by Janis Foord Kirk (Toronto Star) - November 16, 2005
Growing old, observed British novelist Anthony Powell, "is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you didn't commit."
Some of the stories so-called mature workers tell prove his point.
There's the business executive who now cleans offices for a living, for example; the financial services manager who struggles to make ends meet as a part-time consultant; the junior executive who lost a job because she was "out of sync" with younger colleagues.
For people like this, guilty of little more than being middle-aged in a youth-obsessed society, there's encouraging news. Some forward-thinking employers have begun to recognize the advantages of hiring people with age and experience.
A few are even winning kudos for it.
For the most part, the impetus is demographics. The talent pool is aging, not just here but throughout the Western world. By 2010, it's predicted, about 40 per cent of Canadian workers will be over the age of 45.
"We are in the midst of a dramatic shift in the age of our workforce," is the way Steve Peters, Ontario's minister of labour, put it recently at a Toronto Summit on the Mature Workforce. "We need to think ahead, plan ahead, think about the inevitability of what's to come."
What's to come, according to some statisticians, especially given today's historically low unemployment rates, is a shortage of skills and labour. And planning ahead includes coming up with flexible workplace policies to attract, retain and engage older workers.
Employers that find ways to do this, Barbara Jaworski says, will realize a "return on experience."
Jaworski is senior consultant for health strategies at FGI, a global human support program. She is also the driving force behind annual Mature Workforce Summits in Toronto and Calgary.
At the 2005 summit, Canada's Association for the Fifty-Plus (CARP) presented Best Employer awards to 11 organizations from across the country, recognizing their "age friendly" hiring, training, benefits and retirement policies.
"The winners of this award have learned the secrets of how to utilize mature workers to achieve a business advantage," says Jaworski.
"They don't view older workers as a problem, but instead have harnessed their energy and have realized bottom line results such as increased revenue, decreased costs and more importantly, an engaged, productive workforce."
Eric Vengroff, CARP's vice president of marketing, says the awards "will help to dispel the myths and misconceptions that create a negative image of the mature worker."
It's not true, Vengroff says, that older workers are harder to train, more expensive and sick more often. They are accustomed to change, he maintains.
They understand the need to keep their skills current. Most would take a pay cut and work without benefits. And they generally take fewer sick days than workers with young children.
There seem to be few misconceptions about the value of older workers at Direct Energy, one of CARP's Best Employers for 2005.
A provider of natural gas, electricity and home services to about three million customers in the GTA, Direct Energy has hired more than 100 people over the age of 50 during the past 10 months, says Jane Gibbons, the firm's vice president of human resources.
Mark Drummond is one of them. In the competition for skilled trades people, Direct Energy was his employer of choice, says Drummond, a plumber with 25 years experience.
"I was only interested in changing employers if I could go with them."
At 53, Drummond's age worked for him rather than against him, Gibbons says.
"It relates to trust and credibility. Our technical, trades and sales people go into our customer's homes. We see it as a strategic advantage that they're mature and experienced."
"There's always a bottom line," Gibbons adds. "We want engaged, committed employees who will deliver and engage our customers. In the real commercial sense, we sell more and we have happier customers."
If you're looking for an "age friendly" employer, CARP's Best Employers for 50 Plus Canadians list is the perfect place to start.
It's worthy of note that not everyone believes that skill shortages lie ahead, or even that it's a bad thing if they do.
Andrew Jackson of the Canadian Labour Congress, told the Toronto audience at the Mature Workforce Summit that in his view, outside of specialized areas such as health care and the skilled trades, concerns about future skills shortages have been "exaggerated to a significant degree."
"An overall shortage of labour is not necessarily a bad thing," Jackson added. Shortages tend to open up opportunities, increase wages and convince employers to invest in and develop their workers, he said.
It's also true that 11 employers do not a groundswell make. If demographic shifts occur as predicted, however, more Canadian employers will be vying for CARP's Best Employers Award in years ahead.
And middle-aged workers will be prized rather than penalized for their maturity.
Full article here.
