Society is changing.
But is the way we work changing sufficiently to be in tune with
these social changes? This is the question posed by a new
report form the Work Foundation, Changing Demographics.
Among the changes taking place in the UK population are:
- the workforce is set to grow by 300,000 between 2004 and
2010
- over 80% of this growth is expected to be women
- there will be 2.7 workers to every non-worker by 2020 -
compared to a 4:1 ration in 1990
- At present, there are some 17 million people in the UK
aged 20-40, and 14 million between 45 and 65. By 2020, the
younger group is expected to shrink to 16 million, while the
older group will grow to 17 million, as the baby boomer
generation matures
- 8% of the workforce will be from an ethnic minority by
2030
- 1 in 5 UK workers will be mothers
- 25% of all families will be single parent families
- up to 10 million people will have some responsibility in
caring for elderly relatives.
Workplaces need to evolve in accordance with these social
changes, and to cater for the differing aspirations of workers
at all stages of life, according to the authors Laura Williams
and Alexandra Jones.
What does the workforce want?
The Work Foundation commissioned a telephone survey of 1000
adults aged 16+ to investigate these issues. Amongst the
findings is overwhelming support for flexible work.
Currently about two thirds of the respondents work flexibly to
some degree - but nearly everyone want s increased flexibility.
Younger respondents want to work flexibly throughout their
lives, and anticipate a scaling down of their working ours prior
to retirement.
Older workers (the over 55s), however, see themselves working
on into their 60s, many of them in full-time work. More
clearly needs to be done to persuade employers to recruit from
this section of the workforce, and abandon current and often
discriminatory preferences for younger workers.
One need clearly identified is to have a break in working
life that is a "career lay-by" rather than a "career
cul-de-sac". This does not apply only to maternity, but
most workers would like to have the option to have time out
without damaging their careers. As the report says:
"This suggests that career structure needs to be changed"
says the report. People should be able to park their
careers, and then resume them them later without penalty.
Currently, if you take time out it is very difficult to resume a
career. People who do this find themselves with fewer
opportunities for training, lower wages and little chance to
progress.
"No" to long hours
The long hours culture was well in evidence in the survey,
with some 30% of people working more than 40 hours per week, tow
thirds of whom are men. 4% of respondents worked over 60 hours
per week. - mostly in agriculture, manufacturing and
construction. Overall, managers and skilled manual workers
are the most likely to work longer hours.
People do it - but they don't like it. Most people in
fact have aspirations to work fewer hours.
It would be interesting to have an investigation into what
people actually do to work very long hours - asking them whether
they thought everything they did was productive or whether
longer hours are largely the product or inefficiency. Not
their own inefficiency, necessarily, but that of the systems
they work with and ingrained cultural behaviours.
Managers and professionals often complain about excessive
paperwork, meetings and too much in-work travel. But these
are the very things that can be rationalised when implementing
flexible working.
Working differently
A key finding of the report is how people want to work
differently at different stages of their life. And
perceptions of this change as one matures.
Part-time working is 7 times more likely to be favoured by
the 55+ age group than the 16-24 age group.
70% of women think that part-time working is ideal when they
have young children, compared to 20% of men. The other 30%
of women are more or less evenly split between see full time
working or not working as ideal at this time.
Given the figures about the increasing number of mothers in
the workforce, this is an important finding.
The majority of both men and women would ideally like
full-time flexible working when they have older children.
The report supports the
Flexibility view that that government policy should not
only address the needs of parents with young children.
Interestingly, men are more likely to see part-time working
as ideal when it comes to eldercare than for when their own
children when they are young.
Younger workers and older workers have different views about
working into their 60s. Unsurprisingly, younger people find it
harder to imagine themselves still working at this age.
but as the report points out, few people now under 50 are likely
to have adequate pension provision to stop working by this age.
This mismatch between expectations and financial realities may
be storing up policy problems for the future
The report concludes:
"Our survey respondents have demonstrated that they want to
be able to work in different ways as their
responsibilities change - not to stop making an economic
contribution, but to make a different one at different times.
They are looking for employers and the Government to provide a
working climate that enables them to make changes without
impacting on their career success or their earnings potential.
"With the labour market becoming more female, older and
more diverse, these are growing demands that the government is
starting to respond to - and that all employers need to sit up
and listen to. The UK's demographics are already
changing: the workplace cannot afford not to."
|
