Seasoned workers – those in the UK workforce over the age of 50 years – are comprised of some of the most experienced and skilled talent in the UK. Yet, more than 3.5 million people aged 50-64 years have opted out of the workforce – and this is a trend that is rapidly increasing. As a result, this has led to a growing skills and experience gap with 80% of UK businesses struggling to find the talent they need.
The impact of the seasoned worker exodus is not confined to the loss of valuable skills and experience – it also:
- Hurts business income and expenditures (average cost of recruiting replacement = £6,000+)
- Decreases industry and institutional knowledge
- Harms business culture and organisational diversity.
But a large proportion of this demographic could be enticed to return to work with the right offering. According to a 2022 government report, nearly 760,000 people aged 50-64 years are either actively seeking work, or are inactive but are willing or would like to work. This is an eager and waiting workforce that could almost wipe out the UK’s current labour shortage in one fell swoop. And businesses that embrace seasoned workers may reap the benefits of a treasure trove of skills and experience.
Manpower’s Later in Careers Pathway – part of the MyPath programme – has been developed to encourage and support individuals in later life looking to return to work and draw upon their experience, knowledge and skills whilst helping to overcome today’s skills shortage. Our modular programme can be adapted to meet the specific needs of both candidate and client, whether this be soft skills training or accredited learning.
Our graduates are:
Case study
ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions partnered with a leading financial services company to deliver a Later in Careers programme focused on the retention and engagement of seasoned workers. The programme objective was to give veteran employees an opportunity to understand how their career could continue to evolve by giving them access to independent and confidential 1-to-1 coaching, and the tools and resources to enable informed decisions about their future. Whether that was career advancement, exploring new internal opportunities, becoming a coach or mentor, looking to work flexibly or even begin their journey as they planned for retirement.
Our support also included designing bite-sized learning sessions both for seasoned employees and managers on the importance of proactive career conversations, and how to create a safe environment for dialogue. We created a toolkit and resources to help increase the confidence and ability of managers in driving the engagement and retention of key skills and seasoned talent through open career conversations.