Research finds older employees fear career stagnation

The latest research has found that older employees feel that they have fewer opportunities for progressing their careers, which suggests that focused training programmes are something HR should look at.

This finding is contained within a report that was published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The organisation spoke to over 500 employees of different ages for this report, which highlights an age disparity when it comes to future work prospects. Among employees who are 55 and over, 24% said that they felt they had good opportunities to progress their careers. By way of contrast, the overall average figure that felt this was 39%.

What makes that difference even more notable is the fact that actual employment rates for those over 55 are rising. During the past two decades, they have gone up by 40% – while those for 16 to 24 year olds have fallen by 13%.

Despite that though, just 47% of older workers told the CIPD that their existing jobs offer them chances to learn new skills. Meanwhile, among younger workers, the figure was 73%.

Speaking to HR Magazine, Nick Petschek from Kotter International said:

“By embedding age-diverse learning pathways, peer mentoring, and skills-based progression into company culture, organisations can ensure development is equitable and energising across all generations, providing training and a shared purpose and opportunity.”

As Petschek points out though, this requires a change in corporate culture. That is not an easy thing for HR to manage, but bringing in a specialist company culture consultancy can help with it.