An ageing workforce may well be a reality for many employers as employees are shunning past retirement traditions and choosing to stay on in their job.

The demographic shift creates challenges for organisations and their employee benefit strategies. But instead of being seen as an issue, older employees could  actually be the key to stopping the UK from falling off the ‘workplace cliff’ created by a tight labour market.

Managing an older workforce presents employers with diverse challenges. The primary goal is to engage and motivate multiple generations to work together and be at their most productive.

Employee benefits schemes need to be adapted to reflect the preferences of people from different age groups. Many organisations put in place flexible benefits strategies that allow employees to select and make use of the benefits they will value the most.

Managers need to be able to hold individual engagement conversations to understand what makes every member of staff tick. They then need to bring their broad ranging skills, experience and career goals together in a way that delivers the strongest team performance.

Traditional workplace mentoring, in which older more experienced workers partner with younger newer recruits, has huge value. It encourages interaction and engagement between the different members of a multigenerational workforce.

This can also deliver results when the mentoring is reversed, and the younger employees mentor their older colleagues.