There is no shortage of research and recommendations telling employers what they should be doing for their older workers.

So why is Partners in Change undertaking its own little piece of research on what older workers are looking for from the employer?

One of the most powerful exercises we do when developing a strategy is to talk with older workers. Seems a sensible thing to do, but how often do we overlook those affected in our organisations. As one manager in the SME program reported back after interviewing 6 of her staff, “I learned that I need to ask older workers what is important for them and not to assume I know; I don’t.”

In our Explore workshops we ask participants to rank 15 work preferences and then to identify the top 3 priorities for them. The aggregated report is provided back to the employer and gives a clear picture of what their employees consider important at their life stage. It brings the older workers voice to policy development.

While still early days we now have over 200 responses and some trends are emerging.

Do you know what your older workers want? We would be happy to talk with you about  running the survey in your organisation.