By Barbara Jaworski

Organizations in every sector are starting to feel the pinch from the increasing skills shortages. But necessity is the mother of invention and many businesses, especially call centres are finding new and innovative ways to circumnavigate this situation. Some, like Metasoft Systems of Vancouver, winner of the Best Employers Award for 50 Plus Canadians presented at the annual Summit on the Mature Workforce, are tapping into a vast and rapidly growing talent pool – the over 50s.

Metasoft, is North America’s leading provider an online, searchable database of corporate, foundations and government grant-makers to thousands of non-profits. As a result, they need to attract talent – especially sales talent -- to meet the needs of their growing call centres.  And they’re finding that talent in the over 50 demographic. 
“We’ve found that older employees not only have the necessary skills and experience, they stay with the company longer and develop relationships that allow them to become very successful salespeople,” says Trevor Skillen, Metasoft’s President and CEO.   
Since most of the company’s call centre sales force came from other industries, many were at first intimidated by the prospect of entering the IT field. Fortunately, although Metasoft’s product is considered cutting-edge in the technology world, it doesn’t take cutting-edge technology skills to either use or sell it.
Metasoft has introduced several initiatives to not only support their existing mature workforce, but to attract and retain new employees from the 50 plus talent pool. In 2003, they introduced a work-from-home initiative that has been a great success. Currently, 18 percent of Metasoft’s staff work from home full-time. Employees can also choose to work flexible hours. In addition, employees may apply for an unpaid leave of absence at any time, allowing for extra vacations – something that is appreciated by the mature worker who has a retired partner.

Accessing the over 50 talent pool has benefited older workers and Metasoft alike. Metasoft has found highly motivated individuals with life experience and excellent communication and analytical skills while older individuals have found that opportunities for new career challenges do not end at 40.