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Barriers and Enablers to the Multigenerational Workforce

CEPAR

Catherine Rickwood, Natasha Ginnivan, Meiwei Li, Mitiku Hambisa, Kaarin J. Anstey

A recent CEPAR (2021) report brought to light several opportunities for accessing the ageing population including the need for employers to have better strategies to recruit and retain older workers. The 3i framework of Include, Individualise and Integrate, outlined by CEPAR researchers, Professor Sharon Parker and Senior Research Fellow Dr Daniela Andrei, provides a broad approach for organisations to manage mature workers.

The results and findings presented in this report contribute to the knowledge in this area. The need to understand the enablers and barriers for creating a multigenerational workforce across age groups and seniority is considered critical. For organisations to embrace age diversity it’s essential that senior executives and managers know what’s required for older and younger workers to effectively and harmoniously work together for individual and collective benefit.

Through an extensive qualitative research program that included interviews with senior executives and multiple focus groups with employees aged 25+ with a leading financial institution and national retailer, we’re delighted to contribute to this field of research. Findings reveal that building intergenerational mentorship and training programs for managers and teams; identifying, understanding and addressing communication differences; and introducing recruitment policies and practices that encourage and support age diversity are some of the factors critical to championing a multigenerational workforce.

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