Businesses can be age-friendly by being accessible to all people with disability and employing mature-aged people.
Being an age friendly business brings many benefits including:
- It increases your customer base
- You can draw on decades of knowledge and expertise to fill skill gaps in the workplace
- Mature-aged workers often identify improvements in processes and can act as a mentor to younger or less experienced employees.
One in two people aged 65 and over live with a disability. More than 40 per cent of the Baby Boomer generation will retire with some kind of disability, and this cohort will want to maintain their lifestyle.
If this cohort has reduced access to businesses due to accessibility needs, then everyone loses. However, if your business is accessible, you are likely to maintain your customer base and encourage new customers with access needs.
How to become age-friendly
There are plenty of ways to become an age-friendly business, and there is a lot of support out there to help. Check out these great resources.
- Department of Employment and Workplace Relations resources:
- Service Australia’s Work Bonus(open in new window)
- City of Swan seniors’ services(open in new window)