next generation of employees. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. President and CEO Shunichi Miyanaga shares how retired employees can put their skills to good use.

Caregivers and Family Leave

• Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace: A Practical Guide for Employers: AARP created this guide for employers to support caregivers in the workplace. Get practical guidance to help you support those in your organization juggling caregiver responsibilities with their jobs, and on how to create a caregiving-friendly environment overall.

• Supporting Military and Veteran Caregivers in the Workplace: A Practical Guide for Employers: AARP, along with several organizations, convened a national taskforce of human capital experts to develop principles and policies employers can use to create caregiver-friendly hiring and workplace practices. Together, the taskforce members created a toolkit to guide employers in recruiting and retaining caregivers.

• Caring Locally for Caregivers: How State and Local Laws Protect Family Caregivers from Discrimination at Work: AARP and The Center for Worklife Law partnered to develop this report on how state and local laws protect family caregivers from workplace discrimination. Read this report to learn how federal and state laws are protecting caregivers. 

• The Economic Impact of Supporting Working Family Caregivers: Read the report that was launched on March 26 during a virtual event, cosponsored with Forbes, to learn more about how supporting working family caregivers can help boost the economy. Watch the recording of the event.

• AARP Family Caregiving: ERG Toolkit: AARP worked with the Elevate Team to develop a toolkit you can use in leveraging your Employee Resource Groups (i.e., affinity groups, or ERGs) to help employees who also shoulder caregiving responsibilities to continue building their careers.

• AARP Family Caregiving: Supporting Employee Caregivers During the Pandemic: The AARP Family Caregiving team developed a list of action steps employers can take during the COVD-19 pandemic to continue supporting their employees who are caregivers through this unique time.

• AARP/JUST Capital Corporate Guides. JUST Capital and AARP developed three briefs for companies that feature promising practices for paid sick leave, work from home, and dependent care policies to improve employee retention and productivity.

• Supporting Working Caregivers: Case Studies of Promising Practices, In 2012, ReACT and the National Alliance for Caregiving published “Best Practices in Workplace Eldercare,” which summarized trends and innovations in policies and practices to support employees with caregiving responsibilities for older adults and profiled 18 organizations that were considered among the leaders in this regard. This new report examines what’s changed over the past five years and describes what “promising practices” look like today — based on in-depth interviews with 14 organizations, including six of the 18 participants profiled in the 2012 report.

COVID-19 Response

• Supporting Workers During and Beyond COVID-19. A brief from AARP and Partners in Change about strategies to support workers during and beyond COVID.

Economic Opportunity

• The Longevity Economy® Outlook. Report exploring how people age 50 and older are fueling economic growth, stimulating jobs, and creating opportunities for all.

The Future of Work

• What's the Future of Work?, Take on Today Podcast. People are living and working longer than ever. Listen to this episode to find out why multigenerational workforces work so well.

Managing Multigenerational Workplaces / Intergenerational Teams

• 10 Principles for Managing Mixed-Age Teams. Managing multigenerational teams is not drastically different from managing any team. AARP identifies 10 principles for managing your workforce to leverage the strength of each generation.

• Supportive Conversations with Your Workers as they Age at Work. Information to support employers as you make decisions about your future workforce and engage in conversations with your employees about their future aspirations.

• Creating Quality Jobs: A Framework for the Multigenerational Workforce, Attracting and retaining the right mix of people, equipped with the right skills, high levels of productivity, and emotional IQ, can sometimes feel like a Herculean task. Though some might argue that organizational theory has been slow to arrive at this realization, companies are increasingly aware that people are the most important resource they have.

• Mentorship and the Value of a Multigenerational Workforce, Overall, workers value the unique perspectives that a multigenerational workforce brings to their jobs, according to an AARP survey on multigenerational work and mentorship. Seven in ten workers say they like working with generations other than their own, and the majority agree that both younger and older workers bring a set of positive benefits that enhance the workplace environment. In particular, workers value the give-and-take aspect in a multigenerational work environment.

• Disrupting Aging in the Workplace: Profiles in Intergenerational Diversity Leadership, America’s workforce is aging. People are living longer and many will need or want to work beyond what was once considered the typical retirement age. AARP believes that the time has come to disrupt aging—that is, to move beyond outdated and limiting beliefs about aging and change the conversation about what it means to age in America. A major opportunity awaits employers and employees alike to begin a conversation about how to do that.

Recruitment and Retention

• Say This, Not That: How to Remove Age Bias from Your Job Descriptions: AARP developed this fact sheet to help employers remove age bias from their job descriptions. Learn how to add age-inclusive language and how to spot bias in job descriptions.

