Employers warned about older employee training

Employers need to train and performance manage older workers better or risk falling foul of the law when Default Retirement Age is phased out, according to a CIPD survey.

As the Pensions Bill makes its way through The Commons, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has released a new survey demonstrating that older workers are often neglected when it comes to training and performance management. It highlights the need for employers to ensure they are managing the performance of all employees effectively, particularly before the final phase out of the Default Retirement Age (DRA).

A survey of 2000 employees has found that older workers are also much less likely than younger workers to have received training, with 51 per cent of those aged over 65 saying they had received no training in the last three years, compared to 32% across all age groups.

From October, employers will no longer be able to require employees to retire at a certain age, except in certain limited circumstances, which will mean employers will need to ensure their performance management systems and practices focus as much on older workers as the rest of the workforce.

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