Leah Zoszak, Eva Zellman, Daniela Andrei, and Sharon Parker

This report provides insights on leading for an inclusive workforce. As the population ages, the plan to ensure Australia’s economic success will inevitably include strategies that harness the contribution of mature workers. With up to five generations currently in the workforce, it is important that these strategies also focus on age-diversity to promote cohesion across intergenerational work groups. Previous research suggests that leaders hold a pivotal role in influencing team productivity and wellbeing. Unfortunately, very few Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) strategies specifically address age as a factor. For example, age is rarely part of inclusive leadership training despite the fact that leaders often do not know how to achieve age-beneficial outcomes. The Ascent Leadership Program presented in this report is an innovative, evidence-based approach to improve how we lead for age-diversity. The report shows that leaders do experience challenges in leading age-diverse workforce, but that Include, Individualise, and Integrate (“3I”) meta-strategies can be used by leaders to address these challenges. When organisations employ evidence-based leadership development like the “3I” framework, they cultivate the growth of leaders who are motivated and able to build more age-inclusive workplaces.

This report will be of interest to HR, D&I, and Learning & Development professionals. Business leaders wishing to attract and engage an age-diverse workforce may also benefit from these results and adopting a proactive approach to embedding the “3I” model into organisational D&I strategies.

Laura Bennett, Daniela Andrei, Leah Zoszak, Cecilia Runneboom, Jane Chong, David Pitt

With an ageing Australian workforce, understanding retirement intentions, decision making processes, and successful transitions to retirement become increasingly valuable at the economic, organisational, and individual levels. In making this report, CEPAR collaborated with an Australian financial advisory firm to complete eighteen interviews with mature workers and recently retired individuals from diverse (Australian) geographical and career backgrounds, to investigate the changing nature of retirement aspirations and outcomes, and to form multi-level recommendations to support successful transitions into retirement. 

Catherine Rickwood, Natasha Ginnivan, Meiwei Li, Mitiku Hambisa, Kaarin J. Anstey

A recent CEPAR (2021) report brought to light several opportunities for accessing the ageing population including the need for employers to have better strategies to recruit and retain older workers. The 3i framework of Include, Individualise and Integrate, outlined by CEPAR researchers, Professor Sharon Parker and Senior Research Fellow Dr Daniela Andrei, provides a broad approach for organisations to manage mature workers.

The results and findings presented in this report contribute to the knowledge in this area. The need to understand the enablers and barriers for creating a multigenerational workforce across age groups and seniority is considered critical. For organisations to embrace age diversity it’s essential that senior executives and managers know what’s required for older and younger workers to effectively and harmoniously work together for individual and collective benefit.

Through an extensive qualitative research program that included interviews with senior executives and multiple focus groups with employees aged 25+ with a leading financial institution and national retailer, we’re delighted to contribute to this field of research. Findings reveal that building intergenerational mentorship and training programs for managers and teams; identifying, understanding and addressing communication differences; and introducing recruitment policies and practices that encourage and support age diversity are some of the factors critical to championing a multigenerational workforce.

Marc de Cure, John Piggott, Hazel Bateman, Rafal Chomik, and Michael Sherris

This submission to the Australian Government’s consultation on the objective of superannuation comments on the Consultation Paper on Legislating the Objective of Superannuation. The submission has two parts: The first directly addresses the consultation questions; the second raises issues with the consultation paper not covered by our responses to the consultation questions. 

Andreea Constantin, Myra Hamilton, Marian Baird

It is well established that having care responsibilities can affect paid work and wellbeing, but the last two years have generated new pressures for those with care responsibilities. The coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in strict public health and social protective measures that resulted in partial or full closure of essential services for children, people with a disability or chronic illness, and frail older people. Many unpaid carers, including those in employment, found themselves juggling additional care responsibilities with much less of the regular support they would normally receive from family, friends, schools, and formal care services such as early childhood education and care, disability care, aged care, and other community services.

