‘Grow old with me!’
Representing IES at the annual Forum of the European HR Directors’ Circle last week, Dr Duncan Brown came away with some great ideas and examples for taking the opportunities presented by our ageing workforces across Europe, as well as how states and employers should be responding to the undoubted challenges.
My brilliant former IES colleague Professor Stephen Bevan introduced me to the European HR Directors’ Circle. The Circle’s annual two-day get-together in Cascais Portugal saw a wonderfully diverse range of more than 50 members from large employers and leading academic institutions, ranging from VW and Renault to Safran, Carrefour and Enterprise Mobility.
Chair Yves Barou in his opening reminded us of the Circle’s purpose, ‘assessing the macroeconomic and societal challenges, whilst drawing on the practical actions that businesses can take’. Perfect for IES’s ‘research-into-practice’ raison d’être!
The theme this year was ‘Addressing Demographic Challenges in European Business’, with the constituent issues of ‘workforce ageing, labour shortages, working across the different generations’ highlighted.
Generation v generation?
Kerri O’Neill, the HR Director at IPSOS, was a great addition to Team GB at the meeting this year. Kerri shared findings from their latest 2026 Generations at Work research covering 20,000 employees right across the age spectrum in 30 different countries, aiming ‘to disentangle generational myths and realities’.
The reality of what they found was: ‘The workplace is an environment where all generations interact daily. Rather than Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen X experiencing work fundamentally differently, the data points to a consistent workforce lifecycle, as careers develop.’
Or as Professor Emma Parry memorably summarised at an IES HR Network meeting, the only conclusion from all the ‘pop-research’ on the generations is ‘you get old!’.
The ageing workforce
The most extensively discussed theme at the Forum was the globally intertwined phenomena of ageing (and often declining working age) populations and falling birth rates. Last month for example, the Office for National Statistics reported there were 585,000 live births in the UK in 2025, down 10,000 on the year before and the lowest overall figure for 50 years.
Professor Christian Kellerman from the German University of Labour explained that: ‘Germany is not on the brink of demographic change – it is already in the middle of it!’. In just a few years, the economy will lack the workers needed to generate prosperity and sustain the welfare state in its current form.’
Germany’s working-age population is projected to decline by 4.3m by 2036. Without action in response, this will lead to an estimated 14% fall in real national GDP, with major increases in care and health costs.
The German government’s responses include making it easier for firms to attract skilled workers from overseas and encouraging employees to stay in work. The new ‘active pension’ (Aktivrente) scheme allows those working beyond the statutory retirement age to earn up to €2,000 per month tax-free. But how are employers responding and how should they?
Retaining older workers
The good news is that the employment rate of workers aged 55 years and over is now 66% in the EU and 65% in the UK, with those aged 65 years and older the fastest-growing employment group, in the EU up by 57% since 2011 to 10.2% (Eurostat, 2026).
This growth has been heavily-driven by improved retention rates. The downside is that only 6.6% of older workers in the EU were newly hired (2022 data). Age continues to be the most widely reported dimension of discrimination, by over 1/3 of the over-50s in the UK according to the Centre for Ageing Better.
Just 20% of UK employers prioritise the ageing workforce strategically (CFAB, 2023), while only one-third of our employers provide specific training to counter age discrimination/stereotyping.
Employer policies that are found to have the most impact on employing older workers include:
- Recruitment – continuing to de-emphasise age criteria and removing stereotypes at every stage in the process.
- Health and wellbeing support – John Lewis for example, have added five years to the average employee age in some stores with a range of flexible working initiatives, including moving people to office roles, allocating tasks by physical ability and with a new carers’ policy.
- Flexible working policies – shown to have a huge impact, though they are often not targeted at old workers.
- Training and development and what one Circle member at the meeting called ‘a return to more proactive career management’.
- Of no surprise to consumers of IES research, ‘good work’ and jobs in terms of high autonomy, work interest and enjoyment, skills development and so on. OECD research highlights big differences in the ‘age-friendliness’ of jobs across.
Again of no surprise to IES HR Network members well-versed in the importance of sustained and systemic change management, time and again in Portugal we heard that the combination, or ‘bundle’ of policies, actions and initiatives is more effective than any single ‘magic-bullet’ practice. The OECD has a nice checklist of this full range of age-friendly policies organised into mobilising, maintaining and maximising categories.
Our core skill as HR professionals is not to copy supposed ‘best-practice’ from other employers, but rather to tailor the balance and emphasis in these policies to suit our strategies, environments and cultures.
At Safran for example, the world’s second largest aircraft equipment manufacturer, work will start soon on the design of the next generation of more fuel-efficient, open-engined planes due to go into service in the early 2040s. Retaining and recognising the expertise of experienced employees, while addressing the risk of labour shortages, is key. This starts with detailed skills -based workforce planning. All managers are trained through awareness programs on the value of age diversity and senior talent. There are even retention as well as recruitment targets set for experienced and senior professionals in key parts of the organisation, so critical is this knowledge to the company’s future.
Growing older (and more valued, skilled and healthier) with me…
‘Employers and policy makers have a key role to play in fostering a labour market that values older workers as a vital asset. They must focus on confronting ageism, creating age-friendly workplaces, promoting lifelong learning and employability through the life course, and supporting job mobility…longer working lives are not only achievable but also fair, productive, and fulfilling for all.’ OECD, 2020
While a love-struck Robert Browning may have understandably exaggerated the benefits of getting older in my titular quotation, the HR Director Circle Forum undoubtedly highlighted the progress that has been made by companies and countries in Europe in employing older workers, while recognising that major challenges persist.
HR leaders need to make a more powerful business case for action, as further progress in the current economic climate is undoubtedly challenging. They need to continue to fight ageist attitudes and practices, targeting discrimination particularly evident in recruitment, training, workplace flexibility, and health and wellbeing. The most successful strategies combine several measures, rather than relying on a single solution.
And both the Circle and of course IES would reinforce the OECD’s conclusion that in a fast-moving geopolitical and economic context, the ‘ongoing sharing of best practices and experience is vital for further improvement’ in this field.
Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.