• How to Improve Age Diversity in Hiring in Your Organization: The AARP Work & Jobs team lays out some basic steps to help organizations ensure their recruitment strategies are age-inclusive.

Reskilling and Upskilling / Lifelong Learning

• Older Workers Are Willing and Eager to Learn New Skills: This factsheet highlights that despite negative stereotypes that suggest otherwise, older workers are eager to learn new skills. Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino older workers lead the way in willingness and interest concerning learning new skills.

• More Companies Offering Internships for Adults. Article on how returnships (internships that help adults who have taken time away from their careers and are interested in returning to the workforce) help them get back in the game. 

Other Resources

Ageism and Age Discrimination

• Enabling Age at Work - How Ageism and Ableism Overlap in the Workplace: International Longevity Centre, UK. This report summarizes research from a recent project conducted by the VU Amsterdam and the University of Kent and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council on perceptions of ageism and ableism among older workers and the impact on such individuals' future plans for work.

• Age Discrimination Alive and Well in Irish Workplaces: Irish Times. Not much has changed in Irish workplaces when it comes to the prevalence of age discrimination. Despite it being illegal under the Employment Equality Acts (1998-2015), those working in the area say little has changed regarding workplace age discrimination in Ireland in the past 20 years. In fact, almost 90% of workers over the age of 55 believe age is an issue when seeking employment. 

• World Health Organization Global Report on Ageism. The United Nations. The Global Report on Ageism outlines a framework for action to reduce ageism including specific recommendations for different actors (e.g., government, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations, the private sector). It brings together the best available evidence on the nature and magnitude of ageism, its determinants, and its impact. The report outlines what strategies work to prevent and counter ageism, identifies gaps, and proposes future lines of research to improve our understanding of ageism. View the recording of the launch.

• 2019 Hiscox Ageism in the Workplace Study. Hiscox. A survey of 400 US full-time employees over the age of 40 to gain insights into age discrimination in the workplace.

• Age Discrimination and Hiring of Older Workers. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Evidence from a field experiment indicates that age discrimination makes it harder for older individuals, especially women, to get hired into new jobs.

• Ageism in the Workplace – Persistent and Pernicious. Employment Practices Solutions. Legal article on how employers can take steps to not commit age discrimination.

• Hiring in the Age of Ageism. Society for Human Resource Management. Article on how age discrimination could cost companies strong candidates and diverse teams.

• Age Discrimination and Hiring of Older Workers, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. As the population ages, older workers will stay in the workforce longer. Hiring discrimination against older workers is a persistent issue that needs serious attention. Learn from evidence from a field experiment designed to test for hiring discrimination.

• Council Recommendation on Aging and Employment, OECD. In December 2015, the OECD Council adopted a recommendation that calls for governments to give people better choices and incentives to continue working at an older age in response to the challenges of rapid population aging.

Business Case for Older Workers

• Stanford Center on Longevity's 2020 Century Summit. Stanford Center on Longevity. Session on how forward-looking business managers and entrepreneurs should consider 50-plus employees in their strategies, in product and service design, in managing their workforce, and even in their own careers. View the entire Summit.

• Does Employing Older Workers Affect Workplace Performance? Institute of Labor Economics. Investigation on whether the employment of older workers has implications for workplace performance in Great Britain.

• Silver to Gold: The Business of Aging. Milken Institute. Report on the significance of population aging for the business sector and society at large.

• Delivering through diversity. McKinsey & Company. Report on diversity and its correlation with financial performance.

• The World Economy on a Tightrope. OECD. Take a look at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) economic outlook for June 2020 to gain a better understanding of the future of the global economy. This webinar outlines all the major points of the report. 

• The Aging Workforce: Leveraging the Talents of Mature Employees, SHRM Foundation. For the next 15 to 25 years, in most industrialized countries the large baby boomer generation will be reaching the traditional retirement age and leaving the workforce. To respond to this exodus of talent, organizations must recognize the value of mature workers and develop strategies to retain and engage them. This is the 20th report in the SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines series. Created in 2004 for busy HR professionals, the series integrates research findings with expert opinions on how to conduct effective HR practice.

• We’ll Live to 100 – How Can We Afford It?, World Economic Forum. This report was produced as part of the Forum’s Retirement Investment Systems Reform project that brought together pension experts to assess opportunities for reforms that can be adopted to improve the likelihood of our retirement systems adequately and sustainably supporting future generations.

• Working Better With Age, OECD. "People today are living longer than ever before, but what is a boon for individuals can be challenging for societies." Read this recent report from OECD that identifies policy recommendations and best practices to foster employability, labor demand, and incentives to work at an older age.