Much of the research on the impacts of the pandemic on work-life reconciliation has focused on parents of young children. People with care responsibilities for other family members, such as ageing relatives, relatives with a disability or chronic illness, or grandchildren, have been much less studied during the pandemic. Carers of these groups are more likely to be aged 45 and above. This report aims to fill this gap in research by exploring the circumstances of mature Australians (aged 45 and above) who had care responsibilities during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to understand the experiences of mature-aged carers (including carers of an ageing relative, carers of a person with a disability or chronic illness, grandparents, and parental carers, described collectively in this report as ‘carers’), the research team surveyed a panel of Australians aged 45 and above between June 2020 and October 2021 about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of their work, family lives and wellbeing. Data was collected at four separate time points: June 2020, November 2020, April 2021 and October 2021. This analysis offers insights into how mature Australians reconciled their family and care responsibilities with paid work in the context of the pandemic across the four time points.

We found that carers and non-carers had equally supportive employers in terms of flexible work options. But this flexibility did not always translate into better work-life reconciliation. Carers struggled more than non-carers to meet their family/care responsibilities because of their work and found it more difficult to carry out their work because of their family/care responsibilities. Female carers fared worse than their male counterparts.

Younger mature carers (aged 45-54) struggled more than their older counterparts, with less support from their employers for flexible work arrangements in the first three surveyed time points and with poorer work-life balance. The better work-life balance and lower work-life conflict observed among carers aged 65 years and above was revealed to be partly a result of working fewer hours per week on average.

Mature Australians with care responsibilities for older relatives reported the least supportive employers when it came to flexibility. They also had the highest levels of work-life conflict among all groups of carers. Respondents caring for people with a disability or chronic illness or dependent children also reported high levels of work-life conflict at particular time points.

Marian Baird, Myra Hamilton, Lisa Gulesserian, Alison Williams, Sharon Parker

This report provides the first detailed analysis of how Australian employers have experienced and adapted to COVID-19. Between May to October 2020, the research team interviewed 32 leaders, managers and officers at 28 organisations across Australia. Employers from 14 private, 11 government (federal, state and local) and three not-for-profit organisations participated, with between 8 and 35,000 employees in seven states and territories. Employers were in industries including advertising, community services, engineering, fast-moving consumer goods, government, healthcare, higher education, hospitality, insurance, pharmaceutical, professional services/legal, publishing, retail, telecommunications, transport, utilities, and wholesale.

Many surveys on COVID-19 in 2020 focused on worker preferences. This study uniquely focuses on the employer response. While not representative of all businesses in Australia, the actions of the 28 participating organisations and the findings from our analysis highlight innovations in response to government directives to work from home and the emergence of good practices that may transform the work-life balance of Australians.

The findings are reported in five sections, based on thematic analysis of the interview data.

Rafal Chomik and John Piggott 

This submission has grown from a series of interactions with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety secretariat, broadly focused on the question of financing aged care. Communications with the Commission have included a series of questions on this topic. This submission provides responses to these questions, but provide a broader frame for context and coherence.

Hazel Bateman, Robbie Campo, David Constable, Isabella Dobrescu, Ailsa Goodwin, Junhao Liu, Ben R Newell and Susan Thorp

By mid-August 2020, Australian superannuation fund members had made more than 3 million applications to withdraw retirement savings under the COVID-19 Superannuation Early Release Scheme, supporting more than $31B in payments. The relaxation of conditions for early release of superannuation savings changed a fundamental feature of the Australian retirement savings system. Responses of members to the early release scheme highlight the effectiveness of the standard superannuation preservation rules. Early withdrawals have short-term and long-term consequences for individual members who take payments under the scheme, and for society as a whole.
We report results of a survey of over 3,000 members of Cbus, a leading industry fund, who withdrew some or all of their superannuation savings in the first phase of the COVID-19 early release scheme between April and June 2020.

