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y o u n g e x e c u t i v e s 2 0 1 0
BENCHTESTED
The 2010 AFR BOSS Young Executives
of the Year HAVE well and truly
PROVEN THEMSELVES, having learned
to manage through adversity
during the global financial crisis
Youth brings many virtues that organisations
can and should celebrate. Young
people bring energy, enthusiasm, a different
way of approaching things and,
increasingly, a world view. And the latest models
also come with a new feature.
“Up until two years ago we hadn’t worked
through a serious economic downturn,” says
2010 AFR BOSS Young Executive winner Amanda
McCluskey. “I think that was one [shortcoming],
but now we can tick that box.”
For the winners of the Young Executives of the
Year awards, the 2008-09 financial crisis was the
first economically tumultuous period in their
nascent careers. They not only survived but they
chalked up valuable lessons on leading their
teams through a period of adversity.
“What they’ve gained out of that experience is
a degree of confidence, but it wasn’t a confidence
that you would [call] arrogant,” says Salmat chief
executive and Young Executive judge Grant
Harrod. “It was more around a sense of maturity,
a sense of understanding.”
The six 2010 winners come from diverse sectors
– funds management, engineering, retail, property
and the fast-food sector (see “How we did it”,
page 19). They are also unashamedly global in
perspective and have a long-term view. Amanda
McCluskey, for example, works as a change agent
across global investment portfolios, while Bovis
Lend Lease finance chief Courtenay Smith and
Melbourne-based engineer Andrew Stewart have
a depth of experience from working offshore.
Long-time judge (now in her seventh year)
and former Time Warner Inc executive Bonnie
Boezeman, AO, also noticed a certain gravitas
in this year’s winners, compared with previous
years. “The world has forced them to be more
serious in the last year and a half,” she says.
Boezeman notes that these young professionals
were pushed to take on further responsibility,
story
JESSICA GARDNER
photography
louise kennerley
hair and make-up
rose and
Tammi Hendricks
and while they rose to the occasion, she suggests
that they shouldn’t get complacent: “Forget
the financial downturn, they’ve actually never
experienced a recession. This was an education,
an eye-opener for young people. It was a good
stepping stone to see how you have to tighten your
belt, how you have to manage differently.”
The financial crisis certainly made McCluskey’s
role as head of sustainability and responsible
investment at Colonial First State Global Asset
Management all the more critical. The mood
in financial services became frantic, shifting to
short-term survival. McCluskey had to work at
keeping sustainability on the agenda. “It was really
tough because you’re working in an organisation
where there were a lot of portfolios under a lot
of pressure,” she says. “In that time when there’s
definitely a tendency to be
much more short term in
nature and make up the
returns really quickly, [my
role] was about getting
everybody to have that
longer-term focus and
think about the broader
objectives … [I had to]
try and find evidence
and examples of where
AFR BOSS is proud to present
the seventh annual Young
Executives of the Year Awards
in partnership with Range
Rover Sport. we congratulate
the 2010 emerging leaders.
the companies had come undone because of
failings of governance and failures of ethics.”
Bovis Lend Lease chief financial officer
Courtenay Smith watched the effects play out
in two countries. “I’d been in London,” Smith
says. “I had been in an environment that went
from the bankers sitting on one side of the table
telling you what to do, to the next day, saying,
‘We can’t do business with you’. Everyone was
still smiling when I arrived in Australia and I
couldn’t understand why.
“My organisation particularly targeted [federal]
stimulus spending. We had to react very
quickly. It was a very different process for us.
We’re normally used to building large commercial
or retail centres, which are multi-faceted
but one building, whereas here we had to deal
with lots of schools.”
Andrew Stewart, business delivery manager with
oil and gas industry project manager Production
Services Network, says the financial crisis “had a
staggering impact … Clients weren’t able to raise
capital and also commodity prices had collapsed.
There was a relatively urgent period of reshaping
our business to secure a contract extension with a
client. That internal issue, coupled with the macro
economic climate, was leading to a lot of anxiety
in the workforce and a lot of instability.”
