Grey Matters: Increasing employment participation among older workers

Milano Pellegrini, Head of HR – Caltex Supply Chain, Caltex provided the closing Keynote Presentation at the HR Leaders Resources Summit on, “Grey Matters: Increasing employment participation among older workers.”

During this Keynote Presentation, Millano highlighted key areas such as encouraging diversity and flexibility; the challenges when hiring and retaining mature age workers and how we can improve these attitudes thru opportunities and incentives. He opened up this presentation by asking the audience, “At what age do you become an ‘older worker?’ before speaking on the general bias against older workers such as physical demands, poor technology skills and lack of energy, ambition and creativity, compared to that of younger workers.

Milano Pellegrini, Head of HR – Caltex Supply Chain, Caltex asks the audience, “have you ever hired a 70+ in your organization?”

“I feel like I’m at the top of my game, intellectually” Millano says, stressing the ‘age of power’ for top CEOs to be 53.

After speaking on the ramifications of hiring older workers, he asked the audience… 1. Do we genuinely case about our people? 2. Do we value experience and wisdom? and 3. Is this demographic really important? Milano spoke on the possible solutions to this ongoing issue and provided key points such as genuine desire, education, flexibility, inclusion and diversity. Milano closed this Keynote Presentation by begging the question, How would you want one of your ‘older’ loved ones treated at their workplace? “Just do the same at your workplace.”

Milano Pellegrini, Head of HR, Caltex Supply Chain. For the past six years Milano has headed up HR for Caltex Supply Chain. Prior to that he was a self-employed HR consultant for five years after several senior/executive HR roles predominately in the finance industry. Milano has a MBA from Macquarie Graduate School and a Master of Adult Education from UTS. Indeed, Milano has also been an adjunct lecturer for Macquarie University in its Masters programs and also attended Executive Education at Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge and INSEAD business schools.