At Landmarc Support Services, our ability to provide an age-friendly workplace is shaped by an employee demographic of 63 per cent of our workforce being aged 50 or older, with an average employee age of 52. As a finalist in this year’s Business in the Community (BITC) Responsible Business Awards in the Age Friendly Teams category, Adam Hudson, Landmarc’s Corporate HR Manager, explains more about our approach.
A diverse workforce
“Landmarc’s diverse workforce is driven by two key factors: the nature of our business means that we proactively recruit service men and women who have already completed a successful career in the military, enabling us to build on their existing skills and add significant value to our customer. Secondly, we are based in, and therefore actively recruit from, very remote and rural communities – where populations tend to be more mature.
“During the last year, more than a quarter of all new starters were aged 55 or older, contributing to the Government commitment to increase the number of workers over 50 and the BITC campaign for companies to employ 12 per cent more older workers by 2022. With our youngest employee being 18 and our oldest 75, it is important for us to recognise that both ends of the scale have very different needs. We recruit those starting out in their career, help those who are looking to retire, provide a supportive environment for older employees who choose to stay in work and create environments that encourage people of all ages to work together as one team.
Enabling age-friendly working environments
“As managers, we all have a responsibility to ensure our teams feel valued, enjoy good health and rewarding work, have access to personal and professional development, and are treated fairly. Our managers are therefore empowered to use a number of business strategies to enable an age-friendly working environment amongst their teams. These include Family Friendly, Flexible Working and Health Surveillance policies, supported by our commitment to Investors in People, our People Strategy and our Sustainability Strategy; which is aligned to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, where ‘good health and wellbeing’ and ‘reduced inequalities’ are key indicators of sustainable development.
“Flexible working in particular is a key enabler for us, as we have the highest percentage of part-time working at the younger and older ends of the scale. Younger employees are able to flex their hours around the needs of young families, with our older employees using flexible working to enable them to transition towards retirement or take on more caring responsibilities.
Learning and development
“Our approach to learning is also encouraging both young and old to thrive, following a renewed focus on implementing programmes that professionalise the skills and experience of our people, whatever their age. Rather than using apprenticeships solely as a route to employment for school leavers, we have adapted our working routines and set up the Landmarc Academy to help create greater long-term career potential for employees through lifelong learning, which was achieved following full consultation with our Employee Engagement Forums.
“Ultimately, we take pride in stimulating a culture where employees of all ages are able to teach, share and learn from one another, creating an environment that is rich with experience and diversity. The skills, knowledge and experience of our people enable us to maintain high levels of performance so that we can meet our customer’s high standards. Knowledge sharing, cross-generational working and flexible working practices are all important enablers.”