One of the greatest lessons was the need to
spend more time communicating with staff,
says Camille McGregor, South Australian state
manager for Sinclair Knight Merz. “We were
focusing on analysing the data, the results, what
was coming up,” she says. “Perhaps we could have
spent more time with our staff, leading our staff
through that difficult period. We may have lost
sight of the impact of that on morale.”
Wendy Simpson, judge and chairman of
Westray Engineering, though, has reason to
be confident about the future. “They all struck
me as more in tune with looking out and being
ready for whatever – either a positive or a
negative – that might be on the periphery,”
she says. “They didn’t just look at things right
under their nose.”
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
RANGE ROVER SPORT
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y o u n g e x e c u t i v e s 2 0 1 0
Armando Da Silva Pedruco, 33
national operations manager, Dick Smith
Mentor: Marty Hamnett, former GM,
supermarket operations, Woolworths
Pedruco was just a few months old when his
parents fled unrest in East Timor by boat and arrived
in Darwin. After finishing high school he started on the
shop floor of electronics retailer Dick Smith in 1996.
Two years later he became store manager and has
worked his way up to national operations manager, a
role he has held since 2008. Pedruco is responsible for
356 stores and 3800 staff nationally. He is studying for
an MBA at Macquarie Graduate School of Management
as part of a Woolworths scholarship program.
Sacrifices: I learned very young that if I wanted
my life to be worth the sacrifices my parents had
made, I had to work twice as hard as those around
me. When my first son was born I didn’t spend enough
time at home with him. At that time I was an area
manager and things were pretty hectic. I was trying to
get ahead in life. The turning point for me was when
we started having our second and third child I realised
the time I never gave my first child. [He and his wife
now have four children.]
Corporate life: Every time I’ve got a new role,
the first thing that comes to you is self-doubt. To go
from a store manager to an area manager, it’s a big
jump. You’ve got to prove to yourself that you can do
the job. You’ve just got to get yourself over the line. I
think you need to set yourself some short-term goals
– to try and achieve something out of your first 100
days. I learned that mistakes will be made but to take
responsibility and move quickly to respond to them.
Benefits of being young: Being able to
balance and understand different generations. I think
you’re down to Earth with the young kids coming up.
They don’t see you as an old fella; they see you as
one of them. But at the same time, people who are a
bit older respect you when you’re [in your] early 30s
because you’re not a young kid.
Camille McGregor, 35
State manager – South Australia, Sinclair Knight Merz
Mentor: Dr Nick Fleming, chief sustainability officer, SKM
McGregor grew up in rural Victoria and started with
engineering firm Sinclair Knight Merz as a graduate
environmental scientist in Bendigo in 1999. After 11 years
with the firm, she oversees 150 staff and is responsible for
business strategy development and implementation in SA.
McGregor holds an arts and science degree and completed
a master of environment in 2006 while working full time.
Mentoring: I mentor lots of grads, but the most
rewarding thing is where we’re bringing new people into
the business that have either worked in government or at
a smaller consulting business. I see my role as facilitating
their integration into SKM and helping them navigate
the organisation. It can be quite a challenging thing for
somebody to come into an organisation of 6000 people
and wonder, “How do I make this or that happen’ I see
myself as an enabler.
Lesson: It became evident to me that throughout my
technical career, the approach we took was to dive straight
into a problem. Then I realised you can’t always apply that
same approach when dealing with people issues. We’d
gone through a 360-degree [feedback process]. I was quite
shocked to hear that I needed to have more empathy in my
interactions with people. I was conditioned to jump straight
to solution or straight to task, but [leadership] is about
being able to listen and to coach or bring people to their
own solutions. It was a big learning curve for me.
McCluskey is responsible for imbedding sustainability
principles across the asset manager’s $150 billion global
investment portfolio. A keen environmentalist, she decided
advocating change from within the corporate world
was more her style after missing her Sydney University
graduation to attend a protest (she studied economics
and international relations). McCluskey is one of the most
influential change agents in the Australian investment
community. She was founding deputy chair of the Investor
Group on Climate Change, is on the board of the Great
Barrier Reef Foundation and is involved with United Nations
initiatives on responsible investment. Prior to joining
Colonial in 2007, she managed a sustainability focused
equities trust for Portfolio Partners and has held other
financial services roles since 2001. An enthusiastic cyclist,
she also has interests in indigenous affairs after spending
six weeks working on secondment in Cape York.