• Five-Generation Workplace, From Baby Boomers to Generation Z, OECD. “How do we as societies start contemplating the ‘100-year life’?” Look back at the OECD Forum 2017 session for insight on how companies are embracing a multigenerational workforce.

Caregiving and Family Leave

• As Singapore Ages, Single Women Pay the Price of Caring for Elderly Parents: Washington Post. April 2021. Today, the burden and even financial cost of caring for the substantially aging Singaporean population is falling disproportionately on women, many of whom are unmarried and many of whom have sacrificed careers and retirement savings to care for their elders yet have no children to do the same for them. Women make up at least 60% of Singapore’s unpaid caregiving workforce, according to a 2012 survey. 

• Something's Gotta Give: AARP and S&P Global. AARP and S&P Global conducted research that showed COVID-19 has put parental and family leave policies in the spotlight, and in many ways has accelerated the shift toward companies adopting more flexible caregiver leave and workplace policies across the U.S. private sector. 

• Small Business Caregiving Guide. AARP and Public Private Strategies. Website providing practical guidance for small businesses on creating supportive workplaces for employees who are also caregivers so all can thrive.

• The Caring Company - How employers can help employees manage their caregiving responsibilities—while reducing costs and increasing productivity. Harvard Business School. A report on the current and future state of caregiving in the United States and how businesses can prepare to support employees who are also caregivers.

• Strategies to Support Working Caregivers, Bank of America. As population aging transforms American society and the workforce, caregiving has emerged as one of the central, if least well understood or addressed, issues facing employers. Due to dramatic increases in life expectancy and declines in the birth rate, older Americans make up a larger share of the population than ever before—and this trend is accelerating. As a result, the need for eldercare is reaching unprecedented levels, leading to rapid growth in the number of employees who also provide care.

COVID-19 Response

• What have platforms done to protect workers during the coronavirus crisis? OECD. An examination of the measures taken by platform companies to protect the health and the incomes of workers using their platforms during the pandemic.

• Return to a new normal. Mercer. A breakdown of nine ways businesses can successfully prepare for a comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Reimagining the postpandemic workforce. McKinsey & Company. Exploration of how to combine the lessons learned from working during COVID-19 with best practices prior for a postpandemic world.

• Empathy and human connection: how businesses can respond to COVID-19. World Economic Forum. The COVID-19 pandemic will have a permanent impact on the way we approach work. With continued physical distancing to prevent the spread of the disease, businesses are adapting quickly to ensure continuity of operations.

• Return to the Workplace: Move Forward With Confidence. Mercer. An in-depth approach to move forward with confidence, focusing on workplace and worker readiness, workforce support, and resilience, while considering financial implications.

• 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Survey. Deloitte. This survey tracks how businesses are managing the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges.

• The COVID-19 Corporate Response Tracker: How America’s Largest Employers Are Treating Stakeholders Amid the Coronavirus Crisis. Just Capital. A tracker starting with the United States’ 100 largest employers on ways they are supporting their workers, customers, and local communities during the COVID-19 crisis. 

• The Society for Human Resource Management has developed a resource guide for employers managing the COVID-19 pandemic.  

• International Labour Organization COVID-19 Standards. International Labour Organization. Standards for businesses to manage their response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Economic Opportunity

• Improving economic opportunity for older workers. The Brookings Institution. Webinar with leading labor experts discussing challenges to work at older ages, while also proposing promising policy reforms.

• Improving opportunities for those who want to work longer. The Brookings Institution. An event in conjunction with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University exploring how Americans can work longer.

ESG

• Embracing the New Age of Materiality: Harnessing the Pace of Change in ESG. World Economic Forum. The framework for action gives guidance to investors and helps businesses identify ESG factors for long-term resilience.

Flexible Working

• The Business Case for Remote Work. Global Workplace Analytics. A whitepaper sharing hard data on the benefits of remote work for employers, employees, and the environment.

Future of Work

• The Future of Work: Driving Toward Equity and Opportunity for All Generations. NationSwell. Webinar featuring Jean Accius on the necessity for adapting the way we work with an equity state of mind.

• Workforce for tomorrow: Innovating for an ageing workforce. International Longevity Centre UK. Consultation paper highlights challenges to overcome with the help of innovations to adapt workplaces for an aging workforce and sets the context for the launch of a global innovations competition in early 2021.

• COVID-19’s Future of Work Wrecking Ball. Bertelsmann Foundation. Impact of COVID-19 on how businesses and organizations will operate in the future.

