Why Hiring Older Workers Could Rescue the Hospitality Sector

Is your organisation missing out on a powerful and overlooked talent pool?
In this episode of the Inclusive Growth Show, Toby Mildon speaks with Dr Andrew Jenkins, an expert in employment and age discrimination, to explore why older workers could be the key to solving the UK’s persistent hospitality staffing crisis.

With insights from Andrew's extensive research and real-world examples - including B&Q’s game-changing recruitment strategy the episode dismantles common myths about older employees and reveals the untapped potential of a multi-generational workforce.

Key takeaways include:

• The damaging impact of age-based stereotypes in hiring
• Why older workers are a viable solution to post-Brexit staffing gaps
• How flexible recruitment strategies can attract talent over 50
• The business case for a multi-generational workforce
• Practical steps for building age-inclusive workplaces

Guest Highlights:
Guest: Dr Andrew Jenkins
Title: Lecturer in Management
Institution: University of Cumbria / University of Huddersfield

Resources mentioned:

• CIPD 2022 report: Understanding Older Workers
• Centre for Aging Better: Employer Guide
• Personnel Today article by Mary Bright
• Age UK: Ageism at Work

If you want to build a more inclusive workplace that you can be proud of please visit our website to learn more.

Transcript

0:46

Intro Welcome to the Inclusive Growth show with Toby Mildon. Future proofing

your business by creating a diverse workplace. Toby Mildon: 0:46

Hey there. Thank you ever so much for tuning into this episode of the Inclusive Growth Podcast. I'm Toby Mildon and today I'm joined by Andrew Jenkins. And Andrew has got a background working in academia and he's got a specialist interest in researching and talking about age discrimination and inclusivity across different age generations within the workplace. So, Andrew, thanks ever so much for joining

me today. It's lovely to see you. Andrew Jenkins: 0:46

That's lovely to see you

and thanks for having me. Toby Mildon: 0:46

So can we just start by, could you just tell us a bit more about yourself and give an overview of your career so far and what really led you to being interested in age discrimination.

Andrew Jenkins: 0:46

Okay, so just a brief overview. So until August last year I was senior lecturer at the business school University of Huddersfield and before that I was subject group leader or divisional head of marketing, events, hospitality, tourism, also the University of Huddersfield. So at the end of August last year, at the age of almost 60, 59 and a half, I took voluntary severance or early retirement and I now have two part time jobs as lecturer in management at Cumbria University and as tutoring business at the International Study Centre which is based at the University of Huddersfield. So I did think that I would want to continue working full time but working part time, taking my occupational pension, one of the best decisions I've ever made. So I now have more time to enjoy life. I feel that I have a good balance between work and leisure. Before I started working as senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield in 1999, long time ago now, I worked in the civil service in the Netherlands for 10 years. So I have a doctorate in age discrimination in employment from the University of Strathclyde with a focus on the hospitality industry, hospitality industry, employment. Andrew

Jenkins: 0:46

I'm also a member of the CIPD and CMI and I've published many papers on work and employment over the years. With my most recent paper in Hospitality Insights Journal was titled Are Older Workers a Savior for the UK Hospitality

Industry Given recruitment problems post Brexit. Toby Mildon: 0:46

That's really interesting. Was there anything in particular that really piqued your interest to kind of lead you towards researching age discrimination within employment? Like why was that a particular topic that you were really interested in?