Challenges: Every day I work towards addressing
what I see as a massive market failure: the failure of
mainstream investors to consider the environmental,
social and governance issues that impact investment
returns. The big challenges are around perceptions of
Amanda McCluskey, 33
head of sustainability and
responsible investment, Colonial
First State Global Asset Management
Mentors: Fergus Neilson, CEO,
Babcock & Brown Direct
Investment Fund; Neil Cochrane,
former deputy CEO, Colonial First
State Global Asset Management
what sustainability issues are. People think that you’re
going to compromise their performance or make it harder to
invest, but really what you’re doing is helping them make
better investment decisions and think about all the broader
issues that can impact performance.
How do you build credibility: Doing the research,
doing the hard work of crunching the numbers yourself when
you’re trying to find new investment opportunities, and trying
to identify things that people haven’t thought of.
Corporate life: I love the subject matter I work on. And
the opportunity to try to lead an industry to look at some of
the broader issues that impact company performance.
Lessons: Collaboration. You can’t be a leader on your own.
You can achieve things on your own, but you have to work
with people to get a good organisational outcome. I learned
this by trying to do too much myself. You realise when you
hear yourself saying the same things over and over again,
you’re probably not bringing people along on the journey with
you. If you make people feel like it’s their message it makes
your life so much easier.
how we did it
AFR BOSS Young Executives entrants were asked
to submit details of major career achievements and
leadership roles, and to provide examples of workplace
dilemmas and how they responded. Entrants had to be
aged 35 years or under. A shortlist of 11 finalists was
chosen from scores of entries received from around the
country. The candidates were then interviewed by our
judging panel and put through a one-day assessment
by talent management experts Development Dimensions
International (DDI), who examined their ability to handle
changing scenarios in a realistic, simulated business
environment. The final six were chosen based on the
judges’ decision and DDI results. Potential conflicts of
interest are disclosed during the judging process.
WHAT IT TAKES
What makes an ideal young leader According to research
by DDI, winners tend to be:
AMBITIOUS: But they retain a balance between their
ambition and arrogance. They are comfortable with their
assessment of a situation.
DECISIVE: They aren’t afraid of making decisions at an
operational, tactical and strategic level. They don’t hesitate
to take action and responsibility for driving change, and can
handle lots of information from a variety of perspectives.
BRAVE: They are confident enough to walk into a
boardroom or situation and hold their own. To do this they
need to be flexible, knowledgeable and have impact.
EMPOWERING: They have the ability to push decisionmaking
downwards. They promote other people’s ownership
while still providing guidance and support to their team.
ENTREPRENEURIAL: They seek out innovative solutions
to problems, challenge set paradigms, and reject the status
quo. They focus on external drivers, not just internal ones.
VISIONARY: They are able to set strategic direction and
understand the short- and long-term issues. They tend to be
innovative and are able to put guidelines in place to set the
pace of change and make things happen.
WHAT THEY FACE
Shifting from an operational to a strategic role is one of
the most difficult personal challenges for rising executives,
DDI managing director Bruce Watt says. Others are:
An exponentially broadened scope of business, often
taking responsibility for large portions of the enterprise.
Heading a senior leadership team while also grooming
tomorrow’s future leaders.
Navigating internal politics and building partnerships
with boards, analysts and key customers.
Increased pressure stemming from tremendous
consequences of failure.
Feelings of isolation (it’s lonely at the top).
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y o u n g e x e c u t i v e s 2 0 1 0
Joanne Taylor, 32
vice-president regional
manager NSW/ACT, McDonald’s Australia
Mentor: Frank McManus, former senior
vice-president, director of people resources
Taylor has made a successful transition from human
resources to operations. She has been with McDonald’s for
six years, starting as director of employee relations in 2004.
In 2006 she was made director, franchise NSW/ACT. She
drives the strategy for 291 franchised and company-owned
stores, which employ about 23,000 crew and managers.
