Mulberry Recruitment

At the heart of our report is the firm belief that individuals should be able to succeed through work, irrespective of their background. Your age, gender, ethnicity or where you grew up shouldn’t matter. The report also highlights people’s changing attitudes to employment. More and more individuals want to stay in work for longer. Indeed, according to official data, there are almost one million people aged 50-64 in the UK that would like to be in work but are not. This needs to change.

Highlighting the challenges facing older workers, putting forward solutions and supporting members will continue to be a priority for the REC, building on the we produced with Age UK in support of the government’s Fuller Working Lives Strategy. We’ve been very active already this year, hosting a roundtable with on the latest research emerging from the ’s and appearing before parliament’s Women and Equalities Select Committee to give evidence to their older workers inquiry. Some of the key themes that have emerged include:

Recruiters have a key role to play in educating clients and supporting candidates. Poorly laid out job descriptions and designs risk deterring candidates. Recruiters are in a unique position to challenge this and press clients to practice . We also heard that some older candidates are reluctant to put themselves forward as they feel their application will be ignored. REC member Hewitt Recruitment’s 50+ Skills team offers bespoke advice to help older job applicants overcome these worries. This is just one example of the good practice we’ll be sharing throughout the year