Dear Queenagers
We are now officially in the Age of Aquarius (it began with the new moon last week), which is all about truth and upheaval. One big truth is the huge effect older workers can have on growth and the economy.
Have you had a tumultuous week? I have! The darkness of Holocaust Remembrance Day gave way to light. I woke on Thursday to my Instagram bleeping constantly: the podcast I recorded with Davina McCall about midlife reinvention had finally landed.
- Check out the latest posts on our Jobs Board
- 5 questions to ask yourself about your changing midlife career
- How to boost your pension in midlife
Davina sweetly rang me to say it was doing brilliantly and that she loved it; she may be a midlife icon but she really means it about midlife sisterhood! You can watch it here.
I’ve received some lovely comments about the podcast and these two really stood out.
“I came across this early this morning and it was just exactly what I needed to hear. My life has been blown apart this past week and because of your inspiration and your work I can see through the darkness.”
“This gave me hope, optimism and a reminder of the sisterhood.”
So the Davina thing was a massive moment; but the highlight of my week was speaking at The Age Pioneers conference at LinkedIn.
At the Age Pioneers conference: older workers = growth
This one-of-a-kind event – an exclusive, invitation-only global conference focussed on work impacts posed by an ageing population – is where senior people and HR leaders to connect, learn and grow their networks.
The room was rammed with Chief People Officers and top honchos from 170 of the world’s biggest companies, all talking about longevity and how if organisations “don’t have an age strategy, they don’t have growth strategy”.
That sounds like a big statement – but it’s true. It’s true in workers and also in terms of consumers.
Growth, the economy and older workers
Lyndsey Simpson CEO of 55/Redefined, who organised the Age Pioneers conference, said:
“This isn’t about being kind to old people – this is about the bottom line, about the huge demographic shifts in our society and in the talent pool which far too few companies are thinking about. Older consumers are the only major growth opportunity in our economy.”
By 2040, 63p in every pound spent by consumers in the UK will be spent by someone aged 50 plus. That is £555 billion! And guess who are leading the way? Queenagers of course.
Forbes magazine calls us Super Consumers, we’re behind 90% of ALL household consumer spending decisions (not surprising since we are buying stuff for ourselves, our partners, our kids if we have them and our parents). The dumb thing is that older people appear in less than 6% of advertising… that is a serious non-alignment!
Why older women in particular matter in the workplace
I loved being in a room with so many people who are as passionate about changing the narrative around ageing as we are at NOON. It also reinforced for me how important the female piece of this is.
Gendered ageism in hiring processes is real. A reminder of some of the facts:
- 60% of women are in employment after 50 but only 20% after 60 – compared to 80% of men. Sure, some of that will be by choice, but not all of it.
- This is a problem when the pay gap is widest for women in their 50s and the pension gap between men and women is 35%.
- If women are pushed out of work at 50 and can’t claim a pension till 68 and haven’t been topping it up in those last 18 years, that spells penury for many Queenagers in old age
The bad news from leading people officers
- There were many professionals in the room on Wednesday who all admitted that algorithms and Millennial recruiters routinely discriminated against people on grounds of age.
- 82% of over-50s are never contacted by a head hunter (The only calls I get seem to be unpaid Chair roles!)
It’s why we run our NOON Jobs Board (powered by 55/Redefined, the company behind the Age Pioneers conference, who are working globally to make business more ‘age-friendly’).
And the prejudices of headhunters and young recruiters are entirely misplaced.
The good news about older workers and growth
- Over 50s employees are 200% less likely to take a sick day than Gen Z employees
- 85% of us are excited about AI and learning new tech skills
- Companies with multi-generational teams are 288% more likely to achieve their goals AND meet customer needs
- We are the best at managing complex change
- A whopping 70% of us want to power up our careers at 50, according to brilliant Dr Lucy Ryan, who heads up Consulting at NOON and who is the author of Revolting Women: Why midlife women are walking out and what to do about it.
Unfortunately not enough organisations have got that memo.
Sometimes the most massive changes are the ones we see least.
What the falling birth rate means for older workers
Did you know that worldwide the birth rate is falling below replacement levels (2.1 per woman)? This shift is HUGE and it has occurred during our lifetimes. In 1960s Ireland women had an average of 4.3 children each, now that figure is 1.7 (in the UK it is 1.4 and in Italy and South Korea even lower).
That means organisations can’t depend on young talent to fill vacancies because in the future labour market there will be so much less of it; this cohort is shrinking by 2% every year.
The good news is there are loads of older workers.
Life spans have doubled in the last 100 years and by 2030 over 50s will make up over half of the workforce. On top of that over half of kids born today can expect to live to 104.
Yes – The 100 Year Life!
It’s not just the nippers; many of us Queenagers are likely to live that long, too. As many of you know, I called our community NOON because in the 100 year life, 50 is only half way through.
It’s only lunchtime – we’ve got the whole afternoon and evening ahead.
Everything we are doing is to help you make the most of the next 40 or 50 years.
We want you to get to 90 or 100 and look back and think – wow, what a ride. That is what joining NOON is all about.
Helping older women helps younger women
That is what I really passionately want to change – and that would make such a difference to younger women too.
Imagine, if in the midst of trying to juggle career and kids in our 30s and 40s, we were told: “Calm down, you can really power up your work life, career and purpose in your 50s, 60s and beyond.”
In the 100-year-life, maybe we can take the pressure off what so many younger women tell me are the ‘years of survival’.
This is the shift we at NOON are trying to make happen.
And I am so grateful to our friends at 55/Redefined for being on this mission with us.
They are helping it become a reality by supporting our NOON Jobs Board – full of jobs and companies ACTIVELY recruiting what I am now calling Wisdom Workers. That’s us!
I hope some of those statistics hit home: Use them and spread the word.
Love Eleanor x
Do you need an inspirational speaker?
It’s International Women’s Day soon, and I am told I am a truly inspirational speaker. If you’d like to book me to speak at your company or organisation please email me at eleanor@noon.org.uk.
