The issues

In the current economic climate businesses need to make sure every employee, regardless of age is highly engaged, fully committed, and prepared to "go the extra mile". Yet numerous employers are struggling to take advantage of the abundant opportunities inherent in their older workers by failing to recognise how their own policies and practices may be stifling their development.

Unfortunately, prejudice, stereotypes and contradictions about older workers still abound in the workplace, including these:

Stereotypes portray older workers as 'reluctant' and  'slow' learners. Research fails to bear this out revealing that most older employees are keen to keep learning with performance per se generally not declining, if at all, until well past age 70.

Many older employees' careers reach a plateau well before retirement yet often little is done to find ways to help them overcome feelings of boredom and stagnation.

Employers experience problems retaining their best mature people yet the majority say they would be interested in working past retirement age if flexible working options were available.

Our approach

We fervently believe that today, no one between 50 and 70 can possibly be thought of as old, 'over the hill' or 'past it'. We are passionate about convincing society as a whole - including employers, retailers, marketers, politicians, policy makers, and other age groups - that this is a dynamic sector of the population with a huge number of strengths, including practical experience, knowledge, wisdom, energy, and intellectual resourcefulness.

Alongside this goes convincing mature people themselves of their huge wealth of talent and skill and the opportunities open to them. Some may have lost confidence, become trapped by circumstance or habit, or simply may be struggling to find the right choice in terms of a way forward either within their existing job or in relation to their career as a whole.