Adding ‘mature age workers’ to an organisation’s diversity policies will ensure employers are thinking about what they can do to attract older workers into their teams”
As a more vulnerable cohort, older Australians also suffered disproportionately from the economic fallout of the early days of the pandemic. A report by the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Human Resources Institute found that more than half of older workers experienced problems finding a job or being retained by their employer because of the COVID-19 crisis. 8 A 2021 paper by employment services provider Max Solutions recently revealed that it is taking older Australians an average of 119 weeks to find a job once they become unemployed – three and a half months longer than the average among all jobseekers. Common challenges cited by employers when hiring and retaining mature age workers include mature age workers having fixed ideas about ways of working and challenges with the intellectual and physical requirements of a position, according to the report. 9 However, advocates for older Australians say it may take more than simply retraining mature age workers to see some improvements. Council for the Ageing Chief Executive Ian Yates told the Sydney Morning Herald that including age as part of a company’s diversity metric would be an important step to encourage employers to consider older Australians for more roles. “Adding ‘mature age workers’ to an organisation’s diversity and inclusion policies will help ensure employers are regularly thinking about what they can do to attract and retain older workers into their teams,” Mr Yates said. “Even small businesses can make a change by removing ‘date of birth’ from job application forms.” 10
1 Media Release: Boosting the mature age workforce. National Seniors Australia, 8 December 2021 2 Media Release: Boosting the mature age workforce. National Seniors Australia, 8 December 2021 3 How paid work impacts your pension. NSW Government 2022 4 Media Release: Boosting the mature age workforce. National Seniors Australia, 8 December 2021 5 More Australians intend to work longer. ABS, 18 December 2017
6 Ageism in the workplace: Speaking up about Australia’s silent bias. Human Resources Director, 10 August 2021 7 Over 65s flooding the job market – and finding they’re not so employable. Sydney Morning Herald, 10 August 2019 8 Ageism in the workplace: Speaking up about Australia’s silent bias. Human Resources Director, 10 August 2021 9 Breaking the age barrier: Unlocking the experience of older Australians in the workforce. Max Solutions, September 2021 10 Barriers to finding a job when you’re over 50. Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 2021
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