Welcome to Forster AGEncy

It seems that regardless of how your body and mind function and how successful you are at doing your job, that once your birthday has been round 50 plus times that people start to see you in a different light.

Age UK has highlighted that many of the people who have been unemployed for over 12 months are aged over 50. With two out of five people over 50 unemployed for over a year (and three-quarters of them are men) this appears to be strong evidence of the age discrimination that existing in many workplaces. The government's recent announcement to raise the compulsory age of retirement is therefore an irrelevant policy change for many older workers who don't make it to anything like official retirement age before being put on the working scrap heap.

You can replace old with young when there are skilled motivated young people available. But there are fewer and fewer of those around. The UK's demographics are such that there are now more people of active working age in the over 50s than under 30s. And we've all heard, and many of us have seen the consequences, of a skewed education system that see young people entering the job market with too few of the basic skills that are needed by today's employers. So the business imperative to ensure that older people stay within the workforce is here to stay.

There are excellent examples of employers who recognise the advantages of both recruiting and/or retaining older workers. B&Q have been doing it for years. They recognise that regardless of whether is individual is 30, 50 or 70 the most important factor is whether they know their stuff and can help deliver the business's promise to customers.

Managers need to see mature workers as an asset and not a liability. The vast majority of people over 50 have acquired considerable experience over their working life that enables them to bring knowledge and skills to their work. You hear companies say they need fresh young blood to bring innovation and creativity but that needn't be the preserve of youth. Prince Charles recognised this when he established the Princes's Initiative for Mature Enterprise to help support new businesses of older people.

If you're a HR Manager and you want to take a new look and old age then come and speak to us at Forster AGEncy. We can share a wealth of positive examples and help ensure your company is age positive.

News that the upper age limit for jurors may be kept at 70 misses the point about ageing.

“Proceedings might be hampered by poor hearing, poor vision or physical disability,” a report from the Council of Circuit Judges explains. (One can imagine the council’s spokesperson slowing down and RAISING THEIR VOICE while reading out this bit.) The report concludes: “There is no compelling case to alter the status quo''.

Really?

In February, a two year study for the Ministry of Justice revealed that two thirds of jurors do not fully understand judge’s legal directions. The report author’s concluded that “jurors want and need better information to perform this crucial role”.

Jury problems have been behind some of the most high profile court collapses in recent years. Like any randomly selected group of 18-70 year olds, jurors may be deaf, experience stress, be on low incomes or fall pregnant.

However, as with sense loss, poverty or certain health conditions, people shouldn’t be prevented from contributing solely on the basis of their age. There are good grounds for exclusion from jury service and while there may be grounds for extending them on a case by case basis, it is surely throwing the baby out with the bathwater to impose a blanket moratorium on the grounds of an arbitrary chronological age limit and associated stereotypical assumptions.

As the then Chairman of RNID James Strachan said during the debate about deaf jurors: “I find it ridiculous that I can be a chief executive, sit on a government task force and run a multi-million pound business, but am unable to serve on a jury.”

To that, we might add that it is ridiculous that a person aged 71, who has lived through the second world war, worked for 40 years and raised two generations of children, cannot use their experience as a juror.

It’s a real shame that the judiciary has taken the retrograde step of endorsing the 70 year age limit.

In 2009, the default retirement age (DRA) of 65 was effectively ended by Mr Justice Blake’s ruling on a test case brought by the charities formerly known as Age Concern and Help the Aged, together with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

And judges themselves are hardly fresh-faced graduates.  In 2002, the average age of a senior law court judge was 58, and the average age of the 12 members of the Supreme Court is currently 68.75.

Given what we do at Forster AGEncy, we’re bound to see the problem in terms of communications solutions. We’d love to do a bit of stakeholder engagement work with the Council of Circuit Judges’ members, to come up with more imaginative responses to the jury problem than ill-informed stereotyping, and challenge their ideas about people aged over 70. But perhaps in a few years’ time, when our septuagenarian judges find ways to overcome any “poor hearing, poor vision or physical disability” they may be starting to experience, we might see the Council of Circuit Judges revise their learned opinion without our help.

Choppy waters lie ahead  - and behind. Following the economic downturn, the impact of huge cuts in public sector spending will ripple across all sectors, and communicators need to be at the vanguard of understanding what this will mean for audiences. If we were in an age of abundance, and are now in an age of anxiety, are we moving towards an age of responsibility?

As times change, people change with them. Consumers of the flighty nineties and optimistic new millennium have grown up and downgraded their expectations. Where once the ambitious looked to trade up, on their houses, cars, jobs and lifestyles, they are now looking for every opportunity to economise.

The new GP consortia will clearly have their work cut out to ensure that prevention and early awareness don’t fall off the radar as people struggle to maintain healthy behaviours on lower budgets. There are opportunities, but there are risks too. Can we expect people to take more advantage of free health services, or will risk aversion lead them to cower from cancer screening appointments? Will recycling take off as people save every last drop, or will it be harder than ever to motivate people to do anything for the public good? When it comes to penalties, will people start parking within the lines to avoid fines at all costs, or will the state become the enemy, to be cheated at every corner?

Of course, it’s impossible to tell. But what we can do is apply the insights gathered through all our work over the last decade to understand the trends and behavioural patterns we can expect to see. We have begun to look at some consumer shifts, looking at individuals as they were then, as they are now, and how they will be, or can be, with the right impetus.

For example, those people who might describe themselves as ‘single minded’, who in an age of abundance were bullish in pursuit of their goals, are now more likely be anxious – channelling their focus into concern about their own and their families’ welfare. But this is precisely the same group who, in an age of responsibility, can be galvanised to build on their natural resourcefulness. Similarly, people we might describe as ‘passionate’, who were once powerful drivers of accumulating wealth, are now more likely to be rigorously frugal. These are people who will think in a joined up way, seeing the opportunities as well as the threats, and staying open to genuine innovation.

By placing your audience at the heart of your communications, you’ll have a much better chance of cutting through all the noise and distraction to truly engage the people you need to. It’s not enough to tell people what you are doing, you need to show that you are involved in what they are doing.
Although we’re drilling down into tactics here, it sounds obvious to recommend that organisations make very careful use of every PR pound. But what this really means is – do nothing flash. For example, only use celebrities if they’re doing it for free or are genuine supporters. Is it appropriate? Did we vote Labour through Eddie Izzard or Conservative through Take That? We’re all increasingly cynical and distrustful.

For every consumer, communications need to be benefits-led - what’s in it for them? Help people make the connections they need and want to make. Think positive rather than just focus on the gloom. Understand how your audiences’ lives and experiences have changed over the last few years, and adapt accordingly.   

It’s never been so true that to change the way people think and act, you have to understand them first, not just who they are now, but who they were then, and who they will go on to be. Effective communications are targeted, focused and built around the audience, and with this in mind, we can all create longer, better, more sustainable change.