<strong>Age matters!<br />
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It&rsquo;s common knowledge that people from all over the world are&nbsp;living longer now than ever before. <br />
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When coupled with falling birth rates and rising retirement age,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s no surprise that we all exist as part of a growing, ageing work&nbsp;population.<br />
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An article by <a href="The">http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21601248-generation-old-people-a… Economist</a> reveals that in&nbsp;2010, the world had 16 people aged 65 and over for every 100 adults between the&nbsp;ages of 25 and 64 (working age). It is estimated that by 2035, Japan will have&nbsp;69 old people for every 100 working age and Germany will have 66. The UK is&nbsp;expected to have 2 working age people for every 1 old before 2060.<br />
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According to the article, productivity growth has &lsquo;slowed&nbsp;sharply&rsquo; in Japan and &lsquo;become lacklustre&rsquo; for Germany, suggesting that an&nbsp;ageing work population could mean a less efficient and potentially unproductive&nbsp;workforce.&nbsp;That being said, research suggests that better education&nbsp;leads to higher productivity at any age, which means that a group of highly&nbsp;educated older people would still increase overall productivity.<br />
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Our recent <a href="/fulfilment-report/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Financial+%26+Professional&amp;utm_campaign=4108295_C%26I+Client+Mailer+-+13th+May&amp;dm_t=0,0,0,0,0">Fulfilment@work</a> survey revealed that older people&nbsp;are feeling more fulfilled at work&nbsp;than ever before.&nbsp;This could explain why people are working longer and&nbsp;investing in education and training at an older age. It could also arguably suggest&nbsp;that productivity doesn&rsquo;t correlate negatively with an ageing work population,&nbsp;as it is common knowledge that a &lsquo;happy workforce&rsquo; is a more productive&nbsp;workforce.<br />
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So perhaps it is perception&nbsp;we need to address. Businesses should not disregard older workers or pre-judge&nbsp;a more experienced applicant in favour of newly qualified graduates or&nbsp;trainees, as different demographic groups (and individuals) will bring different&nbsp;skills and attributes to the table. <br />
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The world&rsquo;s largest independent employer brand survey, The&nbsp;Randstad Award, explores the perceptions of 200,000 global applicants to&nbsp;discover what they look for in a good employer. UK results can be segmented by&nbsp;age, educational background, location and trade &ndash; you can view the <a href="/i-am-an-employer/strongest-employer-brands/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Financial+%26+Professional&amp;utm_campaign=4108295_C%26I+Client+Mailer+-+13th+May&amp;dm_t=0,0,0,0,0">Randstad Award UK report</a> here. Take a look&nbsp;and see how age and education affects what people want from a potential&nbsp;employer. <br />
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