Major findings include:

• Surveyed COVID-19 early release scheme applicants expressed urgent short-term need for funds and considerable uncertainty about the long-term consequences of their decision.
• The $10,000 limit both guided and constrained withdrawal amounts.
• Around 25% of surveyed members withdrew almost their entire account balance.
• Immediate financial need (59%) and concerns for future expenditures (27%) were the main reasons members gave for accessing savings. Those who had not experienced reduced working hours were more likely to withdraw for future concerns or to protect their savings.
• Around 30% of surveyed applicants were unsure of, or unconcerned about, the long-term consequences of their withdrawal.
• Around 50% of surveyed applicants either underestimated, or didn’t estimate, the impact of the withdrawal on their superannuation balance at retirement.
• Members who collected information from Cbus and from other sources, such as news services or social media, were half as likely to decide to withdraw within one day or less than members who used no information sources.
• Members who spent longer thinking and consulted more information sources before withdrawing their savings held more realistic expectations of impacts on retirement wealth.

Michael Sherris

This submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety provides responses for a possible approach to the Financing of Aged Care in Australia.

Michael Sherris

This submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety provides initially some general background comments on Aged Care Financing and a discussion of Aged Care Risks and Private Market Insurance Product Innovation based on collaborative research on aged care financing and insuring. Against this background, it then provides selective responses to relevant Questions in the Consultation Paper 2 - Financing Aged Care.

Various CEPAR staff and affiliates contributed to this submission.
Major contributors were Katja Hanewald and John Piggott.

Various CEPAR staff and affiliates contributed to this submission.
Major contributors included: Hazel Bateman, Rafal Chomik, Marc de Cure, Michael Keane, George Kudrna, John Piggott, Michael Sherris, and Alan Woodland

This submission was prepared for the Retirement Income Review.

There is an established evidence base to draw on

• Australia will continue to grow, with significant skill-based immigration and a stable fertility rate of about 1.7 to 1.8, which in combination will generate a steady increase in population, a slow rate of ageing, and modest per capita real income growth;
• Interest rates will remain low in the medium to long term and investment returns may decline from historic averages along with some declines in productivity growth;
• Life expectancy will continue to increase, but probably at a reduced rate in the longer term;
• The mortality gradient will likely remain, and possibly increase, especially at mature ages (see Retirement Brief 2, Fig 4G and 4H). Clarke and Leigh (2011) estimate a 6-year gap between the lowest and highest income quintiles at age 20.

Daniela Andrei, Sharon Parker, Andreea Constantin, Marian Baird, Lucinda Iles, Gretchen Petery, Leah Zoszak, Alison Williams, Shannon Chen

By 2050, almost one third of Australia’s population will be older than 60 (p. 9). With an ageing population and workforce, Australia, like many OECD countries, faces the challenge of adapting workplaces and work practices to meet the needs and interests of this changed demographic.

This report is based on research findings from a large-scale survey (N = 2009) of Australian workers aged 18 to 81. A convenience sample was obtained using online Australian panels. Our interest is in the mature workforce, so workers over 45 years were over-sampled. Younger workers were included for comparison purposes. 51% of the sample is male, and 49% is female. The sample is mostly metropolitan based (72%) and includes workers in a broad range of occupations, industries, and job roles. The spread of jobs is similar to national samples, although caution should be exercised when making inferences from this study to the Australian population.

The report is based on self-reported data collected at a single point in time and does not allow for causal inferences. Age group comparisons do not adjust for non-age specific differences in the groups. Whilst in our research we define mature workers as employees aged 45 and over, our analysis revealed consistent shifts in experiences for employees aged 55 and over. Therefore in the executive summary we highlight results for these mature workers in particular.

The survey focused on as perception of organizational practices that can support mature workers, as well as the lived experience of mature workers, according to three key themes:

• Include – workers being welcomed and valued, irrespective of age;
• Individualise – work that is adjusted to accommodate the changing needs and preferences of mature workers;
• Integrate –communication and knowledge sharing across diverse age groups.

