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Dealing with labour shortages

30 August 2010

Older workers are an important element of a diverse response to labour shortages, writes Libby Brooke, Philip Taylor and their research collaborators

http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/dealing-labour-shortages

 

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BWA's "Working Late" Project in the news

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Widely reported on ABC radio, television and online, Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and Brisbane Courier Mail.

Companies turning to older workers: Study

New Australian Research Council funded research has found employers are taking a more positive attitude to hiring and retaining older workers.
Swinburne and Monash University researchers on the “Working Late” project surveyed 600 large organisations and found between 40 and 50 percent were positive about workers over 55.

Monash professor Philip Taylor says the research also found a lack of interest in providing training for older workers.
"It may be that employers are saying well look we're happy to take on an older worker but we don't see them as a long term prospect for the organisation," he said.

Professor Taylor says the finding reflects the economic conditions. "I think there are strong signs of tightening labour markets already," he said.

"I think employers simply can't find the people they need and they're desperate to look at new sources of labour and I think older workers are one."

Associate Professor Elizabeth Brooke of Swinburne University’s Business, Work and Ageing Centre for Research says that the findings show a majority of employers support recruitment of older employees and  encouraging existing employees to retire later; yet only a minority of employers were ready to bring people back from retirement to fill labour shortages.

 

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Meteor Project Plans - The Website

Our project plan is to launch the www.meteorworkability.com.au website in Spring 2010 – You can expect to find best practice case studies, practical tools and more. We are developing a Workability Clearinghouse to provide a review of the evidence base and a centralised repository of information, links and resources on promotion and maintenance of Workability which can be easily accessed by interested stakeholders.

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Workplace Health and Safety Week 2010

Libby Brooke will be a presenter during Worksafe’s Workplace Health & Safety Week, speaking on age management, Workability and BWA projects.
Work Safe Week will be held from 25 – 29 October 2010. Put it in your diary and keep checking back to the WorkSafe Victoria website for updates closer to the time.

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Associate Professor Libby Brooke to moderate a symposium at the International Federation of Ageing 10th Global Conference

5 May 2010

METEOR Project Director, Associate Professor Libby Brooke is the Moderator of a symposium at the International Federation of Ageing 10th Global Conference, to be held in Melbourne.  The session is titled "Innovative Approaches Towards Recruiting And Retaining A Quality Aged Care Workforce".

Libby will be joined by Caroline Alcorso speaking on Skills Australia’s Workforce Futures Strategy and an aged services workforce development project that has taken place on the NSW North Coast, and Leonie Morgan and Brad Sandler speaking about the Victorian Office for the Community Sector’s Community Sector Workforce Capability Framework.

In early June 2010 Libby Brooke will be a presenter at two international research conferences the 4th Symposium on Workability in Tampere, Finland and "Older workers in a sustainable society - great needs and great potentials" which takes place in Oslo, Norway. 

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"Workability - Promoting Productivity in an Ageing Workforce" workshop

3 March 2010

Professor Juhani Ilmarinen, former Director of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health is visiting with BWA again this semester. He will be in Melbourne during March 2010. You have an opportunity to spend a day with him at our full-day workshop "Workability - Promoting Productivity in an Ageing Workforce", presented by The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia with support from Swinburne University of Technology, Monash University and WorkSafe Victoria.
For more information: View the flyer

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BWA Research Projects

METEOR

The project body implementing the Managing Employment Pathways project, METEOR (Matching Employees & Training to Employers for Ongoing Recruitment and Retention), was launched by Mr Todd Harper, VicHealth CEO on May 4th 2009.   Professor Juhani Ilmarinen, Professor Philip Taylor and A/ProfessorLibby Brooke gave presentations at the launch to aged careorganisations, government and others including peak bodies in aged care and recruitment. The project will be implemented in Metropolitan regions and Bendigo. New staff members have been appointed to coordinate the project

BWA is delighted to announce that it was awarded a grant in the latest ARC Linkages round (2008 Round 2 for funding commencing in 2009): Retiring women: Understanding older female work-life transitions (LP0990703) ($400,000). The project team consists of Professor Philip Taylor, A/Prof essorLibby Brooke, Professor Nita Cherry, Dr Janet Gregory (Swinburne University), Professor Margaret Steinberg (Swinburne University, QUT); and Dr Diana Olsberg (UNSW). Industry partners are ESS Super, Westpac Banking Corporation and UniSuper.

