Is the solution to recruitment and productivity staring us all in the face?
How is it that while the media is rife with stories of businesses unable to find enough good staff, many of the UK's most experienced and able struggle find work?
Dear Readers,
We hope you had a great weekend.
We left you early last week, taking a much needed long weekend, but left you with the story of British Airways revealing it is about to invest £21 million in training new airline pilots and how a significant part of that could come the way of Skyborne, headquartered at Gloucestershire Airport.
It’s great news for the flight training school, which has invested significantly in the county, but the story led us to other conversations about the airport’s future. Which means we’re working on a follow-up.
The airport is a topic that refuses to go away for the two local authorities that own it – Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council.
One of the first big questions put by opposition councillors to the newly appointed leader of the city council, Councillor Jeremy Hilton was whether he was going to sell the operation – which is currently run by Gloucestershire Airport Ltd, an arms-length company designed to keep it out of the mire of local politics. Hilton said it was too soon to say. Or is it?
Before we publish that, there is the small matter of today’s story – which began with us looking at why the over fifties find it so difficult to find work and points towards the UK having not only a deep-rooted problem, namely that it has not been very good at investing in its staff, but also towards a potential solution to our productivity challenges too.
Why bring this all up? In two years' time more than half of the workforce will be over the age of 50 so if we don’t start to address it, the challenges will only get bigger.
Have a great week.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, to defending it, challenging those who need to be held to account and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.
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Your briefing notes
📈 💷 A “robust” performance is how Gloucestershire’s biggest firm by ‘turnover’ described its first half-year results for the period ending 30 June this morning. Mark Fitzpatrick, the chief executive of Cirencester-headquartered wealth management firm St James’s Place, said he was encouraged by the plc’s results for the six months and predicted “mid-to-high single digit” growth for the full year. “We have achieved record funds under management, delivered a good outturn for the cash result, and grown the partnership and our client base. It’s evident that we remain in good shape.” Gross inflows totalled £8.5 billion (2023: £8.0 billion).
🪖 💷 A Gloucestershire technology firm that provides ‘systems support and training solutions’ to defence departments and major manufacturers worldwide, has reported a modest rise in revenue for the first half of 2024. Staverton-based Pennant International Group said its turnover for the six months to the end of 30 June 2024, was £7.4 million - up from £7.1 million for the same time last year. It has also welcomed news that the new UK government plans to increase UK defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
🪙 🪙 📅 Curious about bitcoin? This relaxed networking event is your chance to find out more. Co-hosted by Cheltenham-based Myna Accountants CEO, Joe David and BTCGlos exec, Matthew Bax, the ‘bitcoin and beer’ event will not only aims to educate, but also foster networking among local business owners and create a supportive community of forward-thinking professionals eager to embrace new financial technologies. Due to take place tonight (Tuesday 30 July) from 6.30pm to 8pm at Formal House, 60 Saint George’s Place. Find out more here.
💷 💷 Time is running out for community groups to apply for the snappily titled ‘Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility Community Fund’. Its financial grants are available to groups in the Hunts Grove, Hardwicke, Quedgeley, Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon, Haresfield, Harescombe, Standish, Moreton Valence, and Whitminster areas. The funds are available for projects that’ enhance the quality of life in these communities by addressing critical needs and fostering sustainability’. Applications close at 5pm on Wednesday, July 2024. Find out more here.
🏗️ 🎉 Gloucester City Homes has just handed over the keys to 25 more new homes on Denmark Road in the city. The housing association and housebuilder transformed the former NHS mental health clinic into what it calls ‘accessible apartments for social rent’. All of the homes in the new-build block added as part of the project are wheelchair accessible. All GCH homes are let via Gloucestershire’s Homeseeker Plus scheme managed by the city council. Anyone interested in becoming a GCH tenant can apply online to create a Homeseeker Plus account.
🎳 🏆 Do you have what it takes to become the business community’s champion bowler? Does your workplace have a team to take on all-comers? Willans, the Cheltenham headquartered solicitors, is calling on you - and anyone who just fancies taking part - to sign up for its fun bowling and networking event at Hollywood Bowl, Cheltenham, on Wednesday 25 September. You can enter teams of eight or four and win or lose, all money goes to Cheltenham Open Door, the firm’s charity of the year for 2024-25. Find out more here.
