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The Benefits of Hiring Retirees and Mature Employees
May 25, 2007
We’ve talked about how to attract and manage Generation Y in this blog, but as Baby Boomers start to near retirement age and more of the older generation remain open to second or even third careers, there’s a huge talent market to tap into that you may not have considered. Or maybe you have...
One of our clients at UKNY owns a couple of companies, each of which has a number of older workers pushing 70 who are as active, motivated and productive now as they’ve ever been at any point in their careers. Furthermore, they bring a wisdom, maturity and level of patience to the workplace that can be a stabilizing influence for younger employees during hectic or difficult times. We’ve seen first-hand how these employees bring a lifetime of experience to work that can’t be matched, but can be complemented very well by the creativity and technological capabilities of younger generations.
Recruitment strategies for this demographic of course may need to include more traditional forms of outreach, such as postings in shop windows, ads in your local newspaper and notices in the local library. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a generation who are completely tech-phobic. We’ve all heard of the 75 year old grandmother who’s taking pictures of her bundles of joy with her digital camera, uploading them onto her computer and emailing them to friends and family. So yes, they’re online too – local neighborhood websites, the Chamber of Commerce and discussion communities are all places where you might find a talented, mature worker willing to give you a few quality hours a week. Manhattan Chamber of Commerce just started offering free part-time job postings to it’s members – check your local Chamber to see if they offer something similar.
It’s important to be flexible of course in the kind of terms you offer this group of employees – part time andflex time are generally attractive to them, and they will look for collaborative environments where they can put their solid people skills to work. Indeed, their well-honed social skills can be a boon not just to workplace morale, but profits too – now there’s a motivation.
Posted by Alan Ibbotson on May 25, 2007 | Comments (0)