Andrew Jenkins: 0:46

Okay, so until I chose the topic, my research previously focused on sexuality in employment as I'm interested in how someone's sexuality affects their chances of employment given my own sexuality. But shortly after starting my doctorate, I changed focus Because I was getting older myself and I was becoming interested in how this would affect my life, but also other people. And also in terms of hospitality, the industry tends to focus on younger workers. It has the youngest age profile of any industry. So if we look at figures from the Office for National Statistics, the youngest workers, those age 16 to 24 years, make up 10% of total workforce. But they make up around half of the workers in some hospitality roles, including waiters and waitresses, 50% bar staff, 48% coffee shop workers, 48%. Also report from the UK's Office for National Statistics states that hospitality businesses are more than twice as likely as other industries to be experiencing challenges in filling vacancies. And the report also commented that the number of job vacancies in hospitality was at a record high, with three in 10 hospitality businesses experiencing recruitment difficulties. But this is nothing new. Recruitment and retention problems have existed for

a very long time in the hospitality industry. Andrew Jenkins: 0:46

And my question is, or was, could older workers help hospitality businesses deal with problems of employee recruitment and retention? So this led me to undertake research

on older worker recruitment over the past 20 years. Toby Mildon: 4:41

So, from the research that you've done through your academic work and the papers that you've written and published, what are some of the findings that you've found in regards to older workers within the hospitality sector? Andrew

Jenkins: 4:55

Okay, well, for starters, the negative stereotyping of older workers by managers act as a barrier to recruitment. There's a perception by some managers, at least, that older workers are less productive, more resistant to change, take more time off sick, have more limited technological competence, and are less trainable. It is these largely unfounded negative stereotypes that tend to pervade rather than positive stereotypes of greater loyalty, a stronger work ethic, and being more reliable. But a lot of discrimination is very subtle. It's nuanced. For example, job ads being placed on social media, which might act against older workers. I found that some managers claimed that they hired younger people because of the customer base. But in my experience, this was an excuse. They were just prejudiced against older workers. So I remember doing research in one hotel, and I had a meeting with, I believe, it was the human resource manager, and I had statistics on the age profile of workers in the hotel. There were a lot of workers, I can't remember exactly how many, but about 100, and nobody was aged over 37. And I was told in a meeting that,

well, the customers were all under that age. Andrew Jenkins: 6:19

Well during dinner and breakfast the next day, quite clearly, that was absolutely not the case. So I think there's prejudice going on against older workers. I think recruiters are used to focusing on younger workers, going to schools, colleges, universities, focusing on them, and therefore quite often they don't even think about recruiting older workers. But a lot of older workers actually are interested in a career in the hospitality industry. So for example, a 2023 survey of a thousand job seekers aged 50 and older revealed that 70% of respondents said they would consider a career in hospitality. But most of them, 88%, also think that hospitality business businesses prefer hiring younger people. Now there are nearly 3 million people over 50 in the UK that would consider a job in the hospitality industry. But if hospitality businesses wish to employ older workers, they really need to address older job seekers' perceptions about the age preference

of employers. Toby Mildon: 7:34

Yeah. As we were preparing for this podcast, I remember you told me a good case study of

B&Q. Can you share that with us? Andrew Jenkins: 7:43

I certainly can. So there is an interesting example case study of B&Q. I think we all know B&Q, it's the home improvement garden centre retailer. So they launched a grey revolution, it was called, with a number of measures aimed at attracting and retaining older employees. So it once staffed its Macclesfield store with staff aged over 50, and it found that it worked so well that the company decided to recruit older workers to all its stores. So B&Q launched this initiative because of recruitment difficulties, and they also felt that older workers would be more likely to have knowledge and experience in the DIY trade, resulting in better customer service. When Warwick University evaluated an over 50 store against other stores, it found that the over 50 store topped the list in most measures. Now, I'm not advocating that businesses should staff their workplaces only with workers aged over 50. I'm a firm believer in the merits of a multi-generational workforce. I feel that older workers can learn from younger workers and vice versa. There is an interesting report, it's called Working Together, Maximising the Opportunities of a Multi-Generational Workforce. It's a very recent report from last year by the Work Foundation Lancaster University. So that has a lot of insight into

managing multi-generational workforces. Toby Mildon: 9:22

Brilliant. So what impact does hiring or equally not hiring older workers have on our economy,