BWA was awarded a grant in ARC Linkages round 2007 Round 2 for funding commencing in 2008: Working late and the spectre of uselessness: Sustaining labour supply in a globalising economy (LP0884065) ($430,000). The project team consists Professor Philip Taylor (Monash University). A/Prof Libby Brooke (Swinburne University); Professor Peter McDonald (ANU), Louise Rolland (Ernst and Young) and Professor Margaret Steinberg (Swinburne University, QUT). Our project partners are the Queensland Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, the Infohrm group and the Australian Population Institute (APOP).

A/Prof Libby Brooke has recently been awarded $307,000 over three years to support her project, Managing Employment Pathways, from an ANZ Philanthropic Trust (Wicking Trust). This builds on her existing VicHealth Fellowship which aims to build employment pathways consisting of recruitment, training and retention in aged care employment to support and prolong the working lives of aged care workers.

 

VicHealth      VicHealth

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New Publications

Libby Brooke recently published an article in Ageing and Society, 29, 2009, 237-256, Prolonging the careers of older information technology workers: continuity, exit or retirement transitions? The article explores the ways in which older workers’ career trajectories influence their exits from or continuity of employment in the Australian information technology (IT) industry. The article found that the nature of IT careers, as time-limited sequences, led to disjunctive career trajectories. Hence it was difficult for older workers to maintain their footholds in the IT industry in the face of exceptional dynamism and competitiveness, which resulted in ‘default’ transitions to retirement.

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Visiting Scholars

BWA was very pleased to have an eminent visiting scholar with us between January and May 2009 and again in March 2010. Professor Juhani Ilmarinen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Juhani is a well known researcher into issues of workforce ageing and one of the principal developers of the ‘workability’ construct. While with us, Juhani supported the dissemination of findings from our ARC funded project: Redesigning Work for an Ageing Society and contributed to a seminar and launch of METEOR.

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Speaking Engagements

In June Associate Professor Libby Brooke spoke at two international research conferences, the 4th Symposium on Workability in Tampere, Finland and “Older workers in a sustainable society – great needs and great potentials” in Oslo, Norway. Libby convened and spoke at a symposium at the International Federation of Ageing Conference in Melbourne May 2010.
In October 2010 Libby Brooke will speak at Worksafe Victoria’s workplace health and safety week.

Philip Taylor spoke at the event: A Research Seminar the Ageing Workforce, organised by WorkCover SA in Adelaide on 6 May 2009.

Philip Taylor spoke at the conference Older Workers and Social Policy in the 21st Century held at University of Massachusetts Boston on 24 April, 2009.

Philip Taylor spoke at the Third Age Challenge Trust conference Age Diversity in the Downturn: Business Benefits of Creative Approaches to Age Management which was convened for the British Equality and Human Rights Commission by TAEN – The Age and Employment Network, on 20th March 2009 at the The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.

Libby Brooke presented a paper to WorkCover SA staff in Adelaide on May 4th on the METEOR project, Building and supporting employment pathways.

Libby Brooke will present a paper at the International Association of Gerontology Congress in Paris in early July 2009, The well-being of older job-seekers: implications for the labour force participation agenda.

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Recent Publications

Brooke,L., (2010) Retaining older workforces in aged care work, 4th Symposium on Workability, Tampere, Finland, June 2010

Brooke,L., (2010) International Federation on Ageing 10th  Global Conference, Melbourne, May 2010

Brooke,L., (2010)  Discrimination Workshop - Occupational processes and age stereotypes, Older Workers In A Sustainable Society Conference Oslo, Norway, June 2010

Brooke,L., (2010)  Promoting Productivity in an Ageing Society Workshop, Melbourne, 23 March 2010

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