Wimmera organisations and businesses strive to include older workers

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday called for people in their mid-to-late 60s to work longer and undertake training to keep in touch with the jobs market so they could contribute to the economy.

He noted the proportion of people over 65 in the workforce - either with a job or looking for employment - had climbed to 14.6 per cent from 12.3 per cent across the past five years.

Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership released data at a workshop on Wednesday in Horsham that showed the region's working age population was in decline.

Data from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning revealed that four of the seven Victorian districts projected to experience a decline in working age population were in the Wimmera Southern Mallee region. For the St Arnaud district, the decline is forecast at eight per cent while the West Wimmera Shire is at 7.9 per cent, Horsham Rural City at 6.1 per cent, Stawell district at 5.5 per cent, Yarriambiack Shire at 4.8 per cent, and Hindmarsh Shire at 4.2 per cent.

Andrew Rose, GWMWater's executive manager of engagement culture and assurance, said the company tried to be as representative of the population as possible and had specific policies to attract older workers.

"One of the things in our enterprise agreement is a clause that allows the possibility for workers over 55 to request flexible work arrangements - whether it's a later start or maybe shorter days, or whatever suits the individual," he said.

Mr Rose said 34 per cent of GWMWater employees were over 55 and the flexible work opportunity had been well received.

"Especially as they get closer to transitioning to retirement, they still might want to have longer weekends and compress their work into a couple of days during the middle of the week, then they can start experimenting with being at home," he said.

Mr Rose said the company had initiatives in place to encourage people nearing retirement into mentoring roles to share their knowledge with other employees.

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Skillinvest chief executive Darren Webster said it was strange to refer to people aged over 50 as "ageing" because they often might work for another 20 years.

"Some older people might need to be re-trained in different things but they also need employers to provide the opportunity and not see them as a liability rather than an asset," he said.

"From the employer's perspective they need to give them a go. I'm not saying that they don't, but it might be a bit of a mindset change to some."

Mr Webster said older people often had good experience and skills that could be transferred into a different role or industry.

"I think the majority of employers would be happy to employ someone over 50 if they thought they were going to be a benefit to the organisation," he said.

Bunnings Horsham Store Manager Cam Ballinger said almost half of the team at the Horsham store were over 50, with some team members having as much as 35 years of experience with Bunnings.

"Whilst Bunnings doesn't target older workers, we actively welcome and value the wide arrays of skills and knowledge mature aged workers bring and recognise the value this has in providing the best advice for customers," she said.

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