Is it too late to start when you are in your fifties? Recommendations for supporting a career that begins in your fortiesWhat companies should do to help middle-aged and senior workers make progress

※This article is a machine translation.

It is expected that the promotion of progress-related action for middle-aged and senior workers in their forties to their sixties will help companies improve productivity. What sorts of initiatives should companies carry out to achieve progress for middle-aged and senior workers?
In a survey report released previously, entitled “Hints for ‘age-reversed management’ required of younger supervisors overseeing middle-aged and senior subordinates in their forties to sixties.Looking to the day when supervisors will be younger and subordinates will be older”, we introduced ways to promote progress for the sluggish type that accounts for approximately 40 percent of all middle-aged and senior workers from the standpoint of supervisor management and the fact that management based on the delegation of authority to subordinates by which a supervisor accepts the way a worker performs assigned work and entrusts the worker accordingly is effective for all middle-aged and senior age brackets. Next, in this issue let us look at the career support that companies should provide in order to promote progress for sluggish-type workers, which was revealed in our fact-finding survey on progress for middle-aged and senior workers as administered to 2,300 workers in their forties to sixties. (See below for an outline of this survey.)

In this “Project to Explore Progress from the Middle”,
the terms “middle-aged” and “senior” are defined as follows: “middle-aged”: 40 to 54 years old, “senior”: 55 to 69 years old

1. Personal career awareness undergoes major changes in the 40s
2. The key to the success of middle-aged and senior workers is a shift towards “internal careers“
3. Career support required for a shift to “internal career”
4. (Summary) Companies should provide career support from the early 40s, the gateway for middle-aged and senior workers

1. Personal career awareness undergoes major changes in the 40s

Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung likened a person’s life to the path of the sun over the course of a day, and called the 40s “the noon of life”. This period, when people are approaching the halfway point of their lives, is also known as the “mid-life crisis”, as many people experience changes in their attitudes and values towards work and their careers.
So, what kind of changes are occurring in the career awareness of middle-aged and senior workers in their 40s to 60s? Before considering career support for companies, let’s first check out the characteristics of individual career awareness.

Figure 1: Changes in attitudes towards career advancement

The most prominent characteristic seen in people in their 40s is the change in attitudes towards career advancement. According to the “2017 Survey of Working People’s Growth Conditions” conducted by Persol Research and Consulting in 2017, the percentage of individuals within an organization who have the desire to “move up the ladder” decreases with age, and it is understood that the number of respondents who “do not want to move up the ladder” exceeds the number of respondents who “do want to move up the ladder” after the age of 42.5 (Figure 1)

Figure 2: Changes in attitudes towards the end of one’s career

Furthermore, it can be said that one of the characteristics of this period is that people begin to become aware of the “end of their career”. According to the same survey, the age at which the percentage of people who are aware of the end of their careers overtakes the percentage of those who are not becomes 45.5 years old (Figure 2).

2. The key to the success of middle-aged and senior workers is a shift towards “internal careers“

Up to this point, we have seen that there are significant changes in the way individuals think about ‘success’ and ‘the end of their careers’ in their early to mid-40s, which is the gateway to middle-aged and senior workers.
So what kind of career awareness is common to individuals who are making rapid progress? The results of a survey of 2,300 middle-aged and senior workers in their 40s to 60s (Figure 3) show that “awareness of contributing to society”, “a sense of personal growth through work” and “self-efficacy in work” have a positive impact on the career awareness of individuals in their 40s who are making rapid progress. In this way, the attitude of viewing work based on its significance to society and its sense of reward for oneself is called an “internal career view”. As the “internal career view” also has a positive impact on the actions of those in their 50s and beyond, such as improving their expertise through work, it is clear that it is an important career awareness that encourages the actions of middle-aged and senior workers in their 40s to 60s. On the other hand, it has been found that the “external career perspective”, which is oriented towards positions and posts that are easy to see, such as promotion and advancement, does not have a positive impact on the advancement of any age group.

Figure 3: Career awareness that encourages advancement

From this, we can see that how people develop an “internal career perspective” during their 40s is an important point in career support measures that encourage advancement.

3. Career support required for a shift to “internal career”

The results of an analysis of the relationship between career support participation and advancement behavior (Figure 4) show that in their 40s, those who have the opportunity to participate in career counseling are more likely to take action to advance their careers.
On the other hand, it was also found that those who had not attended any career training had a negative impact on their career advancement behavior, suggesting how important it is to have an opportunity to reconsider your approach to your career at this stage in your life.

Figure 4: Career support that encourages career advancement

So, what is the current situation regarding career support in companies? Recently, it seems that more and more companies are introducing systems where career counselors are stationed on-site and employees can voluntarily consult with them about their careers, but the results of the survey show that this is not necessarily sufficient. According to the results of the survey shown in Figure 5, which shows the experience of taking career support courses, it is clear that only around 10% of people have had the opportunity to take courses on career inventory or career counseling. It seems that there is still room for improvement in the career support that companies should provide for middle-aged and senior workers, whose attitudes towards their careers change significantly.

Figure 5: Experience of taking career support courses

Summary: Companies should provide career support from the early 40s, the gateway for middle-aged and senior workers

When we think of career support for middle-aged and senior workers that is generally provided by companies, many people probably think of things like “money planning training to think about life planning after retirement” for people in their mid-50s who are approaching retirement age. However, what the survey results make clear is the importance of providing career support from the early 40s, which is the gateway for middle-aged and senior workers. Providing employees with the opportunity to take a deep look at their own careers and prepare for future career changes during the early 40s, a time when there is a significant change in the way people think about work and careers, is not only positive for individual career development, but also has important significance from a management perspective in terms of encouraging breakthroughs and improving work performance.
As for the content of career support for middle-aged and senior workers in their 40s, who are at the start of their careers, it is not enough to simply provide the kind of career training that has been done in the past at each company, such as taking stock of one’s career and discovering one’s strengths. It is necessary to provide opportunities to reconsider the social significance of one’s work and the rewards of work for oneself. Furthermore, it is also important for companies to provide opportunities for employees to think about what kind of working style is desirable for them, by looking at their future careers and facing up to the reality of the possible ‘inconveniences’ they may face in the near future, such as demotion and pay cuts due to the mandatory retirement age system.

In this article, we have looked at the career support that companies should be providing to encourage middle-aged and senior workers in their 40s to 60s to make a breakthrough. Next time, we will be looking at the “mandatory retirement age system”. Please look forward to it.

Survey Overview

When quoting, please clearly indicate the source.
Example of source citation: Persol Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. / Ishiyama Laboratory, Hosei University “Middle-aged and Senior Workers’ Advancement Survey”