Saturday 1st October is the United Nations International Day of Older Persons. This year’s theme is “Resilience of Older Persons in a Changing World”. A theme that, to be honest, couldn’t be more appropriate based on the impacts of the pandemic and the challenges ahead this autumn/winter now exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.
Today there are almost 11 million people aged 65 and over - 19% of the total population. In 10 years’ time, this will have increased to almost 13 million people or 22% of the population. We can celebrate and be thankful for our older colleagues and hope that Paul’s video, alongside further information and advice below can help you to consider age inclusivity when communicating with colleagues, customers and teams, planning events or programmes and through your recruitment practices.
The Growth Companys’ ‘Age’ sub-network covers age throughout the life course and we are actively looking to grow our group of passionate volunteers to help drive age inclusivity both internally and externally. If this would be of interest to you or you would purely like some more information about what the network does, please contact edi@growthco.uk
Further advice and resources:
- Review the language and images you use in adverts and how they might be perceived by potential applicants – take a look at Centre for Ageing Better’s positive image library à Age-positive image library | Centre for Ageing Better (ageing-better.org.uk)
- Avoid using language or buzzwords that might make certain age groups feel excluded from the role e.g. replacing ‘junior’ with ‘assistant’ could be more appropriate. Words such as ‘dynamic’, ‘go-getter’ and ‘energetic’ may also make someone feel that the advert is aimed at younger people.
- Don’t assume that people want their colleagues to know their age or to celebrate their birthday; this can sometimes be the source of intentional or unintentional ageism.
- Encourage the interaction of employees of all ages, something which does not always happen automatically. This could be done through the creation of peer support groups, knowledge sharing sessions, mentoring schemes or social activities.
- GM Age Friendly Employer Handbook à GM Age friendly employer handbook (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)
- Aspire In Partnership (under the Growth Company umbrella) à call 0161 245 4946 or email AiPEnquiries@gcemployment.uk
- Centre for Ageing Better – State of Ageing 2022 à The State of Ageing 2022 | Centre for Ageing Better (ageing-better.org.uk)