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Tips to Prepare Your Organization For An Older Workforce

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People are living and working longer today than in the agricultural and industrial ages. The growth in the number and percentage of individuals over 60 and 80 years of age is already having a global impact.

From 1980 to 2017, the number of individuals over the age of 60 doubled to roughly 900 million. This segment of the world’s population will double again by 2050 to nearly 2 billion, according to the 2017 World Population Prospects report by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat.

Risk professionals can prepare their organizations for the coming changes and opportunities of an older workforce with the following strategies:

  1. Customize a workplace safety program. Organizations can utilize various levels and different methods of training to improve safety awareness.
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    These include new hire training, annual mandatory compliance refreshers, on-the-job training, shadowing and formal mentoring programs, educational programs, and certifications. Training can focus on areas such as safety awareness, new technology, ergonomics and workstation setup, life skills, and other soft knowledge. This will also help with safety in general among the entire staff.

  1. Update the education and onboarding process. An important consideration is how different generations of employees learn, so specific training methods tailored to each generational group can be offered. Where online training modules may work for younger employees, older employees may prefer on-the-job or in-person training. It is up to each company to best identify the methods for training its workforce so the content of the training is effectively delivered and understood by its intended audience.
  2. Review training styles. In addition to receiving ongoing training, older employees may feel more engaged if they are asked to teach newer or less experienced employees. One area often overlooked is training for managers who may have older employees under their supervision. Much has been written about training and approaching millennials, however, the reverse is an emerging risk. Companies should begin focusing efforts on how to relate to and the best way to supervise older workers. This is an area of opportunity to enhance a company’s culture and develop the employee-employer relationship.
  1. Know a role’s physical demands. Employers need to ensure they have a good understanding of the actual physical demands of each job position in addition to the physical limitations of individual employees.
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    Post-offer and pre-employment functional capacity exams are recommended for all age groups in industrial and manufacturing sectors. Job rotation is an important safety tool, and can be used for all age groups in an effort to break up the monotonous nature of the work, avoid fatigue, and ultimately develop a well-rounded staff that can cover gaps as needed.

  1. Consider the intersection of technology, comfort and well-being. There are many low- and no-cost ideas that can make the workload more manageable for older employees. For example, in its Dingolfing, Germany plant, BMW hires older workers on an auto assembly line with accommodations for their age such as larger computer screens, special shoes, and chairs for some operations. And Microsoft offers an online Guide for Individuals with Age-Related Impairments, showing older workers how to create slower-moving pointers or magnified screen displays by adjusting their computer’s settings. Standard workstations can be improved with ergonomics in mind. Features like built-in back support in office chairs, standing desks, lighting created to minimize shadows and dark zones, and desks that are easily adjustable all contribute to employees’ comfort and minimize discomfort. On-site clinics save time and are geared toward prevention as well as early disease detection. Investing in the health of all employees through wellness programs is a timeless and ageless benefit and will contribute to productivity and reduce costs.
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  1. Promote an age-diverse business culture by recognizing and appreciating the skills/values of older workers. There are common misunderstanding and stereotypes with older employees that they are less efficient than their younger co-workers. However, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) in 2016 that the working proficiency (in both literacy and numeracy) of older employees is actually not significantly lower than their younger peers. In countries like the U.S., the proficiency of older workers is even at the same level as younger employees (see below charts). A follow-up study in 2018 by OECD indicated that older employees are more likely to involve in more complex tasks, such as supervise colleagues, have higher task discretion, use planning skills and influence others, which makes them as valuable assets as their younger co-workers. So it is important to promote an age-diverse business culture to appreciate the skills and value of older workers.
  1. Improve training against discrimination and negative attitudes to older workers on hiring, termination, compensation, and promotion. As risk management professionals, it is important to remind your organizations to review and improve the policy against discrimination and negative attitudes to older employees, in order to mitigate the potential legal risk. A 2013 AARP study indicated that “64% of U.S. workers have either experienced or observed age discrimination.” Given this background, in 2016, EEOC received 20,857 charges of age discrimination, which counted for more than 20% of all discrimination charges received by EEOC.

As the global working population continue to grow older, corporations around the world could expect to see more age discrimination litigations to come. Risk managers can play an important role by taking initiatives to help their organizations against discrimination and negative attitudes to older employees.

Several members of the RIMS International Council contributed to this article.

Almost One Billion People in Cities Across the Globe Are Exposed to Natural Disaster Risk

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There are 450 urban areas on the planet with a population of least one million people, according to the United Nations. In total, these are the areas where 1.

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4 billion people live. And a whopping 890 million of them are at risk from natural disasters across the world.

“Major cities in Europe and Africa are the least exposed overall,” states a recent U.N. report on urbanization. “Only 26 percent and 37 percent of their cities with one million inhabitants or more are living in regions exposed to at least one major risk of natural disaster. However, cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Northern America, and especially in Asia are often located in regions exposed to natural hazards.

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”

We spend a lot of time discussing how people across the globe are now at a greater risk to natural disasters than ever before. There are many causes. Climate change gets a lot of press, as it should. But urbanization is the largest culprit.

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As we increasingly cluster together into small spaces, the tragedy becomes that much worse whenever a disaster does strike. And since economic, as well as personal, reasons mean that we tend to gather on the coastlines, it is no surprise that more than 60% of the world’s urban population is at risk.

(h/t Risk Market News)

Second Wave of Deadly Flooding Hits Sri Lanka (VIDEO)

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Sri Lanka has been underwater for weeks. By mid-January, at least 23 people had died, with another 350,000 having been displaced from their homes, and one-fifth of the nation’s rice crop had been destroyed.

