OECD Forum Virtual Event: Tackling The Great Mismatch: Retaining Talent at All Ages

In the past three years we have seen tremendous changes in what all of us expect from our working lives. The current cost-of-living crisis is further shaping choices to stay or return to the labour market. Within this uncertain context and ongoing labour and skill shortages, attracting and retaining talent at all ages is one of the most important challenges employers face. The OECD Forum Virtual session will discuss the best strategies based on the recommendations of a new OECD report Retaining Talent at All Ages, including better job quality and pay, valuing talent through career development and progression strategies, investment in training and continuous development of skills, more flexibility to reconcile work and other responsibilities and a greater focus on health and well-being in the workplace.
OECD Forum Virtual Event: Tackling The Great Mismatch: Retaining Talent at All Ages
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In the past three years we have seen tremendous changes in what all of us expect from our working lives. The COVID-19 pandemic led many to reflect that life is too short for work that is unfulfilling or does not align with our values. Working from home has also led to higher expectations of more permanent access to flexible ways of managing work, care, and other responsibilities. The current cost-of-living crisis is further shaping workers’ decisions concerning their finances, work, and choices to stay or return to the labour market.

Within this overall quite uncertain context and ongoing labour and skill shortages, attracting and retaining talent at all ages is one of the most important challenges employers face in managing their workforce. With lower inflows of young people into the labour force and outflows increasing due to baby boomers reaching retirement age, labour force growth is now declining in many countries. Additionally, most OECD countries have seen an increase in resignation rates post COVID-19, contributing to the pressures of the tight labour market. In 2022, over 75% of employers reported labour shortages.

Some workplaces are seeing up to five generations working together, each carrying its own values, concerns, needs and expectations. From the Silent Generation (born between 1925-1945), Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1965), Generation X (born between 1965 to 1980),  Gen Y or Millennials (born between 1981 and 1994)  and Gen Zs (born after 1995), employers must now consider all age groups of employees when deciding on the best ways to attract, engage, manage, develop and retain talent.

A multigenerational workforce not only requires that employers are receptive to the perspectives of various generations, but also that they facilitate understanding between employees, addressing false stereotypes and bias, while taking the time to understand the important differences that are a part of generational identities, and the realities different generations have faced throughout their lives and careers.

Living in these stressful times, it is not surprising that both Gen Y and Gen Z value employers who prioritise mental health.

Millennials or Gen Y came of age during the financial crisis with limited job opportunities, and new working arrangements such as zero-hour contracts. It made them very conscious that a job would not be forever. Gen Z, the generation just entering the workforce, has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: they had to complete their schooling online, missing out on opportunities for on-the-job learning, and were unable to build-up support networks of colleagues to help them when work went mostly online. This has had an enormous impact on their mental health.

Living in these stressful times, it is not surprising that both Gen Y and Gen Z value employers who prioritise mental health. Gen Zers’ have also grown up in a time of increasing dis- and misinformation, and tend to be less trusting, and more cautious in the workplace around managers and colleagues. Both generations prefer being coached, mentored, and empowered, rather than the more directive management style that baby boomers may have been used to. 

Despite these differences, evidence suggests that there are much greater similarities in work needs and attitudes across the generations.  For instance, according to an AARP online Global Employee Survey conducted in June-July 2022 amongst employees aged 25 and over, workers of all ages cite low pay, feeling undervalued and lack of advancement in the job as reasons for quitting. Respondents aged 50-64 also mention health problems, caregiving duties and concerns about COVID-19.

Cultivating a well-balanced workplace has been found to improve productivity, lower turnover, and even increase wages.

These difference reflect that people’s engagement with work varies according to their life stage and individual circumstances and that employers’ success increasingly depends on fully mobilising the potential contribution of older as well as younger people in the workforce (OECD, 2021). If not managed properly, the pull and tug between such differences risks deepening the gap between generations and foster disconnected expectations. Well managed, a multigenerational workforce instead represents an important asset. Older workers help support younger workers by drawing from their firm-specific and broader knowledge-base accumulated over time, while younger workers bring their own set of skills to the mix, such as technological and digital savviness, as well as an entrepreneurial, innovative, and broader societal focused approach. Cultivating a well-balanced workplace has been found to improve productivity, lower turnover, and even increase wages.

The OECD also recommends a greater focus on workplace health, and wellbeing programmes, as workers of all ages face physical as well as mental health challenges which significantly impact both their work and personal lives.

So which measures should be encouraged to respond to the varying needs of a multigenerational workforce? In a new report Retaining Talent at All Ages, the OECD makes several recommendations including promoting better job quality and pay, tackling workers’ difficulties in reconciling work with care responsibilities, valuing talent through career development and progression strategies, and investment in training and continuous development of skills.

The OECD also recommends a greater focus on workplace health, and wellbeing programmes, as workers of all ages face physical as well as mental health challenges which significantly impact both their work and personal lives.

More could be done to help with work-life balance, as a clear common wish across all generations is more flexibility in term of location and work schedules. While flexibility may not work for all jobs, it improves employees’ views of their work-life balance when it does, thereby improving job satisfaction and employee retention. Flexible work arrangements are notably effective in helping organisations respond to the potential loss of skills linked to the retirement of older employees, many of whom expressed a stronger willingness to work in jobs that offer flexible schedules – although  evidence from the AARP Global Employee Survey shows that mature workers have much less flexibility in their jobs compared to younger workers.

Finally, according to the 2020 AARP Global Employer Survey, only 42% of employers offer their managers training on management practices for a multigenerational workforce, potentially revealing an area for greater investment.

The OECD Forum Virtual session will discuss the best strategies for retaining talent at all ages, with speakers representing the views of the various generations represented in today’s workplace.




See more information on the speakers 

SCENARIO

14:30               Welcome & Moderation: Pamela Druckerman, Journalist, Emmy-winning Documentary Producer and Author

14:35              Introductory Remarks & Opening:  Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General, OECD

14:45              Keynote: The Rt Hon Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, UK (tbc)

15: 00             Panel Discussion

  • Stefano Scarpetta, Director, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
  • Debra Whitman, Executive Vice President and Chief Public Policy Officer, AARP
  • JC Townend, Country President of The Adecco Group UK and Ireland, and CEO of subsidiary LHH UK & Ireland.
  • Emma Waldman, Editor at Harvard Business Review

16:00          Closing: Pamela Druckerman, Journalist, Emmy-winning Documentary Producer and Author

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