do you think? Andrew Jenkins: 9:33

Okay, well for one thing the UK's population is aging. That's indisputable. The older population is getting larger whilst the younger population is decreasing in size. People are on average living longer because of fortunately because of better healthcare. Women on average are having fewer children. As the UK's population ages so will its workforce and the economic success of the UK will increasingly be linked to that of older workers. I'd also like to mention Brexit. Well I'd not like to mention it but I will because I feel it's exacerbated worker shortages. So according to the Financial Times in 2022, hospitals in the UK have lost two million workers since the end of 2019. It's likely that many of these were EU nationals and they've returned to their home country. Post Brexit, hospitality businesses in the UK are for the most part unable to tap into large pool of EU workers who might have come to the UK to work and the introduction of a points-based immigration system in the UK means that most hospitality industry jobs are ineligible for sponsorship. I mean also during the COVID-19 pandemic, which I'm sure we all remember, as most hospitality businesses closed, hospitality workers had to find other employment and many found employment in other industries and didn't return

to the hospitality industry. Andrew Jenkins: 11:07

So I think employing older workers won't be a saviour but it certainly will help with recruitment and

retention problems. Toby Mildon: 11:18

So the people that often listen to this podcast are working in HR or they're diversity and inclusion leaders or senior leaders in an organisation. What's your advice to them about preventing age discrimination in the workplace or attracting and recruiting older workers

so that they can benefit from this talent pool? Andrew Jenkins: 11:40

Yeah, very interesting question, Toby. So I think hospitality organisations, well not just hospitality organisations, it relates to all organisations really, they really need to develop targeted recruitment campaigns which focus on older people, need to have flexible working arrangements, in the case of hospitality improve the perception of the industry as a good place to work and importantly address any negative stereotypes relating to older workers. But I certainly believe that hospitality businesses can benefit from employing more older workers and other governments, many governments, Canada, Australia, for example, have produced reports and advice. The Australian government's Trade Investment Commission advocates that hospitality businesses might look for skills amongst the older demographic, for example. So whilst not being a panacea, focus on recruitment, retention of older workers could go some way towards being a

saviour of the hospitality industry. Toby Mildon: 12:47

Brilliant. Now the question I ask everybody when they come on this show is what does inclusive

growth mean for you? Andrew Jenkins: 12:55

Okay, I've thought about this as a short answer, but hopefully relevant and pertinent. So there does appear to be a backlash against EDI initiatives in many places of the world, unfortunately. I believe that HR professionals need to make the case for these initiatives, diversity initiatives, equality, inclusion initiatives as part of the growth agenda. Sustainability, responsibility, ethics should be the core of business decision-making and a focus on EDI is for

me essential in achieving sustainable growth. Toby Mildon: 13:31

Brilliant. Well, Andrew, thanks ever so much for joining me on today's episode. It's been really great to hear from you and hear your insights and your recommendations on how we can be more inclusive for older workers.

So thanks ever so much for joining us. Andrew Jenkins: 13:48

Thank you. Can I just recommend before we wrap up the podcast, there's a number of resources I'd like to recommend. So there's a CIPD 2022 report on understanding older workers. There's the Centre for Aging Better website, which includes a guide for employers. There's an article on how older workers can beat skill shortages, that's by Mary Bright in Personnel Today, 22nd of April

2022. And Age UK website, ageism at Work. Toby Mildon: 14:21

Brilliant. Thanks ever so much for sharing those resources. They'll be really useful for businesses listening if they're interested in attracting and recruiting and retaining more older workers in their workforce. So Andrew, thanks ever so much for joining us today. And thank you for tuning into this episode. Hopefully, Andrew has given you some food for thought on how you can attract and recruit and retain older workers, the benefits of having a multi-generational workforce, and some really practical things that you can do to increase the age profile in your organization. So I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the podcast, which will be coming out very soon. Until then, take good care of yourself. Bye-bye. Intro Thank you for listening to the Inclusive Growth Show. For further information and resources from Toby and his team, head on over to our website at mildon.co.uk.