• The Mercer 2020 Global Talent Trends Study identifies four trends that will allow companies to balance cost and care in this unpredictable world.

• The Twin Trends of Aging and Automation, Marsh and McLennan Advantage. Proposing a new perspective, this report suggests solutions to the dilemma companies are facing concerning an aging workforce and automation. The report applies a corporate lens to the intersection of the two trends, arguing that companies must seek to integrate the experienced workforce into their broader strategy to reach greater success.

• The Aging and Automation Resilience Index: Building Resilience for Aging Workforces Facing Industry 4.0, Mercer. This paper deploys leading thinking on this subject from Mercer and Marsh & McLennan Insights, to help organizations, governments, and workers address risks related to societal aging and workplace automation.

Managing Multigenerational Workplaces / Intergenerational Teams

• Designing Benefits for a Multigenerational Workforce: Benefits Pro. March 2021. Benefits Pro highlights the importance of employers needing to offer dynamic benefits packages to best meet the needs of employees. The author cites a report by MetLife which found that over half of Gen Z and Millennial workers said that work-life balance has improved since the pandemic. 

• The One Value That Unites Generational Differences in the Workplace: BizLibrary. This resource by Biz Library offers guidance for supporting the multigenerational workforce. Read through this resource to learn more about generational diversity issues and inaccurate stereotypes on age, as well as the needs of the multigenerational workforce and tips for how to manage multiple generations at work.

• Four Myths About the Multigenerational Workplace. Society for Human Resource Management. Misperceptions about age may be preventing employers from creating their ideal culture.

• Understanding the motivational benefits of knowledge transfer for older and younger workers in age-diverse coworker dyads: An actor–partner interdependence model. American Psychological Association. A study on workers’ age and their roles in knowledge transfer can generate motivational benefits for them.

• Why You Shouldn’t be Afraid to Have Tough Convos at Work (And How to Get Better at It). FairyGodBoss. LLEL Collaborative member - The Hartford - describes how training can help employees navigate sensitive topics like politics, race, and religion.

• The postgenerational workforce: From millennials to perennials. Deloitte. This article looks beyond generations to segment the workforce according to individual behaviors, values, and attitudes. This approach can help organizations to meet workers’ needs and expectations in ways that are more meaningful to them and more beneficial to the enterprise.

• Employer Toolkit: Guidance for Managers of Older Workers. Age Action Alliance. Interactive toolkit for businesses in the United Kingdom.

• How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation, Boston Consulting Group. A recent BCG study suggests that increasing the diversity of leadership teams leads to more and better innovation and improved financial performance. In both developing and developed economies, companies with above-average diversity on their leadership teams report a greater payoff from innovation and higher margins.

• The Surprising Ways Management Styles Vary By Age, Forbes. Conversations about generational differences in the workplace remain challenging and too often infused with stereotypes. Older generations sometimes lament what is lost, while those junior to them can feel frustrated by the slow pace of change. A recent MIT Sloan Management Review study of managers,  which analyzed how managers across the age spectrum prefer to lead, proved to be an eye-opener.

• Four Keys to Creating a Family-Like Corporate Culture, Home Instead Senior Care. Hear from Home Instead Senior Care CEO Jeff Huber on steps companies can take to build a positive culture. 

• Becoming An Age-Friendly Employer: Evidence Report, Centre for Ageing Better. This study was commissioned by the Centre for Ageing Better as one of a range of projects designed to promote fulfilling work in later life. The report is intended to complement the Centre for Ageing Better’s work with employers, and partnership with Business in the Community’s Age at Work Campaign, to support employers to take action to make a positive difference to their older employees.

• The Six Signature Traits of Inclusive Leadership, Deloitte. What will it take to be a great leader in the future? This report from Deloitte explores how four global megatrends are reshaping the environment and influencing business priorities. The report is intended to help leaders think about how traditional notions of leadership must change in accordance with this changing context and lays out six signature traits for future leaders.

Office Space Design

• The Welcoming Workplace - Designing Office Space for the Ageing Workforce in the 21st Century: The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. Older staff will increasingly continue working beyond today’s normal retirement age, and this will require changes to certain work patterns and to the design of the workplace itself. This report considers these issues with specific reference to the knowledge economy in which many older people now find themselves working.

Recruitment and Retention

• Inclusive Language in Job Adverts a ‘win-win’ for Employers and Jobseekers: Centre for Ageing Better. April 2021. A new Centre for Ageing Better report—“Ads for all ages: How age-biased are job adverts in the UK, and what can we do about it?”—looks at the language used in job advertisements and how this impacts older workers.

