Why older workers are business gold

Employers no longer need to retire older staff purely on the basis of their age. This is good news for businesses and employees. Here are three tips on how to make the most of skills developed over time:

• Retain experienced staff, maximising productivity.
• Use older staff to mentor and train up new recruits.
• Offer flexible working (half of people who recently retired would have worked for longer if they could have accessed flexible work).

Three things you might not know about older workers:

• Older workers often demonstrate great commitment and good attendance
• Older workers tend to have fewer accidents and lower levels of short-term sickness
• Research shows that older worker productivity does not usually decline at least up to the age of 70, where these workers have received the same level of training as younger colleagues.