Hazel Bateman, James Brownlow, Ben Culbert, Charles Chu, Christine Eckert, Bin Fu and Susan Thorp

SUMMARY

We investigate how the decision to take out a residential mortgage is interrelated with engagement with superannuation, measured by changes in superannuation contributions and interactions with service providers (the mortgage provider and the super fund). We do so by analysing matched samples of superannuation fund members who do and do not take out mortgages in calendar year 2014. We measure the timing and size of changes in four types of superannuation contributions in the 36 months prior to and following mortgage commencement, and changes in interactions with service providers in the 6 months before and 12 months after mortgage commencement.

We find that the decision to take out a residential mortgage is associated with engagement with superannuation. Super fund members who took out a new residential mortgage in 2014 exhibited changes in their superannuation contribution behaviour before and /or after mortgage commencement (as compared with those who did not take out a mortgage), with the timing and size of these changes differing by mortgage type (owner-occupier or investment), employment status (employee or self-employed) and key demographics (gender, age and income).

George Smyrnis, Hazel Bateman, Isabella Dobrescu, Benjamin R Newell, and Susan Thorp

This industry report investigates the impact of retirement income projections on superannuation contributions, investment choices and engagement from fund members.

Executive Summary:
Australian workers rely on information from their superannuation funds to ascertain if they are saving enough for retirement. Until recently, most funds gave members only their current balance to go on, leaving to the member the tough problem of translating that balance into a future lump sum or income stream. In 2013, Cbus sent approximately 20,000 members a retirement income estimate (RIE), along with their current balance, for the first time. The goal of the RIE trial was to help members grasp the implications of their current superannuation savings pattern for their retirement wellbeing.
The impact of this new message on members’ contributions, engagement, and investment choices was remarkable. We measure this impact by comparing carefully matched groups of Cbus members – a group who received the estimate and an (observationally) identical group who did not. The matched sample groups each include 15,273 Cbus members. Our analysis shows what members did up to end-June 2014, after receiving the RIE for the first time in September 2013.  This method allows us to draw inferences about the causal effect of the new communication.

Rafal Chomik, John Piggott, and Sophie Yan

This policy brief was prepared for the T20 Task Force on Aging Population and its Economic Impact + Immigration.

Abstract: Population ageing poses unique challenges for social security systems. Developed countries, with well-established structures, will face increasing age-related spending. They will require further reforms that balance spending cuts against core promises across generations. Most emerging economies, on the other hand, lack comprehensive social security yet are ageing rapidly. They must establish comprehensive retirement income support structures, universal health services, and publicly supported long term care in a rapidly changing macro-demographic environment.

This policy brief, while bringing a broad perspective to these challenges, focuses its policy analysis on retirement income, the first frontier in reforming social security systems in an ageing world. In line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, our key policy recommendation is that future social security reforms be re-directed towards a greater emphasis on non-contributory pension programs that can provide a much-needed safety net for older people. These will be the most important structures to deliver the SDGs, especially for emerging economies.

More details on CEPAR's involvement in the Task Force 10: Aging Population and its Economic Impact + Immigration can be found on CEPAR's newsroom: 

• CEPAR Director to co-chair T20 Task Force on Aging Population
• Aging populations threaten G20 fiscal sustainability, says taskforce

Hazel Bateman and Susan Thorp

This submission was prepared for the public inquiry into Superannuation: Assessing Competitiveness and Efficiency.

The submission comments on the Productivity Commission Draft Report, Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness. The approach is to comment briefly on selected Draft Recommendations and, where appropriate, refer the Commission to relevant academic papers.

More details on this inquiry can be found here.

Marc de Cure 

This submission was prepared for the Retirement Income Policy Division on a Framework for Comprehensive Insurance Products for Retirement (Retirement Income Products).

Rafal Chomik, John Piggott and Marc de Cure

This submission was prepared for the Senate inquiry into the Superannuation (Excess Transfer Balance Tax) Bill 2016 [Provisions] and Treasury Laws Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Superannuation) Bill 2016 [Provisions].

