UKCCC 2021 speaker insight: A skills gap solution for credit and collections firms

Victoria Tomlinson is CEO and Founder of Next-Up, which she launched to help people find new ways to use their skills in ‘unretirement’. She is chair of Women in Leeds Digital and a former director of EY on the London management team. She ran an award-winning communications, digital and leadership business for 30 years and is an Amazon bestselling author, a blogger a BBC expert commentator. Victoria will be speaking in the ‘New ways of working post-pandemic’ breakout session at the UK Credit & Collections Conference 2021 in Newcastle on 9 September.

Everywhere you go, the big challenge for post-pandemic businesses is recruiting enough people.

A recent Bloomberg article warns ‘Covid disguises chronic scarcity of workers for UK recovery’ while another shouts the skills gap will shortly become a ‘canyon’ and the Guardian says UK employers are struggling with the worst labour shortage since 1977.

The answer for all these commentators is to reskill or upskill. What they all fail to spot is that there is an enormous pool of talent right under their noses. That of the 50+ market.

But how do firms tap into the 50+ market. There are four key areas.

Value your existing 50+ employees

I have heard too many times that chief execs talk about people over 50 on a ‘downward glide’ to retirement. Recent research from Jobsgopublic showed that 75% of employees aged 50 plus, do not think their skills are fully recognised or used. That compares to just 32% of the younger generation aged 16 to 24.

Go and have a discussion with this age group in your business. Analyse what skills they have, if their skills are being used and how to make more of them. Are you investing in their new skills – especially IT? Or like the construction industry, have you decided that people aged over 50 do not need advanced IT skills – even though they are almost certainly shaping your future strategy, investment and managing the people who are using them?

The advantage of your experienced employees is they tend not to be hankering for more pay and promotion as those just starting out in their careers. Treat them well and there is huge loyalty there.

Recruit employees who are over 50 – and may have ‘retired’

There is a great website, Rest Less, with thousands of people aged over 50 who want full time and part-time jobs. As Pam Firth says in this video, she has had a career and is not looking to climb any ladders, “I am happy to cover for school holidays, parents picking up and dropping off schoolchildren, short notice illness or caring responsibilities – and more. I work four hours a day. Yes, it’s repetitive but it gets me out of the house, I interact with people at work and it provides variety. It also means I can pay to fly to Canada and see my son sometimes.”

Senior people who have retired and would love to contribute

I started Next-Up because we had a pool of senior people who had ‘retired’ and thought they would pick up non-executive director and advisory roles. The reality is they had left it too late to start building experience for these roles – and the non-exec market is now very competitive, as well as wanting more diversity.

Last year, with the help of Leeds City Council, we launched a mentoring platform for this experienced generation to mentor entrepreneurs, business leaders and others. For free. They are keen to stay useful and relevant, don’t need money, and would love to get stuck into some meaty projects to help you – anything from rethinking your finances to a strategy for the future.

We still have this free mentoring platform if you want to find someone amazing to help your business! There is no catch, we just don’t want to waste the skills of this generation.

Help people pre-retirement

We are now focused on running workshops for businesses and professional firms to help people before they retire. One of the problems is people who have spent 30 years in one organisation or sector have few ideas as to what they can do when they leave. We give them insights into what their peers are doing – everything from starting a business, writing for pleasure or money, becoming a consultant, working with universities and of course, the inevitable non-executive/advisory roles.

We get people to look at their own companies and see if they could get involved in initiatives – from increasing diversity to Net Zero – to learn new skills, build new networks and create a possible platform for when they leave. This is a real win-win for them and their employer.

While this is a really great way to look at filling your skills gap, there is a wider issue. The Institute of Economic Affairs shows the impact of retirement on physical and mental health in retirement:

• You are 40% more likely to suffer from clinical depression
• You are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with a physical condition

The key to this is to help people in retirement find purpose, engage with younger people, and stay active – physically and mentally. The 100 year life means we could all be retired for longer than we worked. We have to find a way to make more of ‘unretirement’ or we are just leaving elderly people with no purpose or focus in life. That means taking up resources that could be used for your family and children.

By finding ways to use this generation in your business, you could be solving your biggest headache and making a significant contribution to society as a whole.

I’m looking forward to engaging with credit and collections firms at next week’s conference to understand more about their business challenges and how tapping into the ‘unretired’ could help. It’s not too late to book your place.

The UK Credit & Collections Conference (UKCCC) will be held on Thursday 9 September 2021 at the Crowne Plaza, Newcastle.

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