Organisations to change as Boomers work longer

Life expectancy for Australian males is 84 years and 88 if you're female. So if you're planning to retire at 65, your retirement savings will need to last around 20 years.

But will employers see the writing on the wall?

Professor Ross Gurst and Kate Shacklock from Griffith University conducted one of the most comprehensive literature reviews in to organisational demographics in 2006.

Their paper 'The impending shift to an older mix of workers: perspective from the management and economic literatures', said there was no evidence to support age workforce stereotypes.

They found older workers bought experience and maturity to the workplace. They were in the main, reliable, dependable and loyal. Older workers had low job attrition rates, possessed strong applied knowledge.

Cambridge University conducted a ten-year study of older workers in the 1990s and found that their experience gave an increased ability to deal with new and unexpected situations. The study found although speed declined a little with age, accuracy increased and 'unconscious optimisation' which is the ability to compensate for minor changes in impaired performance.

There is considerable evidence that mature age workers deliver a net benefit of $1956 per year to their employer compared to other workers due to high retention rates, lower rates of absenteeism, decreased recruitment costs and greater return on investments.

The Federal Government has expanded the $43 million Experience+ program to workers aged 50 and over. This includes grants of $4950 for employers of mature age workers to help in up-skilling, on the job support for mature aged workers whose jobs may be at risk due to ill health, free professional career advice and more.

Enticing older workers to stay in the workforce longer enhances productivity growth, improves living standards and helps meet the fiscal challenge of an ageing population.

And what of younger workers? Their labour will be in high demand and depending on the profession, can expect strong wage growth. The savvy will consider a trade or investigate a university degree or TAFE qualification.

Small adjustments now to grow the economy by increasing productivity and participation and planning for future demographic change will prevent the need for sharper and more costly adjustments in the future.