Kāpiti Business Projects was kept on its toes last week as it ran the Age & Work seminars from 3-5 Oct in association with Kāpiti Coast District Council and the Kāpiti Chamber of Commerce.
Geoff Pearman of Partners in Change was our speaker – an experienced manager, facilitator and consultant recognised for his strategic and future thinking skills, particularly in the area of age and work. He presented seminars on Life & Work After 50 – Doing it Differently, The Next Frontier – Becoming an Age Friendly Employer of Choice, A New Breed of Entrepreneurs – Make Way for the Senior Entrepreneur and at the Electra Business Breakfast he spoke on, ‘The Challenge That Will Not Go Away’.
Kāpiti is different to other parts of the country in that 31% of those employed are ‘self-employed’ – living the dream! This compares to 18% from a national perspective. The median age for Kāpiti self-employed is 52 and the dominant age structure in Kāpiti in 2013 was 50-54.
At Breakfast, Geoff talked about the longevity pyramid reversing (to be like a coffin or cocktail glass!) and how people were staying on at work through choice, necessity or fear. He stressed the importance of workforce planning and offered five useful things that we can be doing in our business to be more age friendly:
1. Start with self, challenge your beliefs on age.
2. Identify hot spots & opportunities.
3. Look at policies & practices.
4. Talk with older staff & customers.
5. Know risks & opportunities and develop your plan
