United Kingdom: Study Released on Older Workers in the Construction Industry

The Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity (SPARC) has released a study of older workers investigating the needs and abilities of older workers in the construction industry and providing insight into how the working environment may be improved to accommodate those needs. According to "Understanding the Older Worker in Construction", led by Professor Alistair Gibb of Loughborough University, one of the most important issues affecting older workers is employment tenure--being directly employed rather than self-employed is associated with a more favourable working environment for the older worker.

The research suggested that by easing the physical burden of the work wherever possible and by developing interventions to encourage all workers to follow safe practice, work-related injury and ill-health could be largely prevented in the long-term, allowing older workers to remain in the industry for longer. While the findings provide much evidence of the desire of older construction workers to remain in the industry, they also show how the attractions of employing young, cheap immigrant labour far outweigh any desire by the industry to take care of its older workers, so that, in effect, the taxpayer picks up the cost of workplace induced sickness, ill-health and injury.

Source: Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity News Release (January 22, 2008)

Mentoring Roles Can Keep Older Construction Workers on the Job

According to a story by Korky Koroluk, a pilot project to be launched with the Construction Association of Nova Scotia to provide more structure to on-the-job training for apprentices may also help keep some older workers in the construction industry. George Gritziotis, executive director of the Construction Sector Council (CSC), told Koroluk that "journeypersons who instruct and supervise apprentices on the job 'are not hard-wired to do that kind of job,' and more structure is needed so that the industry gets the kind of workforce it needs and could result in mentoring becoming a “designated occupation” in the industry.

He said that older journeypersons with the aptitude and training for mentoring could see it as a way to remain in the industry for another few years.

A lot of what Gritziotis calls “corporate memory” is lost when people retire. Keeping older workers on in mentoring roles would allow them to transfer their knowledge, thus preserving the corporate memory they possess.

Source: Daily Commercial News and Construction Record "Mentoring project in Nova Scotia to aid apprentice training" (January 3, 2008)

Finding and Keeping Skilled Labor among Mature Workers in Construction Industry

Richard Gilbert, writing in the Journal of Commerce reports that employers in the construction industy are being advised that, if they are having difficulty hiring highly-skilled and experienced staff, they need to pay attention to demographics and to develop strategies to attract, engage and retain mature workers. Barbara Jaworski, founder of the Workplace Institute, spoke at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of British Columbia (ASTTBC) and told attendees that “It’s not about being nice to older people. It’s about meeting your organizational needs through the talent, skills and experience of older workers."

In a separate article from Assocated Construction Publications, Steve Hudson of the Dixie Contractor provides the following lists of factors that keep the over-50 set working in construction. First the list of what they worry about:

• Financial Concerns;
• Insurance Concerns
• Not Ready To Retire

Then the list of what they look for:

• Comfortable Working Conditions
• Familiar Equipment
• Reasonable Physical Demands

Thus, for example, Greg Anderson, a supervisor over construction for Southern Land Company, recognizing that "workers over 50 do not want to go out and do physical labor type work," but "want to operate equipment instead," he puts such older workers where they want to be, thus increasing the chances that they will stay on the job.

Sources: Jounral of Commerce "Employers need strategies to attract and retain mature workers" (November 7, 2008); Associated Construction Publications "Retaining the Over-50 Employee: (November 5, 2007)