Charity of the week: Severn Area Rescue Association
If you or a loved one goes missing you will probably call the emergency services. It is not uncommon for the emergency services to then call a certain Gloucestershire charity to maker sure it finds that person as quickly as is possible. That could be on water, like the River Severn, the River Wye, or on land. We make the distinction because we are talking about the incredible skills of the volunteers who are Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA), perhaps most commonly thought of as the county’s very own lifeboat rescue service. Although Gloucester is officially ‘on the coast’ courtesy of the tidal nature of the Severn - a most treacherous stretch of waterway - the RNLI rarely strays north of the Severn Bridge. SARA has seven lifeboat and rescue stations and is called out roughly 100 times a year. It is, quite literally, a life saver. On Sunday, 25 August it is due to stage an open day where you can talk to its crews, watch demonstrations, ask questions, and enjoy a barbecue, tea, cakes, stalls and activities for children - and a book signing with crime writer Rachel Sergeant and a performance from the Bristol Male Voice Choir. You might even get on board one of its boats! Doors open at its Sharpness Lifeboats Station (GL13 9UB) at 10am.
Please do share this if you think others would like to take up the offer - or simply just read our stories!
Is the solution to recruitment and productivity staring us all in the face?
How is it that while the media is rife with stories of businesses unable to find enough good staff, many of the UK's most experienced and able struggle find work?
“In two years’ time almost half of the UK work force will be over 50 years old. Employers will have to get used to that,” said Sarah Taylor Phillips.
For Taylor Phillips (picture above), the changing demographic raises one question even higher up the agenda: ‘Why do we have a problem with employing people who are 50 and older?’.
The Gloucestershire businesswoman founded and ran a multi-million pound firm Interim Group (IG) Ltd before starting a family. She now runs county-based Career Voyage, working with companies to help them attract and recruit the right staff, and with individuals to help them take control of their job searches.
The focus on the over fifties began when she became involved in the 50/50 challenge, one of the last initiatives launched by the former local enterprise partnership, GFirst LEP.
Launched in March, its aim is to encourage 50 Gloucestershire employers to offer 50 hours of work placement to 50 people aged over 50. The FSB and Business West have also backed the initiative.
Career Voyage’s team can offer anything from tips as seemingly simple as CV writing and interview training to other strategies to coaching.
“It is not just about growing the number of over fifties in employment. That just highlights the need to deal with a whole host of issues,” she said.
And those issues are many and complex in a debate that also includes productivity, growth, sustainability and training.
“Many in that age bracket stepped back from employment during Covid and now want to return to work. Some of those didn’t want to leave, just scale back their hours, but left because firms were not flexible enough to accommodate them,” she said.
The reasons for scaling back the hours vary. Some may have taken on the responsibility of caring for a relative, ageing parents, or grandchildren, or because while they still have plenty to give but don’t want to shoulder the responsibilities they had in their current roles.
Some workers simply retired early during Covid and now realise they still want to work, some lost their jobs as firm’s downsized.
Many will have also faced the negative impact of what it means not to work, and Taylor Phillips helps them address that.
“If you are over 50 and looking for a role you can lose your identity overnight. If you are under fifty you have a 10 to 20 per cent chance of landing a role online. If you are over 50 it is one to three per cent. It is a massive difference.
“We can help and we can do that by helping them get prepared to apply to organisations again,” said Taylor Phillips.
“It is also about trying to educate companies about the value of the retention of 50-plus talent.
“A company that thinks more about a job share might be able to employ or retain some of that over 50s talent that wants to work, has a lot of give, but doesn’t want to work full time any more – or can’t.
“There is a huge amount they can still bring to the workplace. There is a whole learning curve on flexible working for some businesses.”
She added: “There is also a rise in the number of 50-plus entrepreneurs. There are different reasons for that. Sometimes it is because they have a great idea, they have skills and they want to work for themselves.
“Some of it is because they want to get back into the corporate world, but can’t. They simply don’t fit the job box anymore.”
And not everyone has the confidence, wherewithal or funds to start a new business, but they very often do have a host of skills they just don’t recognise, said Taylor Phillips.
If they can see these for what they are, they can begin to see themselves as the asset they are. The returning confidence can be enough to help them see their potential and help a business see that potential too.
“Quite often the people we speak to don’t realise how brilliant they are or where their strengths lie. They assume everyone has these strengths,” said Taylor Phillips.
“There are a lot of coaches who can help them through the process and help them rediscover themselves.
“That coaching can include help finding the right training and we also help get them ready to re-enter the workplace.”
Richard Arthur, managing director of Cheltenham-based Hooray Recruitment, which helps place staff with businesses across Gloucestershire and beyond, said it was easy to dismiss the difficulty many over fifties face when trying to find work as simply down to ageism.
“It’s more layered than that. There might also be issues with the kinds of technical skills some workplaces might now need. Can those people slot into those spaces quickly?
