Nearly two thirds of employees over 55 passed over for promotion

Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of employees older than 55 have been overlooked for a promotion in the last year by their current company.

This is according to an Diversity & Inclusion report from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, which has an office in Bracknell.

The survey, which contacted 6,000 professionals, also found that a third of over-55s said they are unaware of what steps they needed to take to be promoted; only 12 per cent of professionals aged under 25 said the same.

Chris Poole, UK Managing Director at Robert Walters, said: “With professional job vacancies continuing to climb at near-record levels, causing a severe skills shortage, we cannot afford to overlook such a crucial part of our workforce.”

“Workers over the age of 50 come with bags of experience both professional and personal, and have a well-sought after resilience to economic upheaval considering the number of financial or political changes they have weathered in their career.”

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Before the pandemic, the rate of economic inactivity across the UK was decreasing, evidenced in employment rates increasing decade-on-decade. Since the virus, however, these rates have been steadily going back up to the point that 21.4 per cent of the population are now classified as economically inactive (unemployed).

Further driving concerns around what has been referred to as a ‘silver exodus’ as older workers leave workplaces at a faster rate than usual without chasing new employment, the Office of National Statistics estimates that nearly three quarters of those classed economically inactive will be aged 50-64.

The report does show that professionals aged between 41-75 are in a better position to take early retirement with double the number of older professionals receiving higher pension contributions as a key workplace benefit compared to those under 40.

However, with 17 per cent of over-50s stating their manager does not take time to understand their personal challenges, those remaining in work are finding themselves pushed further and further into the margins.

The three main challenges for over-50s, according to the survey, are lack of opportunities (41 per cent) difficulty balancing work and personal lives (33 per cent) and lack of training (21 per cent).

One channel open to older workers is casual work, which avoids the challenges of full-time employment; 45 per cent of over-50’s said that they are open and actively looking for part-time work outside of their full-time job with freelancing, consulting roles, and project-based work aligned to their main professional skillset being the most popular part-time roles.

Increasing numbers of over-50s are also turning to the internet, where not only are older professionals using TikTok to explain complex areas in their field of work like finance, real estate, or law – but also providing lifestyle tips to their age demographic around fitness and style.

The survey comes following a recent call by John Lewis CEO Sharon White for older workers to return to the workplace to prevent ‘stagflation’ which is the triad of rising prices, rising unemployment and slow economic growth.

With this in mind, the survey also looked into the top workplace perks which appeal to over-50’s, which are:

1. Flexi-hours (55%)
2. Company pension contributions (40%)
3. Training Opportunities (34%)
4. Bonus-Schemes (30%)
5. Private health insurance (32%)

Chris Poole said: “Employers should be concentrating on resolving the issues deterring over-50s from work. They need to compete with the allure of early retirement and more casual work options by implementing skills-sharing schemes to help stimulate promotion opportunities for mature workers, or establishing more accessible hybrid-working options to accommodate the need for flexible working.”

“If we have learnt anything from the past few years it is the importance of employers being receptive to the needs of employees – both current and prospective. In times of economic uncertainty and a global skills shortage, we simply cannot afford to lose our most experienced and skilled mindsets.”

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