What do you think are the key challenges and opportunities presented by increased longevity in the workforce, particularly in terms of talent management? 

I call it a ‘career marathon’ instead of the career ‘sprint’ that we might've been used to, and as always, there are two sides to this coin. One is helping individuals to understand that we have been gifted 30 extra years of life (thanks to changes in longevity over the last hundred years) and to wake up to the consequences and opportunities of this extended lifespan. This involves understanding what it means for people personally, for their partners and families, and also for their careers, in terms of how they prepare to up-skill in order to transition many times through multiple careers and roles.

Then there's the challenge of getting businesses to adjust to, and welcome, what I call this extra ‘third quarter’ - the 25 years after the age of 50, that are now often healthy and active years (at least for the privileged among us). We need to allow people to continue career trajectories, or pivot into something new with the support and understanding of the company they work for, not with ageist condemnation or forced elimination from the workforce, which is unfortunately all too common.

The challenge lies in the fact that this third quarter is still a new concept for many. Most businesses believe that they have enough people in the workforce and consequently their focus remains on the 25 to 50 year old age bracket. It’s time for companies to wake up to the benefits of Q3-er’s. As a starting point, organisations need to decide what they call this essential group in the workforce. “Seniors”? - not terribly popular. Nor do they want to be designated entirely by age, so “silvers”, “seniors”, 50 plus or 55 plus - just some of the attempts at naming this older workforce - probably won't make the mark.

The next step is to understand the motivations and interests of the people in this group, especially compared to those in Q2. How do they differ and what can organisations offer to support their staff in this new quarter? It's not, however, a monolithic timeframe, just like it is not for Q2; there are at least three different periods in Q3 that have different expectations and needs.

There are two opportunities here: the first is the talent. How can business leaders leverage the rich experience, energy and knowledge of these people? The second is how we service them, because they’re also the customers as well as the staff of companies. Do brands understand the needs and expectations of this market? Do they understand the purchasing power of people in Q3 and how significant this could be? Much marketing and advertising budget, and energy, is geared towards younger generations and the expectation is that the young are the future. In our ageing world, Q3 is going to be our future for a long time to come, so we'd better embrace this fact and learn more about them.

How do you see the role of mentorship and knowledge transfer between the different generations evolving, as workforces become more age-diverse?

We're currently experiencing a significant demographic shift in the workforce, making this a pressing reality rather than a distant trend. It's crucial for organisations and their leaders to understand the percentage of employees over 50 and their future work plans, including their thoughts on retirement. The focus should not solely be on older individuals as mentors, as younger employees can also provide valuable guidance. It’s dangerous to categorise groups simply by age; instead, we should embrace intergenerational collaboration, which fosters innovation and creativity. Both younger and older workers bring unique strengths to the table, and breaking down age-based hierarchies is essential for effective leadership across generations. This approach, which I refer to as ‘generational fluency,’ emphasises understanding and bridging of the differences between generations for improved collaboration.

You created the Longevity Leadership Programme with Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics. Can you please tell us a little about it and how you see similar programs developing across the world? 

Business schools are prime spaces to convene leaders on the key issues of our time and to get the issues of longevity in the workforce on the agenda. Again, I was surprised to learn that it's really not prioritised yet. So together with my Co-Director, Celine Abicassi (the Dean of the Executive Education Department at Catolica), we created a one week program called Longevity Leadership. The idea is to dive into all things longevity-related to business. How it impacts countries, companies, consumers, careers, talent management, intergenerational workforce, as well as one's own career.

When individuals have the time to think about the course of their own careers, it can be a helpful gateway to understanding how longevity can impact their organisation. My aim is for this program to serve as a template and prompt for businesses the world over to start preparing their own versions of how they would like to address longevity.

If you had a single piece of advice for global CEOs and boards that are yet to consider retaining Q3 workers, what would that be?

To measure how many people in your organisation are over 50 and decide, given demographic trends, if that's the right balance for your business, and whether you're leveraging it or ignoring it. This is not a futuristic situation - these significant demographic changes are happening now and are impacting many businesses.

In some organisations, 40 to 45% of staff are over 50 today, and they are not necessarily as engaged, motivated, developed or included in future planning as they would like to be. These companies are simply under-utilising a vast resource.

Leaders need to get this issue onto the strategic agenda to evaluate its potential for their businesses. It’s very similar to the work I've done for the last 20 years on gender balance. Generational fluency is very much where the topic of gender was 25 years ago, when I first started working on it. We tend not to focus on the iceberg until it hits - and the iceberg is now hitting.

What is contemporary retirement and is retirement still relevant?

The concept of retirement is extraordinarily varied across individuals, countries and cultures. It depends a lot on what you did careerwise - how exhausting, strenuous or physically challenging your job was, or whether you're some kind of knowledge worker or professional who can keep growing and going forever if you choose to. We're seeing this kind of separation in the debate over retirement age and the resistance to it. We have to be more sensitive to the fact that many people do not want to ‘do nothing’ indefinitely; people will need to shift from what they used to do, to what they could do next. It’s about managing that transition, preparing people for it and supporting them, which is a significant and urgent challenge. In most countries we're already seeing data suggesting approximately half of 50 year olds are not consistently full-time employed. And if they're not employed in their 50s they're unlikely to be employed in their 60s. All of our talk about the end of retirement is for the privileged and healthy few, and we have to make that movement far more accessible.

What do you think is the role of governments in changing the dialogue around retirement?

Governments all over the world are working on a number of these issues, steadily coaxing retirement ages up. However the career guidance and support structures to help people transition through this stage is definitely missing. The challenge is to help people aged 40 and above to realise that they may be needed to, or may choose to work much longer than our traditional paradigms envisioned. In addition, facilitating legislation to create a gentle transition to retirement so that employees don't suddenly stop working from 100% to zero. Truth is, we're going to see various work models spinning off in a variety of slower approaches to work, so that people can be partly engaged without having to finish working entirely. Government initiatives could prepare for the demographic impact on the workforce in various ways, including tax benefits, financial options and pension schemes that would support newly flexible career ends or extensions.