Wasted Workforce: Empowering The Elderly Through Timesharing

Sitting in my favourite French cafe, Aux Bacchanales, facing the famous concert hall, Suntory Hall, in Ark Hills in central Tokyo, I watched hordes of euphoric concert goers heading for the subway. I don’t know who was playing that evening, but what I do know, is that I could hardly spot a face under 60 years of age amongst the crowd. I could count the number of middle-aged “youngsters” on one hand. Despite living in Tokyo for 20 years, this was the first time in my life that I witnessed the reality of the aging population in Japan. But this is not just a problem for Japan, but for most of the developed world.

According to the United Nations, population ageing, “is poised to become one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century, with implications for nearly all sectors of society, including labour and financial markets, the demand for goods and services, such as housing, transportation and social protection, as well as family structures and intergenerational ties.”1

So what does ageing have to do with timesharing? Surely, we should be focusing on the younger population to ensure a strong and vibrant community for the future? No, as a social equaliser, our timesharing is for everyone in the community, whether young, middle-aged or elderly.

Health & Economic Benefits

Various studies show that timesharing improves the health and wellbeing of the individual participating, and in turn, reduces the government cost of social welfare in the long term.

The College of Medicine of the UK2 reported a survey by The Visiting Nurse Service of New York which explored the effect of timesharing on the elderly. Their results speak for themselves:

· 48% reported improvements in self-rated physical health.

· 72% reported improvements in self-rated mental health.

· 73% of those with a low annual income reported that membership helped them save money.

· 82% reported improved quality of life

· 93% reported that they are now exchanging with and befriending members of different ages, backgrounds and cultures.

· 79% reported that the timesharing will help them to remain in their homes as they age.

· 67% reported increased access to health and other community services.

· 98% reported that, despite their advanced years, they are now able to use their skills to help others.

The final statistic encapsulates the true impact timesharing can have on our elderly population. Our wise predecessors are rich with skills and experiences that can benefit our societies and industries, particularly for young people, but this “asset” is rarely utilised and often outcasted. Without timesharing, 98% of those surveyed would probably be sitting at home watching TV or worse, crippled by redundancy.

The London School of Economics (LSE) together with the University of Kent and the University of Manchester, UK, went one step further and quantified the economic benefit of timesharing. In their report3, they calculated the economic consequences of timesharing to be in excess of £1,300 (c.US$1,700) per member. They also add that “this is a conservative estimate of the net economic benefit, since [timesharing] can achieve a wider range of impacts than those we have been able to quantify and value.”

What now?

The benefits of timesharing for the elderly and all within the community are clear. So why isn’t it happening all over the world? Why hasn’t the sharing economy mobilised this expanding ageing population? Some timesharing platforms, known as timebanks, have already shown the benefits to their local community but still haven’t achieved national or even global scale.

Hourvillage, the genesis project of timetech, is looking to fill this gap. With an easy to use mobile app, users can give a service, skill or errand and receive hourtimetm credits in return. The service can be as simple as reading the newspaper to an elderly neighbour. In return, the user redeems hourtime credits for services or skills of interest, such as learning a language or brushing up on their coding skills.

For purists who say that volunteering should not be rewarded…. with Hourvillage you can donate the hourtime credits to an individual or a charity if you wish!

Hourvillage is also working with local community managers in Singapore to assist the elderly who don’t know how to use a mobile app or have trouble reading.

On my flight back from Tokyo, I read an interesting article in the Financial Times, where Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son, was calling for the Japanese government to change the laws in Japan that prohibit many sharing economy services. He even went as far as to call the regulators “stupid” for protecting the past and thereby denying the future.

Once Hourvillage launches in Japan, I hope that many of the elderly I saw back in Ark Hills will find our service beneficial, not only for themselves but for their community at large.

Sources:

1. “Ageing Population Report 2015”, by the United Nations, http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WPA2015_Report.pdf

2. https://collegeofmedicine.org.uk/innovations-projects/timebanking-uk/

3. https://www.pssru.ac.uk/pub/dp2772.pdf

4. Financial Times, 25th July 2018