Ageing Workforce & Employment Challenges

RESEARCH PROJECT

ABSTRACT
There are some specific sectors like banking and construction where maximum people
employed are elders. In the UK construction sector, maximum number of employees working in
the firms are more than 60 years than any other age group. However, on the other hand, the fact
cannot be ignored that ageing workforce is valuable for organisation as they have high
experience along with plenty of knowledge, skills and abilities in comparison to fresher. But,
there are many limitations as well that business has to face due to high rate of ageing workforce
working in the firm as it directly put a huge impact on their performance. It can be said that, with
increasing age, performance or work of employees in the organisation gets affected in both;
positive and negative manner.
Appropriate research methodology has been used by the scholar so as to attain the
objectives of study. In the present study, to assess the impact of ageing workforce on workplace
performance of Nigesta Limited, UK Construction Company, researcher has used interpretevism
approach, descriptive research design and inductive philosophy. Along with that, for collecting
information, both primary and secondary sources have been used along with qualitative method
for analysing data. Apart from that, with the use of simple random sampling technique, sample
size of 10 managers has been used that have been interviewed by the researcher with the use of
well-designed questionnaire. On the basis of responses gained, final conclusion is drawn.
It has been concluded by the study that construction industry of UK is facing the issue of
ageing population, that is, maximum employees are in between the age 50-60 years that are
going to be retired soon. Due to this reason; productivity of companies in this sector is getting
affected as they are not able to contribute efficient efforts in the accomplishment of
organisational goals. But researcher has given some ways by which the issue can be resolved in
Nigesta Limited and in the entire UK construction industry. If youngsters will be hired in the
firm, they will be easily able to perform tasks that would require heavy manual handling that will
resolve the issue of hampered work by ageing workforce.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview......................................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Aim and Objectives.....................................................................................................................2
Research Questions......................................................................................................................2
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review........................................................................................................................2
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................5
Research methodology.................................................................................................................5
SECTION 3...................................................................................................................................11
Preliminary results and interpretation........................................................................................11
SECTION 4...................................................................................................................................17
Findings and discussion.............................................................................................................17
SECTION 5...................................................................................................................................18
Recommendations......................................................................................................................18
Limitations and areas for future research..................................................................................18
SECTION 6...................................................................................................................................18
Summary and conclusion...........................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

TOPIC - Assessing the impact of ageing workforce on workplace performance – A case study
on Nigesta Limited, UK Construction Company.
INTRODUCTION
Overview
In the present scenario, there has been a great debate in recent years about the impact of
ageing workforce on their performance at workplace. There are some specific sectors like
banking and construction where maximum people employed are elders. Especially in public
sector, firms are facing the issue of ageing workforce. Now-a-days, it has become the issue due
to which nation’s productivity and economic performance is getting affected (Adane and et.al.,
2013). However, on the other hand, the fact cannot be ignored that ageing workforce is valuable
for organisation as they have high experience along with plenty of knowledge, skills and abilities
in comparison to fresher. But, there are many limitations as well that business has to face due to
high rate of ageing workforce working in the firm as it directly put a huge impact on their
performance. It can be said that, with increasing age, performance or work of employees in the
organisation gets affected in both; positive and negative manner (Chan and et.al., 2012). In the
present report, there will be research conducted on assessing the impact of ageing workforce on
workplace performance for which the firm Nigesta Limited is selected that is the UK
construction company.
Purpose of the study and areas for future research
Main purpose behind conducting the present study is that in construction industry of UK,
major ratio of people working in the firm is of higher age, that is, in between 40 to 60 years.
Thus, due to ageing workforce, firms in this sector are facing many issues like lack of innovation
and creativity as fresh talent is not there in the firms as well as reduced productivity as ageing
workforce cannot make high contribution in the attainment of goals. Therefore, in order to
suggest different ways to one of the UK construction companies, that is, Nigesta Limited, by
which it can resolve the issue of ageing workforce can be resolved, present study is being carried
out by the researcher.
Here, at first the researcher will formulate research aim and objectives and accordingly
the literature review will be done. After that, research methodology will be suggested on the
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basis of which data analysis will be done. By this way, findings will be gained and based on
same, conclusion will be drawn by the researcher.
Apart from that, this research will prove to be helpful for other researchers or Ph.D.
scholars as well who want to conduct study on the same topic. Furthermore, firms in the other
sectors like banking industry that are facing the same issue would also gain help by this study. In
addition to this, professors and teachers can also make their students understand the same topic
in more detailed manner by the help of this study.
Background
In today’s era, needs and demands of population are getting changed day by day.
Therefore, like all other sector, construction industry is also required to take into account the
changing needs of target market. In the UK construction sector, maximum number of employees
working in the firms are more than 40 years than any other age group. The ratio of elder
employees is increasing year by year because of which firms in this industry are now needed to
take several measures. Due to increased number of ageing workforce, it is has become necessity
for the firms to provide a safe environment as they are not physically strong who can deal with
any kind of uncertain situation if occurs. It increases the cost of business due to which profit of
organisations gets reduced (Zheng and et.al., 2014). On the other hand, when rate of ageing
population increases in the firm, it leads to issue of increased number of retirements at a time that
causes problem for HR department of organisation. It is because; in such case, on urgent basis,
HR department needs to do recruitment so as to meet the requirement of staff in organisation.
Nigesta Limited is a private limited company based in United Kingdom and deals in
specialised construction activities. Being in the UK construction industry, company is facing the
issue of ageing workforce and thus, its performance is getting affected in terms of profits and
productivity. Because of ageing workforce, there are many business activities that are not
conducted on time and in the manner which is desired by the management to attain its set targets.
Therefore, it is important for the firm, Nigesta Limited to recruit fresh talent in the organisation
so that all activities which ageing workforce is not able to perform can be done by the newly
hired employees. This issue is creating many other impacts also due to which company is needed
to take corrective measures. With taking proper initiatives and appropriate decisions, prevailing
issue in the organisation can be solved that will be discussed by the researcher in this report
(Chileshe and Haupt, 2010). Therefore, to resolve the stated issue, present research will be
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conducted in which impact of ageing workforce on workplace performance in Nigesta Limited
will be assessed.
Aim and Objectives
Aim – To assess the impact of ageing workforce on workplace performance – A case study on
Nigesta Limited, UK Construction Company
Objectives:
 To identify the impact of ageing workforce on workplace performance in UK
construction industry.
 To evaluate the relation between ageing workforce and their performance in Nigesta
Limited.
 To recommend the ways by which ageing workforce can be motivated in Nigesta
Limited.
Research Questions
1. What is the impact of ageing workforce on workplace performance in UK construction
industry?
2. Is there any relationship in between ageing workforce and their performance in Nigesta
Limited?
3. How the ageing workforce can be motivated in Nigesta Limited so that their performance
would get negatively affected?
SECTION 1
Literature Review
It is the most important part of a research by which it is shown that researcher has a good
grasp on the information about topic on which investigation is to be made. For literature review,
data is collected from different secondary sources like books, journals, published material, online
articles, etc. It can be said that researcher studies the earlier researched work and then re-write it
in his own language. After gathering information, scholar makes critical assessment of the same
so that final conclusion can be made. In this, views and opinions of different authors can be
reviewed and gaps in research are highlighted so that by concluding the summary of collected
data, final results can be gained. In the present research, views of different authors on assessing
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