Prior to McDonald’s, Taylor held HR positions at Star City
Casino and the Australian Industry Group.
Lessons from the global financial crisis:
It was a bit of a warning bell for everyone within the
organisation to say times won’t be fantastic forever. The
GFC did send a signal to everyone that we also need to
be preparing for the rainy day. So reducing debt and
being mindful of what else we need to be doing today and
tomorrow to stay one step ahead of our competitors.
Challenges: Typically the [operational] role has been
performed by people who have been with the organisation a
period of time and have worked their way through. Ensuring
that I had credibility with both licensees and company
employees [was a challenge]. I did that by not trying to
pretend when I didn’t have the knowledge and by also
making sure people recognised the skills that I was bringing.
[I built credibility by] spending some time in stores, learning
the crew stations and also spending time learning how we
assess the restaurant. Also, just reading a lot of materials,
getting across it, making sure you know the lingo.
Do you have a BlackBerry Yes. It never goes off.
Early [on] you become managed by the device, rather than
you managing with it. I think I’ve gotten better with time.
It’s a tool to make my job easier and while it’s on all the
time in case there’s an emergency, I shouldn’t be attached
to it because I’ve got to have a break. It’s really just
knowing when to turn it off or getting out of the trap of
thinking that you have to reply immediately just because
you’ve received an email.
Demands of corporate life: The energy that you
need to convey at all times being in a leadership role. It
took me a while to realise how much people look to you for
inspiration and advice. I think we probably underestimate
the impression that [we] convey. There’s a lot of pressure
to be “on” all the time. You can’t have a bad day and go,
“Sorry, I don’t feel like it today” because you are the face.
Andrew Stewart, 33
business delivery manager, Production Services Network
Mentor: Paul Tuck, manager of engineering, Australia, PSN
Since 2009, Stewart has been responsible for a
team of 300 people delivering projects for oil company
ExxonMobil in Bass Strait. His direct reports include
project management, engineering, procurement and
construction. He joined PSN as the economy was turning
down and just as the business was going through a
period of reshaping to secure a contract extension.
Prior to this role he was an engineer at Aker Solutions
for seven years, leading projects in the oil and gas and
mining industries in Australia and working on projects in
the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and India. Stewart
holds an honours degree in mechanical engineering and
an MBA from Melbourne Business School. He and wife
Nerida have a baby son.
tough decision: A project site had to be closed,
leading to 35 redundancies. Opponents wanted me
to avoid the decision and effectively sponsor an
unjustifiable part of the operation. The dilemma was
compounded by whether to advise the team four weeks
from the demobilisation date or at the time I made the
call, giving everyone four months notice and potentially
having to manage early resignations. The basis was
clear: operate a competitive business and provide team
members with complete information so they can act in
the best interests of their livelihoods.
Job lay-offs are the hardest thing you have to do.
You’re comparing the hard-line profit with your empathic
values. How I rationalise that internally, is that when you
run a business you can’t afford to be sponsoring divisions
within, because that’s to the detriment of the overall
business. You have to keep a sharp pencil and at times
you have to make tough but human calls.”
Global lessons: It was really tough working
in Mumbai. I was working for a large multinational
company; they were very demanding on their quality
expectations and it was a completely different
mindset from the industry in India. The team I was
running was purely Indian locals.
The Western business way of working is very
abrasive. There’s a lot of transparency, performance
metrics and roles and responsibilities. In India, the
approach is quite different. Accountability is more
collectively distributed. That’s tough, because when
you’re working in the oil and gas industry it’s all around
hard results, on time, on budget.
Future: I’d love to be a key part of an organisation
whether that’s CEO or director or general manager
sort of level. I’m certainly ambitious. [It will take]
getting diverse experiences as I progress through an
organisation and through my life. Diverse experiences
but underpinned by performance, because you’re only
as good as your last role.
Changes in the corporate world: There’s
a lot more emphasis on emotional intelligence. When I
joined the game nearly 10 years ago, it was more around
intellectual capacity and intelligence.