“But then the work ethic is often higher in that older age group and there can be a greater level of loyalty and maturity as well. And have those softer skills companies still really need,” said Arthur, whose business will help candidates prepare for roles, identify their strengths and weaknesses, understand what companies want and to understand what to expect from interviews.
“It is about identifying those positives and understanding their strengths, where training might be needed and gently helping businesses appreciate those qualities too,” he added.
Simon Merrell, of Gloucestershire-based Merrell People (pictured above), works with businesses to develop staff at all levels and help organisations embrace change, said he thought there had been some positive changes in business practices.
“It’s not all about looking for the next graduates. Apprenticeships now have no age restriction and some companies are seeing the benefits of that.
“The apprenticeship levy (the Government-led scheme) has allowed them to claim back for the cost of helping develop some of their more senior staff through this route. It can be seen as management or leadership development.
“It is a good way of retaining experienced staff.”
Merrell said astute firms were also realising the broader benefits of bringing in younger staff with new ideas and new qualifications – what some call ‘learning upwards’.
“For others, bringing in young apprentices can be the answer. They bring new skills, and while the experienced staff help train them, they too learn new skills and become more valuable to the business,” he said, pointing towards the virtuous circle Taylor Phillips hopes will become common practice.
Does she see things getting better too?
“I think the pandemic fast-forwarded flexible working, which has helped, and it has helped people – staff and employers – to understand that it can work and work well.
“I think this issue is not just about age. If you work in a role where AI (artificial intelligence) might be introduced you may also find yourself needing to recraft your career in the future too.
“But equally, we live in an area where growth in tech and cyber is expected, so there should also be some exciting opportunities.
“And those roles that require people skills are so often after the kinds of skills that older people have in abundance.”
For Dr Stewart Barnes, of leadership development specialists QuoLux, the issue is not rooted solely in our perceptions about age either. Figures show, he said, that the UK as a whole has long rejected any idea of lifelong learning and development.
“It means that many of those who are in their fifties now come from companies that have never cared to invest in their staff, so we have very experienced people who have perhaps left companies, perhaps retired early during Covid, who want to return to work but whose skills may not have kept pace with the market place.
“We have looked at this issue (of staff development) for a long time. The latest Gallup figures came out in June. They do a global analysis of employee engagement across the planet.
“Those figures show that the engagement of British firms has not gone up by more than a very slight increase in all those years. The figure remains at about 10 per cent.
“That means 90 per cent of British employers – there are about 30 million of them, which means about 27 million – are disengaged.”
“Forward thinking organisations, like a Creed or an MF Freeman, of Prima Dental (all Gloucestershire companies) – they invest in their people and have instilled a culture of life-long learning and they win from that.
“We have 13 or 14 years of data on this now and see the impact. Companies that invest are about 42 per cent more likely to grow; they employ about 19 per cent more people; they are 48 per cent more productive and they are significantly more profitable.
“They are growing their bottom line five times quicker.”
It would suggest then that if businesses lead, invest in training, no matter what age staff are, they will have the relevant qualifications, skills and therefore value to give to a business to allow it to change and succeed.
Some sectors, like construction, have a better relationship with training than others.
Jonathan White, an associate director at Quattro Design Architects in Gloucester is also chairman of Constructing Excellence Gloucestershire – the county group that’s part of a national network covering off all manner of disciplines serving the sector.
Does he see opportunities for over fifties? Is the sector recognising them?
“Construction is such a broad sector encapsulating all sorts of disciplines, so it hard to talk generally, but I have seen older people moving quite a bit within industry recently.
“I think there is a recognition of the expertise and skills many of them have that sees them in demand for strategic roles which sees them sought out for certain positions,” said White (who is still shy of his fiftieth birthday by more than a couple of years!).
He is an advocate of the benefits of ‘lifelong learning’, and a graduate of the recently launched constructing leadership course - a partnership between Gloucestershire College and Constructing Excellence aimed at leadership development.
“One of the things that happens is you get into a role because you love it and you’re maybe been recruited because you have become good at it, but then you find yourself promoted and moving away from that role – and you realise you need to develop new skills for that role.
“You need to realise the benefits of developing yourself – not just your leadership skills, but how you can help develop those in your teams too to help them continue to develop.”
But until that kind of thinking and the opportunities and investment become mainstream, the issues remain. And with the demographic about to top towards a population top-heavy with over fifties they are not likely to go away either. All of us, if we are lucky, will be part of that workforce one day.
The answer seems to be for staff to continue to invest in themselves to help future proof themselves for every period of their career and for businesses that want to grow, to retain staff and to face less recruitment challenges, to invest in their people.
And as for the here and now, that is what Taylor Phillips and people like her are here to help with.