Why Employ an Older Worker?
We are all getting older one day at a time and will have to consider retirement at some stage in our careers. Before then, though, we envisage staying in the same job for many years and not having to seek another job. The reality of the job market will shatter this comfortable illusion and cause us to reconsider how we see things. With the economy struggling and a cost of living crisis causing chaos, we may want to delay retiring for as long as possible and keep pursuing more from the jobs market. Why should employers hire older workers when there are younger workers available?
Advantages of Employing Older Workers
A significant number of advantages flow from employing older workers, some of which have to do with age and maturity, with some stemming from experience in the world of work. We will look at these in more detail below.
Maturity and Reliability
When you are looking for a responsible employee who you can trust to open up on time or to otherwise take on a task that requires reliability, older workers are where it is at. Unlike some of the younger generation, some of whom may stumble into work after having a few too many drinks the night before, older workers take their responsibilities seriously.
This isn’t to say they are averse to having a laugh with the rest of the team, just that if you are looking for a responsible adult to ask to do an important task, they are it.
Transferable Skills
Older workers are replete with transferable skills that they have developed throughout their careers. They have now reached the point where they are veritable masters in their specific areas of expertise. When they come to work for a company, they bring all of their skills to the table and will often help to upskill the younger workers and even sometimes form an informal mentor/mentee relationship with younger staff.
Whether skills are being transferred consciously or by osmosis, as long as they happily share their skills, they are going above and beyond the call of duty for the company. It may be worth asking them to formalise the training role, either as a formal mentor for a named mentee or as more of a resource for the whole company, allowing them to develop classes that will allow for a more efficient spreading of skills throughout the company.
Positive Role Models
Some of the younger workers in the company will really look up to them, and in some workplaces, young people have observed that their older male colleagues were the first positive male role models they had in their lives, having grown up in single-parent families. This isn’t meant to negate the accomplishments of older female workers, far from it. It is just an acknowledgement that it is far more prevalent for single parents to be women without a man in their lives.
Older women in the workplace also provide role models for younger women, showing the importance of representation in the workplace. You can better understand that you can also be it if you can see it. The younger generations see successful older women in the workplace, and they realise that the company will promote talented people of any gender, which will help to improve the company's overall reputation.
Greater Employee Retention
It has been shown that there is a greater level of employee retention in companies with a mixture of older and younger workers. This is the way that workers themselves prefer things. It is easier to feel like work reflects broader society when some people there are older, and not everyone is under 25 years of age.
As well as encouraging younger people to stay, older workers tend to stay in one job for as long as possible. This means that if you want a stable pool of employees for several years, consider hiring older workers, as they are up to four times less likely to move on to a different job.
Confidence in Their Own Abilities
Having been around your industry for many years, it isn’t surprising that older employees have more confidence when it comes to sharing ideas and experiences with the rest of the team. They have earned the right to that confidence and know how to articulate their ideas to the best effect. They are often highly effective communicators, which can significantly benefit your business.
What do Older Workers Want from Work?
Older workers greatly value stability and job security, preferring to stay in one job rather than move around more often. This means that if you treat them well and give some attention to their needs, you can retain their services for the foreseeable future.
Flexibility
The stereotype is that younger people value flexibility the most, but older workers crave this as well. Although their own children have almost certainly flown the nest by now, they may have caring duties for their grandchildren or their spouse/partner, so offering a degree of flexibility will always go down well with this group. They are also far more likely to need health related appointments, so being able to take care of these without any problems at work will be appreciated.
Training Opportunities
Despite being a very skilled and knowledgeable cohort in general, older workers can’t resist the march of time any more than anyone else. They are often anxious to keep up with the latest work-related developments. Because of this anxiety about falling behind, they are particularly receptive to training that will allow them to stay up to speed with the modern ways of doing things.
They have adapted throughout their careers, and this age group has seen more technological changes than any other group in the history of work. When they started their careers, the internet was in its infancy. They have seen the change from typewriters to computers and from huge but simple “mobile” telephones as heavy as bricks to modern-day iPhones with video-calling capabilities.
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