Courtenay Smith, 33
chief financial officer, Bovis Lend Lease Australia
When Smith was growing up in Mudgee, NSW, she
wanted to be a marine biologist and save the Great
Barrier Reef. Instead she studied accounting and her
career in finance has taken her to three different
countries. Over the past 12 years Smith has held
six roles within the Lend Lease group, in London,
Singapore and Australia. She has been CFO of its project
management and construction business Bovis Lend
Lease since January 2009. On her watch, the Australian
arm of Bovis Lend Lease delivered some of its best ever
results (Asia-Pacific revenue of $3 billion and more than
$90 million net profit in 2009). Outside of work Smith is
an advanced open-water diver and has completed the
Oxfam 100-kilometre Trailwalker three times.
Job loyalty: It’s pretty important although people’s
attitudes towards it have changed a lot. We’re in an
environment where people operate quickly. They can
treat their work life like that too. I don’t think that I
would have been here for 12 years in the same job. I’ve
had different jobs in that time. You need people that
are going to stay in a role for a longer time to make sure
there’s stability but you also need people that are willing
to move around and drive change.
Turning point: I was 23 when one of our CFOs came
back from Singapore and said, “There’s a role up there,
do you want to go” I hadn’t thought about working
offshore. I was still interested in socialising and all those
things. I said why not That was a huge point for me. I was
thrown into the deep end. Lend Lease had just acquired
Bovis. In Asia, we went from a four-country business to
an 11-country business overnight. I was in an accounting
role at the time but I had to step up.
Difficult decision: In the UK, I had to pretty
much change over an entire finance team. When you’re
making decisions about individuals it’s difficult, but I went
through a process of trying to see if they could succeed
or not. I spent a lot of time talking to my manager about
those decisions and reflecting on the right things [to
do]. I checked in with the individuals involved to make
sure that I wasn’t making the wrong decisions and that
my assessment of them was correct. In the end I had an
entire new finance team to manage and set up, which was
a good thing, but it was a difficult process to go through.
The judges
Bonnie Boezeman, AO, (centre) has been a judge of the awards since 2004. She is
chairman of PayPal Australia, deputy chairman of NSW Lotteries and is a non-executive
board director for a range of organisations. Her professional career with Time Warner Inc
spanned more than two decades, until she retired as chairman of Time Life in 1996.
"The financial crisis has created a bit of quicksand. You never have totally sure
footing anymore. What some of these young people are focusing on now, more than
ever, is ethics versus the temptation for a quick fix."
Grant Harrod was appointed chief executive of Salmat in April 2009. He previously
spent 13 years with Corporate Express where he was managing director and CEO for six
years. His previous roles at Corporate Express included general manager of sales and
marketing and general manager of operations.
"There was this tremendous self-awareness of their external environment. Just about
all of them were participating in some CSR-based activities, so community or similar in
their own personal time. That’s one thing I think we all worry about with the GFC ... was
the focus on CSR a nice to have, rather than a must have"
Wendy Simpson has been the chairman of Westray Engineering since 1997. She is a
former senior vice-president of Alcatel Asia Pacific, based in Shanghai. Prior to this she
held senior leadership positions in TNT, QBE Insurance and BHP Billiton. She has been a
three-time finalist in the Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Awards.
"They were quite impressive. They had recognised that leadership can be
expressed in multiple scenarios, not just the workplace. They were all prepared to
have a go. They were self-starters. They had identified things that needed to be done
either in their jobs or in their communities and got up and got things going."
louie douvis
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Where
are
they
AFR BOSS YOUNG EXECUTIVES:
2005
DAVID CHIA
General manager
capital excellence,
McKinsey & Company
Back then I was operations manager
for OneSteel, thinking I wanted a more
holistic understanding of business
beyond operations.
Now I have recently been made an
engagement manager with McKinsey
& Company and have just taken a
secondment role with a major Australian
transport and logistics company.
Since winning in 2005, work-life balance
has become far more meaningful for me. I
always thought that there would be a later
date to catch up with family and friends.
The tragic loss of two of my close friends
was a huge wake-up call to truly value
the time spent away from work. Improving
the work-life balance doesn’t have to be
about working fewer hours, but rather doing
things of real value when away from work.
