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Skills, Like Wine,
Can Improve with Age |
The baby boomer generation is retiring and a smaller workforce is following them. Many employers are realizing there's a gold mine of experience in older employees and job applicants.
So if your business finds it difficult to hire qualified staff members, consider what many companies have found
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The Law |
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- Age discrimination against employees and applicants is prohibited by federal and state laws.
- The major law governing this area is the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which generally bans federal and local governments, as well as private companies from discriminating against those age 40 or older.
- The law applies to want ads, hiring, interviewing, promoting, evaluating, training, firing and other aspects of employment.
- Benefits and early retirement fall under the federal Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, which prohibits employers from reducing health or life insurance benefits; ending pension contributions if people work beyond retirement age; and forcing staff members to take early retirement.
- Various state laws also ban age discrimination and may apply to companies with fewer than 20 employees.
| about older people:
- Absenteeism can be lower because they have fewer family obligations like child care that cause them to miss work.
- Turnover can be lower because they simply want a job while younger employees are often looking for career advancement and are less attached to one employer.
- Their creative and intellectual capacities grow with age.
- Their work ethic is often stronger and they can be easier to work with. They see their jobs as opportunities to remain active and can be less likely to see certain tasks as insignificant.
In addition, younger employees are often able to glean a sense of responsibility by working alongside older staff members. And while the older generation may seem to work more slowly, it may be because they are careful so the work may needs to be redone less frequently.
To benefit from the expertise and maturity of older employees, however, companies need to make creative efforts to encourage them to postpone retirement or to actively recruit them.
One example of an organization taking those steps is Baptist Health South Florida, which along with others in the health care industry, is experiencing a labor force crunch. It was named by AARP as one of the "Best Companies for Workers Over Age 50." To encourage older staff members to defer retirement, the hospital chain offers, among other things:
Three-day work schedules, as well as hours tailored to fit individual needs.
Some work to be done from home.
The ability for older employees to work just part of the year.
Health benefits for as little as 20 hours work a week, which is a strong incentive for many to postpone retirement.
Baptist Health provides on-site employee training, regardless of age. It also sponsors a "Scholars Program," under which participants commit to one year of employment and the company agrees to pay $2,500 per semester of college tuition for up to three semesters, plus a stipend for books and fees.
It may be time for your company to take a hard look at the labor force in your industry and start planning for the future -- or, in some instances, the present. Retaining and recruiting older employees can make good business sense.
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