With not enough new workers to replace those who are leaving, employers are taking a more serious look at retaining and attracting older workers. <\/p>\n
While company recruiting efforts typically don\u2019t focus much on this demographic, in 2022, 3 in 5 employers said they gave a \u201cgreat deal\u201d or \u201cquite a bit\u201d of consideration to recruiting candidates ages 50 and older, a 2023 Transamerica Institute report<\/a> found.<\/p>\n \u201cIn today\u2019s age of qualified worker shortages, companies will need to look to the mature job seeker pool to solve their labor needs to survive and thrive for now and into the future,\u201d McDowell says.<\/p>\n Filling Workforce Gaps<\/p>\n Quite simply, people are retiring faster than new workers are entering the workforce to replace them. The aging of the Baby Boomers would have been felt even more acutely by now, except that people are working longer than they once did. Today, 41 percent of Americans expect to work past age 65, a Bain & Company study<\/a> found. Thirty years ago, just 12 percent did.<\/p>\n But employers can\u2019t escape this staggering truth: By 2030, a whopping 150 million jobs globally will have shifted to workers over 55, according to Bain. That\u2019s a large part of why many companies are devising solutions to solve workforce gaps, including focusing on retaining or hiring older workers. For example, more than 1,000 \u00adhousehold-name companies, including Microsoft, \u00adHumana and McDonald\u2019s, recently signed on to AARP\u2019s Employer Pledge,<\/a> which includes a promise to recruit and consider job candidates regardless of age, and ensure that older adults \u201chave a level playing field.\u201d <\/p>\n Companies aren\u2019t just concerned with how many \u00adpeople are leaving the workforce, but also with who is leaving and the impact such knowledge loss has on the workplace, says Michael Kellar, senior vice president and head of talent at Lincoln Financial Group, a financial services \u00adcompany with more than 11,000 employees headquartered in \u00adRadnor, Pa. \u201cIt\u2019s the level of experience that\u2019s leaving,\u201d Kellar says. \u201cThe people leaving tend to be on the higher end of the leadership teams.\u201d<\/p>\n When experienced leaders retire all at once, it can leave the generation behind them unprepared to fill their roles. That\u2019s why some companies are focused on \u201cattracting and retaining seasoned talent to have them mentor less-\u00adtenured employees, sharing their technical knowledge and well-honed soft skills,\u201d McDowell says. <\/p>\n That knowledge can be as complex as helping an \u00adorganization weather a pandemic or as simple as getting tasks done more efficiently, says Michael \u00adMonahan, a \u00adMelville, N.Y.-based managing principal at Grant \u00adThornton, a tax services firm with about 9,000 \u00ademployees in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cI can prepare a report and get an analysis done for a client in 15 minutes that a younger colleague might need to take three hours to do, because I\u2019ve been doing it for so long,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cIt\u2019s important that they learn how to do it from me so that when they get to be my age, they can do it in 15 minutes and teach somebody else how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Preserving the knowledge that comes from experienced leaders is why Grant Thornton has developed a creative workaround to the company requirement that all partners retire by age 62. Rather than risk losing that collective body of experience, the company has launched specific programs to keep retired partners involved as mentors. <\/p>\n \u201cWe give them executive coach training that we pay for, and then we ask them if they\u2019d be willing to come back and serve as mentors and coaches for our younger professionals after they\u2019ve retired,\u201d Monahan explains. \u201cFor them, and us, it\u2019s a win. They still want to be retired, they\u2019re OK being retired, but they\u2019d love to stay connected by helping mentor great young professionals, and so we give them that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Some companies are also discovering that older workers can boost the bottom line in unexpected ways. <\/p>\n That\u2019s the case at Assurance IQ, a Seattle-based \u00adsubsidiary of Prudential Financial that provides health, life, home and car insurance. <\/p>\n Many of the company\u2019s 2,500-plus insurance agents are over 50, a bonus in the eyes of the company\u2019s customers, Chief People Officer Gulliver Swenson says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sell Medicare Advantage products, for example, and our customers often prefer to talk to someone they can relate to, whether that be someone in a similar life stage or located in their geographic region,\u201d Swenson says. \u201cIt\u2019s also important that we have insight from multiple generations when designing our customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n What Older Workers Want <\/p>\n By 2030, roughly 40 percent of adults 65 to 69 are expected to still be working, according to the BLS. That\u2019s up from 33 percent in 2020. This means there will be more older employees at workplaces in the near future, and their specific needs should be on employers\u2019 minds. <\/p>\n Fortunately, the keys to keeping older workers happy and engaged are not all that different than those for workers of any age, Swenson says. <\/p>\n But there are certain qualities regarding work and the workplace that older workers consider more important: <\/p>\n Meaningful work.<\/strong> Before age 60, compensation is the top motivator for workers of any age, Bain research shows. But around 60, another motivator takes that top spot: the desire to do interesting, fulfilling work. For some older employees, that means the chance to master their craft, create a positive social impact or mentor younger workers. <\/p>\n![\"fact1.png\"](\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/hr-today\/news\/hr-magazine\/winter-2023\/PublishingImages\/Pages\/how-to-attract-and-retain-older-workers\/fact1.png\")
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