The awards
have been
PRESENTED
since 2004.
some of the
42 winners
reflect on
their journeys
story hannah tattersall
now
2004
MICHAEL
REBELO
MD, Saatchi &
Saatchi London
Back then I was the general manager
of Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney. I was loving
life but finding work challenging. I was
not totally in control of the business and
was finding some of the decisions made
quite frustrating.
I was promoted to CEO of our company
in Singapore. Three years later, I was
promoted to managing director of our
London office, the spiritual HQ of the
worldwide company.
Now I am not entirely sure if it is by
coincidence, but since being part of the
BOSS Young Executive experience, my
perspectives on leadership have grown in
quantum. Leading such diverse people in
Australia, Asia and Britain has been an
inspiring life experience. I now have a much
better idea about when I am at my best.
ANITA
MITCHELL
Sustainability
manager,
Barangaroo,
Lend Lease
2008 development 2004
Back then I had become head of
sustainability for Jones Lang LaSalle,
heading up the energy and sustainability
services business line for Australasia.
After winning the AFR BOSS award,
I was overwhelmed with the support
and encouragement I received, and
[was] thinking that as a society we were
learning how to incorporate environmental
and social metrics into how business
success is measured.
Now I am looking forward to working
on the most significant development in
Sydney’s recent history and thinking about
making Barangaroo a world-leading example
of a sustainable urban renewal project
– including being water positive, generating
zero waste and achieving carbon neutrality.
2006
KELLY BAYER
ROSMARIN
Executive general
manager business
products and
development,
Commonwealth Bank
Back then I was the head of commercial
lending for CBA, which involved managing
its loan book to corporate and business
customers. I had a one-year-old child
and was about to take a role heading up
strategy and business development.
I was thinking how little time I had to fit
everything in! I quickly discovered the key
to managing my time was outsourcing all
of the daily chores that would otherwise
take up valuable family time and became
hooked on my BlackBerry to stay in touch.
Now I take care of about 250 staff,
who support the banking services we
offer clients. This includes commercial
lending, asset finance, cash management,
merchant acquiring and global transaction
services. Today, I think how much time I
used to have!
SUSIE GEORGE
National HR manager
– home improvement
centres (joint
venture between
Woolworths and
Lowe’s)
Back then I was regional HR manager
for supermarkets (Woolworths) in
Queensland. Family and work were my
focus. I was looking around for good role
models and mentors.
Now I am trying to be a good role model
and mentor. I am doing leadership work
with Justin Papps [a Young Executive winner
in 2005]. I am involved in a joint venture
with a global retailer to develop a start-up
business. The last five years have seen me
go from operational roles to more strategic
ones. I have also just run my first marathon.
Today I think about how you need to
be open to people, circumstances and
opportunities to learn and grow. Work and
family can only have your focus if you are
having time for yourself.
2009
MATTHEW
PATERSON
Head of ANZ/ING
Australia
integration office
(since January)
Back then I was head of business
improvement, customer solutions, ING
Australia. We were coming out of the depths
of the financial crisis.
Now leading a large program is
interesting. Influencing using just charm
and personal charisma won’t cut it! You
need to be confident, focus on delivery,
ensure there is clarity of expectations and
read individuals and organisational climate.
Moving into a new role leading the
integration of ING Australia with ANZ has
been challenging on work/life balance. I get
things done in airport lounges, I make more
phone calls from a taxi or car trip to save
time, I take the jogging shoes everywhere
and grab a quick run when I can ... so when
I am home, I can ditch the work stuff and
concentrate on family.
Technology and
the knowledge
economy have
accelerated the
rate of change in
the workforce.
that means
young and old
employees alike
have to adapt
Generation
evolution
comment Catherine Fox
There’s a scene in the recent David Hare
play about the global financial crisis, The
Power of Yes, that would ring a bell with
many older workers. A baby boomer executive
complains that all the young people he works
with constantly ask him “how am I going”
Why, he fulminates, do they keep asking and
what is he meant to say
It’s a classic “bah humbug” moment as experience
and age meet youthful brio. But is it a
different clash from generations ago Is there
really something more to the generational divide
in today’s workplaces
As AFR BOSS selected our Young Executives
of the Year (p16), these topics got us thinking
– and the interest in these questions has nothing
to do with our ratio of grey hair.