Now, the island nation of 20 million is being hit with a second wave of flooding, which is displacing hundreds of thousand more and reportedly inciting landslides. The UN had already issued more than $5 million in emergency funds and will now likely increase that figure.

Reiterating its commitment to supporting humanitarian and development needs of all Sri Lankans, the United Nations, said today it will continue to assist the Sri Lankan government to meet the urgent needs for shelter, food and drinking water for over 1.2 million people affected by the second wave of floods wreaking havoc in the country .

The Associated Press has video of the ongoing disaster. (via @HlpPntAdvocate)

The Risks of Climate Change: Christiana Figueres Wants Improved Resiliency and Insurance Solutions

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christiana figueres

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, speaks at Climate Week NYC 2010. (Photo: Swiss Re)

Yesterday, I looked at the difference between mitigation of climate change and adaptation to it — a topic broached during Climate Week NYC 2010 on Monday during Swiss Re’s “Risk & Resiliency” panel.

Fortunately, it was such an insightful event that we still have more to talk about.

Walter Bell, chairman of Swiss Re American Holding Corp, kicked off the discussion, mentioning that his company has had a deep interest in climate change ever since Swiss Re identified it as an emerging risk two decades ago in the mid-80s. “Swiss Re’s approach is to first understand a risk then try to determine how to manage it,” he said. “We want to look not just at the risk, but at the solutions.”

Along these lines, he — and just about everyone else in attendance — touted the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) as a prime example of a way to not just help illuminate the problems — but help solve them.

“The CCRIF is a cutting-edge risk management solution,” he said. “The CRIF is not just a model or a concept. It works. Those member countries have received checks after a disaster.”

For the uninitiated, CCRIF is a risk pooling mechanism that is owned and operated by sixteen member countries in the Caribbean. And the best part is that the fund has a “parametric trigger” that helps nations struck by a disaster get relief money immediately. What this means is that there is no lengthy, complicated claims process after an event. If an earthquake of a certain magnitude strikes or if a hurricane with winds of a certain speed makes landfall, the payouts begin instantly. (More info here.)

The panel’s headliner, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, built on this momentum, highlighting the disasters we have seen this year, both in the Caribbean and elsewhere across the globe, that may be a precursor to the erratic weather we will see in a future affected by climate change. “This year, as you know, has seen no shortage of extreme weather events,” said Figueres. “The bottom line is that these events illustrate what could happen in the future.”

To help combat climate change and lessen the blow, she believes the world needs to — quickly — do three things simultaneously: (1) reduce emissions, (2) adapt to the already-inevitable effects so as to minimize the loss of life and livelihoods, and (3) increase resiliency to better deal with the effects of the future.

For developing nations, she categorized progress in these areas as “critical” to not just meeting the Millennium Development Goals outlined by the UN for all of the world’s 192 countries, but to preventing an acceleration of the endemic poverty that exists in so many areas. Without progress, standards of living in some countries might become even worse than they are today.

She listed three major areas in which resiliency must be prioritized: health, agriculture and water. For health, the first step needs to be creating solutions to better deal with climate-sensitive diseases. Figueres noted the increase in tropical diseases throughout the world. Even in the United States, she revealed, “dengue fever-transmitting insects can now be found in 28 US states.” Troubling indeed.

In terms of agriculture, she said that there have been improvements. In Ethiopia, more farmers are switching to more drought-resistant crops with good results. Dupont, too, she said has made strides in developing drought-resistant solutions for rural crop-growers.

The biggest issue, however, is the one that affects both of those issues — and everything else: water. “Climate change will affect all aspects of the water supply,” said Figueres. And it’s not only adapting to the future that is a challenge. Even today, she says, things are below par. “To make matters worse, water is already being badly managed in many locations.”

In order to better manage the future risks of climate change, Figueres stressed that the private sector needs to become more involved. And not just because corporations should be better global citizens — but because they need to protect themselves. “No sector will be immune to climate change … Sooner or later, all businesses will need to climate-proof themselves.” she said. This, she stresses, means protecting everything from supply chain to point of sale to place of investment to water supplies.

But with great downside comes great upside. “Business needs to adapt itself,” she said. “And adaptation holds investment opportunities.” ”

“Money spent on adaptation today will be money well spent for our future,” said Figueres. “Aggressive adaptation today needs to become the societal … insurance program of the 21st century.Money spent on adaptation today will be money well spent for our future,” said Figueres. “Aggressive adaptation today needs to become the societal … insurance program of the 21st century.”

Some of these investment opportunities include new agricultural products, improved water management and green construction. And, of course, we have all heard about the new “green economy” of renewable energy development that President Obama has continued to assure is just over the horizon, ready to lift the country from dreadful unemployment numbers and put America back at the front of global manufacturing and innovation.

The other opportunity lies in insurance. “Even when all adaptation measures have been taken, the risks … will not be ruled out,” said Figueres. “The insurance industry is already developing insurance products and must proceed quickly.”

Swiss Re will be one of the companies trying to make sure that happens, but there are plenty of others. Just look at all the insurance company initiatives underway. Too few of these are about actually creating policies, but much of the heavy lifting and relationship building has already been done, so some innovative products should not be far off. (We’ll talk more about the progress on that in a later post … stay tuned.)

Figueres thinks all innovation will pay off ultimately. “Money spent on adaptation today will be money well spent for our future,” said Figueres. “Aggressive adaptation today needs to become the societal … insurance program of the 21st century.”

And the time to start is now, she says, even if getting everyone on the same page is still a challenge. “The momentum needs to be lead by science,” she said. “It needs to be lead by business. It needs to be led by civil society. How do we get them all moving in concert?”

That, as everyone participating in Climate Week NYC 2010 already knows, is the $64,000 question.

We welcome your suggestions below.