• What Jobs Do Employers Want Older Workers to Do? Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Analysis of the kinds of jobs that regularly appear on RetirementJobs.com, a national job board focused on positions for people over the age of 50.

• The Aging of the Manufacturing Workforce: Challenges and Best Practices (2019). Manufacturing Institute. Report on how companies have been successful in extending the careers of manufacturing workers.

Reskilling and Upskilling / Lifelong Learning

• Piloting a New Approach to Lifelong Learning: RSA. March 2021. RSA outlines a partnership with Bayes Impact and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth that aims to help workers develop new skills to find meaningful work coming out of the pandemic. Through this partnership, RSA, Bayes Impact, and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth developed a digital careers coaching platform to help people build skills needed for the changing job market. 

• “Can Older Workers Be Retrained? Canadian Evidence from Worker-Firm Linked Data,” by Tony Fang, Morley Gunderson, and Byron Lee: Institute of Labor Economics. April 2021. The Institute for Labor Economics found that older workers have a lower propensity to receive training than their younger counterparts. As a result, older workers require training that is better designed with their needs.

• Training and upskilling older workers is crucial in the recovery: Working Nation. In this episode of Work in Progress, Ramsey Alwin, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging, and Ramona Schindelheim, editor in chief for Working Nation, discuss how to make sure older workers aren’t left behind in the post-pandemic economic recovery.

• After COVID: Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development: The Longevity Project. In collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity, The Longevity Project gathered congressional leaders and national experts to discuss opportunities with regard to the new Congress to advance learning across the course of life and how the federal government can advance workforce development goals coming out of the pandemic.

• Talent Retention and Managing a Multigenerational Workforce: Synergist. This micro report by Synergist addresses the challenges that employers are faced with related to training and retention for the multigenerational workforce.

• Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth. U.K. Department of Education. A whitepaper outlining how to support people in developing the skills they need to get good jobs.

• Decoding Global Trends in Upskilling and Reskilling. Boston Consulting Group. Analysis of how workers make efforts to refine their skillset.

• Randstad US Study Reveals Disconnect Between Employers and Employees in Upskilling Outlook. Randstad. Study on employers who believe professional development is important and how many actually provide it.

• Not Your Grandfather's Corporate Training: 5 Trends Changing Workforce Learning. EdSurge. Observations and trends on workforce learning.

• Lifelong Learning and the Lessons of the Pandemic. Stanford Center on Longevity. Virtual panel on learning during shelter-in-place and how that will change learning in the future.

• It’s Time for a C-Level Role Dedicated to Reskilling Workers. Harvard Business Review. Article on why reskilling employees should be a high priority of company leadership.

• Employment and training for mature adults: The current system and moving forward. The Brookings Institution. Guide assessing current employment and training for older adults with recommendations for moving forward.

• World Economic Forum: Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All. International Labour Organization. World Economic Forum/Boston Consulting Group approach for identifying reskilling and job transition opportunities.

Retirement

• Be SMART: A Knowledge Transformation Tool to Improve Financial Literacy: Sau Po Centre on Ageing, The University of Hong Kong. Be SMART (Beyond Self/Money/Age/Retirement/Today) is an interactive learning tool for financial education and knowledge enhancement. It can help users navigate the complex choice landscape by addressing common misconceptions. 

• Slipping between the cracks? Retirement income prospects for Generation X: International Longevity Centre UK (ILCUK). A report on the so-called “sandwich generation” in the UK that joined the workforce too late to benefit from salary pension schemes, but too early to benefit from auto-enrolment into a workplace pension. The ILCUK teamed up with Phoenix Group to make recommendations to help Generation Xers retire in the next 10-27 years.

• Redesigning Retirement and Human Resource Programs to Support Longer Lives. Stanford Center on Longevity. Article on how employers can adjust their retirement plans and benefits to meet the needs of workers age 50 and older.

• The unique retirement challenges of workers in physically demanding jobs, Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey 2018. Countries around the world are grappling with how to maintain sustainable retirement systems that enable people to retire and age with dignity. The goal of this report is to raise awareness of the retirement-related risks faced by physical workers and recommend actionable insights for individuals, employers, and policymakers on how to mitigate these risks.

• The New Social Contract: Empowering individuals in a transitioning world, AEGON. “The New Social Contract: Empowering individuals in a transitioning world” is based on the eighth annual Aegon Retirement Readiness survey of 14,400 workers and 1,600 retired people across 15 countries spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. It builds on last year's “The New Social Contract: A blueprint for retirement in the 21st century,” which calls for the modernization of existing retirement systems.