More details on this inquiry can be found here.

Hazel Bateman, Rafal Chomik, John Piggott, and Michael Sherris

This submission focuses on the use of defaults in superannuation drawdowns at retirement. It has been written in response to a request to CEPAR by the FSI to provide input on this issue. It builds on earlier CEPAR submissions, dated March 31 (Submission 1) and June 12 2014 (Submission 2).

Hal Hendig and Chris Phillipson

CEPAR Chief Investigator Hal Kendig, along with Chris Phillipson, submitted a report to the British Academy Policy Centre on Building Age Friendly Cities.

A number of CEPAR staff and affiliates contributed to this submission, including Rafal Chomik, Michael Sherris, Hazel Bateman, John Piggott, Ralph Stevens, and Diane Hosking, and the Chairman of the CEPAR Advisory Board, Marc de Cure.

Visit the Financial System Inquiry website.

Hazel Bateman, Rafal Chomik, John Piggott and Michael Sherris.

Following CEPAR's initial submission to the Financial Systems Inquiry, members of the Inquiry expressed the view that behavioural economics/finance had been underdone in the submission. CEPAR has put together a supplementary submission addressing this area.

James Mahmud Rice, Jeromey Temple and Peter McDonald

With demographic and economic changes on the horizon, an understanding of the production and consumption behavior of all Australians, but mature age Australians in particular, is indispensible. This project seeks to enhance our understanding of the economic lifecycle by developing National Transfer Accounts (NTA) for Australia.

The formal definition of the NTA is "a system of macroeconomic accounts that measures current economic flows by age in a manner consistent with the United Nations System of National Accounts. NTA measures age- specific labour income, asset income, consumption, transfers and saving, accounting for flows within households, between households, through the public sector and with the rest of the world" (UN,2013).

Heather Booth, Tim Windsor, Heather Crawford and Pilar Rioseco

This research report was prepared for the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre by CEPAR Associate Investigators Heather Booth and Tim Windsor and Heather Crawford and Pilar Rioseco.

Kaarin Anstey

This report was prepared for Alzheimer's Australia by CEPAR Chief Investigator Kaarin Anstey and Mr Kim Kiely.

Kaarin Anstey

CEPAR Chief Investigator Kaarin Anstey made a submission to the ANPHA Consultation on the National Preventive Health Research Strategy.

Kaarin Anstey, Peter Butterworth, Tim Windsor and Dimity Crisp

This report was prepared for the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre by CEPAR Investigators Kaarin Anstey, Peter Butterworth, Tim Windsor and Dimity Crisp.

Kaarin Anstey, Tim Windsor, Peter Butterworth, Dimity Crisp and Elissa Pearson

This research was prepared for the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre by CEPAR Investigators Kaarin Anstey, Tim Windsor, Peter Butterworth, Dimity Crisp and Elissa Pearson.

Kaarin Anstey, Kerry Sargent-Cox and Carly Pymont

This 5-year validation study was funded by and prepared for the NRMA ACT Road Safety Trust by CEPAR Investigators Kaarin Anstey, Kerry Sargent-Cox and Carly Pymont.

Hal Kendig

CEPAR Chief Investigator, Hal Kendig, calls for a well-resourced Aged Care and Support Research Program, and for greater leadership and strategic investment by the Australian Government in its resourcing of research funding for aged care, including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC). 

Dr. Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, Dr. Jeromey Temple and Dr. Tim Adair

This report was prepared by CEPAR research fellow Dr. Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, Dr. Jeromey Temple and Dr. Tim Adair for the Productive Ageing Centre. National Seniors Australia, Canberra.

Hal Kendig

This report was produced for the ACT Community Services Directorate, Department of Disability, Housing and Community.

CEPAR Chief Investigator Hal Kendig also presented this research at The Australian National Univeristy in May 2013.