British insurance company bans word ‘energetic’ from job posts to attract older employees

A major British insurance firm has banned the word “energetic” from its job advertisements in order to attract older workers.

Phoenix Group, which is valued at £6.8 billion and has 13 million customers, also stopped using the word “enthusiastic” in its job postings for the same reasons.

The company said it was intentionally avoiding using “younger-age stereotypical words” because it feared it would deter those over the age of 50 from applying.

In 2017, Phoenix Group’s CEO, Andy Briggs, was appointed business champion for older workers by the government. He has warned that older workers have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

Briggs was previously Group Chief Executive of Friends Life, the listed insurer, in addition to being Managing Director of Scottish Widows, Chief Executive of the Retirement Income division at Prudential and Chairman of the Association of British Insurers.

In total, Phoenix Group employs more than 7,000 people across UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria.

As part of its recruitment drive, the company is looking to hire 80 people, its website states.

Currently, 44 per cent of its workforce is over the age of 45.

Phoenix Group has also barred words such as “innovative” from its adverts, which it also says could deter older applicants.

According to The Times, the company explained: “This is not because people’s enthusiasm changes with age but because research shows that some people will rule themselves out of even applying if they don’t feel that they are wanted.”

Meanwhile, the drive to employ more older people has been fuelled by figures that suggest fewer over-50s are employed now compared to before the pandemic.

In 2021, the Office for National Statistics said that there were 180,000 fewer over-50s employed than before the pandemic.

Briggs said in October: “We must recognise the immediate and longer-term impact this will have if we don’t take action. The over-50s represent a third of our workforce and yet often, due to their age, they will find it much harder to re-enter the workforce.

“We are at risk of a large group of people experiencing serious long-term pension poverty when you consider that the cost to an average male earner retiring at age 55 instead of 65 could be around £280,000 in lost employment income and a reduction of private pension pot by 55 per cent.”

The comments follow a statement made by the charity Age UK on the future of employment for older people.

“As we’ve heard frequently over the past year, the jobs market has been badly affected by the pandemic, leading to a large number of people – including many older workers – finding themselves out of work,” the charity said.

“The over-60s have been particularly affected, with many looking for work at a time when they thought they had a job for life and were planning their retirement.”

In a conversation with Mims Davies MP, Age UK’s head of policy, Christopher Brooks, spoke about ways in which they could encourage employers to attract older applicants.

“Discrimination in the workplace, for any reason, is completely unacceptable,” said Davies before going on to praise Briggs’ efforts.

“We have an older workers’ champion in Andy Briggs, and he’s working to challenge businesses to make sure they’ve got a diverse workforce and are not overlooking talent. 50PLUS Choices is helping employers be more open minded – being able to retain older workers and retraining.”

You can read the full interview here.