2013-10-25 06:07:23
Ronald Alsop
As the global job market slowly improves, many employers are devoting their
recruiting efforts to the millennial generation and Generation X. But not West
Virginia University Hospitals.
Annette Belcher, a senior human resources officer at the hospital system, is
actively reaching out to baby boomers and even older individuals at senior
citizen expos and recruiting events for military veterans.
We want to let older workers know that we really value them, Belcher said.
We like their work commitment, life skills and knowledge, plus we need
experienced staff to mentor and train our younger hires. Typically, we also see
longer tenures with our over-50 workforce than with younger employees.
Generations of Workers
Defining the generations, by the numbers.
Millennials: Americans born between about 1981 and 2000, also called Generation
Y
Generation X: Now in their 30s and 40s, they were born between about 1965 and
1981
Baby Boomers: The 76 million people in the US born post World War II, between
1946 and 1964
Currently, more than a quarter of the employees at West Virginia University
Hospitals are 50 or older, and their average tenure approaches 15 years.
This workforce management approach is clearly the exception. I don t know why
more companies don t get on the bandwagon and hire older people, Belcher said.
But that s good for us because we have less competition.
To many labour market experts, Belcher is doing exactly the right thing in
trying to attract and retain the 50-plus generation. The exodus of baby boomers
from the workplace will accelerate in coming years, leaving many employers
facing a skills shortage. Although some people plan to delay retirement because
of limited savings or simply a desire to remain active, many will be on the way
out over the next decade.
Employers need to think of older workers as a discrete group to retain, not as
a group that s done or they re done with, said Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and
chief executive officer of ManpowerGroup, a staffing and workforce consulting
firm. Too many companies, he added, take the short-sighted view of retirement
as a cost-saving opportunity.
Making the most of senior talent
Manpower s 2013 global survey of more than 38,000 employers found that 35% had
difficulty finding suitable candidates for certain jobs. Joerres noted that
hiring or retaining people over 50 is especially important for positions that
require particular trade skills.
So many young people have been driven into four-year colleges and haven t seen
the honour of trade schools and apprenticeship programs, he said.
Not only do few employers actively recruit older workers, but many also aren t
making the most of the senior talent they already have. Towers Watson, which
advises companies on talent management strategies, found in a recent study that
more than half of the UK organisations surveyed were unprepared to capitalise
on the skills and experience of their aging workforces.
Companies aren t having conversations with older workers about how to best use
their skills and whether they d like to be doing other jobs in the
organisation, said Yves Duhaldeborde, a director in the talent and rewards
segment at Towers Watson.
Talent management experts advise businesses to overcome age bias and offer
older employees and job applicants development opportunities and more options,
including flexible hours, part-time work, consulting roles, and temporary
assignments.
A study last year by the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP found
most companies were concerned about losing older talent but were doing little
to address the issue. Nearly three-quarters of the HR managers at both US and
multinational companies said they consider the forthcoming talent drain,
brought on baby boomers retiring, a problem, but only 13% had provided training
to upgrade the skills of older workers and only 12% had encouraged them to stay
past the traditional retirement age. Even fewer (4%) had asked older employees
for feedback on what would encourage them to stay, or had established
alternative career tracks for them (3%).
Those results match an earlier Manpower study of more than 28,000 employers in
25 countries. The 2007 report revealed that only 14% of employers had
strategies to recruit older workers and only 21% had developed retention
policies. There were exceptions. Encouraged by government legislation and
incentive programs, companies in Japan and Singapore were far ahead of
employers in other countries in trying to keep older workers.
Negative perceptions
Most employers can t get past their negative perceptions of older workers.
Among the most common complaints: Older workers are less motivated and less
productive; they cost more in terms of both salary and benefits; they are more
prone to accidents and illness and take more day offs; they won t hang around
long enough to make the investment worthwhile.
While those observations may hold true to some extent, they also may be
exaggerated or outdated. For instance, older workers may get sick more, but
they aren t likely to incur expenses for pregnancies and childhood illnesses.
What s more, a research project funded by the US Social Security Administration
found that the aging workforce isn t hurting productivity, in part because the
elderly today tend to be well educated.
You think of older workers as having less stamina and being more fragile,
Tower Watson s Duhaldeborde said. But they are actually quite resilient and
able to cope well with pressure. They re very aligned with the objectives of
the organisation and focus more on quality and how they can do better for the
customer.
Employers also shouldn t assume older workers don t want training and
development programmes. Many are still interested in fresh challenges.
We train older people in new skills all the time to work in member services,
the health and fitness centre, childcare and administration, said Fernan
Cepero, chief human resources officer at the YMCA in Rochester, New York.
Some colleagues ask Cepero whether his older recruits are stuck in their ways,
but he says that definitely hasn t been the case at the Y.
They re eager to learn, he said. They don t feel they ve done it all and
know it all.