Experts would say the generational divide is
a case of “no and yes”. On the one hand, the
stereotypes about baby boomers, for example, are
themselves out of date. Over the hill, even.
y o u n g e x e c u t i v e s 2 0 1 0
But the speed and breadth of the technology
revolution also means those we now call
Generation Next have grown up with very different
expectations and behaviour.
Today’s youngsters, whatever you call them,
“are not just the next problem generation”,
academic Erica McWilliam writes in her book,
The Creative Workforce: How to launch young people
into high-flying futures.
“Nor are they simply going through a phase,”
she continues. “From a very young age, they
can choose to live their lives in a profoundly
different way from their parents and their siblings
… they make choices and take chances at
unprecedented speed.”
This group, McWilliam contends, thinks of
careers as things that old people have. They
relish constant stimulation, believe luck plays a
big role in life and don’t rebel by making overt
political statements.
And the workplace is reflecting these social
changes and attitudes, too, adding more
speed; more scrutiny of individual, team and
organisational performance (as the character from
David Hare’s play reminds us); more flexibility
in dress and working hours along with flatter
management structures.
But strong stereotypes about youth and age are
still at play in the labour market, says associate
professor Libby Brooke, of the Business Work
and Ageing Centre for Research at the Swinburne
University of Technology.
“I’ve been doing a telephone survey [on age
stereotypes] and they are still there,” she says. “I
think that employers believe older workers can
be more loyal and trustworthy and diligent but
not as adaptable or au fait with IT. The question
is whether we can move or change that. The
younger age groups are stereotyped as adaptive
and mentally agile and yet we also have definitions
of them being opportunistic and self-interested.
We need to disabuse stereotypes and look at
individuals and their talent pathway.”
Although there have been plenty of well-meaning
campaigns urging older workers to retrain
and stay in the workforce, Age Discrimination
Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says no amount
of workshops and training can change attitudes.
“There’s a strong government message to work
longer,” Broderick says, “but is it a real choice
if you don’t get a chance to work The message
around ageing is all negative and there’s an
accepted level of discrimination.”
Employers facing an extreme talent shortage
would do well to look at the facts. Many can actually
save time and money by holding onto their
older employees, as Brooke found in her study
Human Resource Costs And Benefits of Maintaining a
Mature-Age Workforce. If you multiply the expense
Resources
“Human Resource Costs
and Benefits of Maintaining
a Mature-Age Workforce”,
Libby Brooke, International
Journal of Manpower Vol 24
No 3, 2003.
of recruitment and training and other costs, you
come out with a positive figure from retaining
older workers, she says.
As for intergenerational office friction, it’s
difficult to know if there is more or less than in
the past. Those entering the workforce in recent
years have helped embed an informality once
considered impertinent. Having fewer hang-ups
about hierarchy has many advantages. Tenure,
for example, is no longer a marker of automatic
seniority and that’s probably a good thing.
If the reality of the modern workforce means
that all of us, no matter what age, are constantly
upgrading our skills, then it’s time to dismantle
those rusty stereotypes about age and technology
and harness more flexible, non-linear thinking,
like our younger cohorts.
It was once frowned upon to switch jobs too
many times but today it is acceptable and even
expected. That said, it’s wise to remember that
stage of life can affect how much flexibility anyone
can afford. A mortgage, for example, can be a
powerful incentive to embrace a stable career.
And although it can sound boring, doing the
same thing over many years (particularly in a
knowledge economy) can hone skills and result
in real insight – or even wisdom. This is the rationale
for allowing judges in Australia to remain on
the bench until they are 70 (and older in some
jurisdictions). In fact, President Obama’s recent
nomination of Elena Kagan for appointment to
the US Supreme Court was to replace retiring
Justice John Paul Stevens – who is 90 years old.
And let’s face it, ageism (along with sexism) is
really something a country facing a severe shortage
of labour simply cannot afford.
At a practical level, plenty of research suggests
the best workforce is one that reflects the community
we live in: male, female, grey, bald, from a
range of ethnic and educational backgrounds.
Now, how am I going
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