Employees over 55 numbering in millions, yet old biases stay strong, experts say

Source: The Vancouver Sun 2008, Donna Nebenzahl, Canwest News Service

Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008

"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."
- Billie Burke

MONTREAL -- We've all had the experience: the courteous tour guide, the super-efficient part-time colleague and, yes, the surprisingly cheery staff in Wal-Mart, Tim Hortons and countless other service businesses.

They're what we now call "older workers," those 55-plus folk now numbering in the millions in this country who may have left their jobs -- downsized, fired or retired -- then decided to work again.

Statistics Canada tells us they're the most thriving part of the labour force.

Full-time employment accounted for three-quarters of Canada's employment growth in 2007, according to this month's Canadian Labour Force Survey. And although older workers represented 30 per cent of the working age population, they nevertheless accounted for half of the total employment growth.

With an employment growth in the country of 2.2 per cent, older workers had above-average employment growth (+7.7 per cent), with higher gains for older women (+9.4 per cent) than men (+6.4 per cent).

Older women were more likely to be participating in the labour market in 2007, as their participation rate increased 1.6 percentage points to 27.9 per cent from one year ago, their highest rate on record.

Clearly, given the labour shortages that are already being felt -- just take a look at the number of "employee wanted" signs plastered on shop windows -- there's a real need to recruit older workers to more and more job sites. Yet there's a pervasive sense, recruiters say, that employers hold antiquated views of older workers and haven't as yet figured out how to bring them into the job.

Perceptions about older workers need correcting, Barry Witkin, founder of Toronto-based Prime50 Employment Services, told Profit magazine recently. He targeted a number of biases that needed re-framing, among them the notion that older workers are hard to train.

"Seasoned employees ... understand the importance of updating their skills, image and education," he said.

In addition to having the education needed to do the job, they have the expertise that is usually lacking in younger employees.

And while older workers might be more demanding about pay in the future as the value of their knowledge and work ethic becomes more evident, at the moment, it looks as though many of them are willing to be paid less that other staffers.

True they're over 55, but does that mean older workers get sick more often?

Not so, Witkin told Profit. Studies show that younger workers, especially those with young children, take more sick days. And there's a sense of loyalty that older workers have toward a company or profession that every company needs and no amount of money can buy.

The biggest challenge to hiring older workers might be battling younger workers' negative perceptions about seniors, says Barb Jarowski, head of the Workplace Institute, a Canadian centre that embarks on research and education around workforce issues concerning mature workers and intergenerational matters.

"I don't think it's necessarily a conscious thing," she said. "But one of the things that happens is that unless people are educated in positions of initial recruiting, they might not understand how important it is to look for people with skills who often are older.

"Hiring managers might be looking at the age and realize, 'This person is more experienced than me,' or 'I've never gotten along with my parents.' There could be a lot of different kinds of stereotypes."

She believes that organizations need to look at the demographics in their companies and at the key skilled people they need, and make sure that the people in hiring understand what they need to be doing in terms of the demographic crisis.

To help companies strategize, Jaworski has created a multifaceted business model that businesses can use to engage older workers, published in her book, KAA-BOOM! How to Engage the 50-Plus Worker and Beat the Workforce Crisis. Here are the basic elements:

• Flexibility in working arrangements.
• Equal opportunity/fair treatment for employees of all ages.
• Career development for those under and over 40.
• Adaptation for major and minor disabilities.
• Recognition.
• Financial guidance.
• Health support.
• Work-life balance/integration.
• Phased retirement.

It appears any company paying attention to these workplace needs would retain successful, hard-working employees, of all ages. What greater incentive do they need?