Why A Retiree May Be Your Next New Hire

Source: Reworked, Wendy Helfenbaum
Photo: Huy Phan on Unsplash

Remember “quiet quitting”? Well, it’s shifted into a “quiet return,” according to a recent Pew study.

A growing number of older workers have been heading back to the office since the pandemic, in some cases in search of bridge jobs to combat the effects of high inflation, while others are being wooed to resume their jobs in the wake of continued labor shortages.

While this wave of ‘unretirees’ could alleviate one of the key challenges for today’s organizations — the continuing global skills shortage, especially for hard-to-fill senior roles — companies may need to adapt their culture to attract and retain this valuable talent pool. Working with an older workforce and tapping into their wealth of experience requires leaders to provide greater flexibility, promote DEI initiatives and create a positive learning environment.

Here’s what to keep in mind when recruiting, onboarding and supporting older workers.

The ‘UnRetiree’ Movement: Who Are They?

Nearly half (45%) of employed older workers describe themselves as retired, even though they’re working more than ever. According to the Pew report, about one in five Americans ages 65 and older held a job in 2023 — twice as many as 35 years ago — and they’re working more hours than in the past, too.

More specifically, this group of over-65 workers currently employed represents close to 11 million people, roughly four times more than in the mid-1980s, with women representing 46% of the group.

And according to the report, workers aged 75 and up are the fastest-growing group in the workforce.

The Mature Worker Advantage

Treat older adults as individuals rather than making broad assumptions, suggests Maura Porcelli, senior director of the National Council on Aging’s Senior Community and Employment Program, a federally funded training initiative for people over 55.

“Employers think mature workers won’t have the right skill set or that they’re going to have health complications,” said Porcelli. “Much of this is driven by the messaging we see in the media and not in reality. 2024 is going to be the peak year of individuals turning 65. This is an exciting time to see this shift in terms of employers being more open to older workers than they may have been in the past.”

Older workers contribute to the profitability and stability of organizations, she added. “They’re less likely to change jobs quickly, and they’re more accustomed to traditional workplaces. They bring a lifetime of work experience to an employer, which is of great value.”

Mature workers also tend to be more flexible because they’ve gone through many cycles of change over the course of their careers. There are lots of technical and soft skills mature workers bring to the workplace, Porcelli said.

Discuss Future Plans and Opportunities Just as You Would with Younger Employees

Older workers continue to have professional goals, so don’t assume they’re just killing time until they leave your organization, warned Porcelli.

“A mature worker might have much less responsibility at home, and they’re excited about learning new skills and tapping into training that they might not have had access to in the past. The biggest mistake we can make is to make assumptions about what their objectives are without having open, candid conversations with them,” she said.

“Retirement in the traditional sense is not the right fit for everybody; [retirees] might miss the intellectual stimulation, camaraderie and being part of a team. People want to stay engaged and we want those individuals to be as competitive as the next candidate for those jobs because they bring a lifetime of skill and experience to any employer.”

Neil Charness, a distinguished research professor and director of the Institute for Successful Longevity at Florida State University, said older workers bring knowledge they’ve amassed over many years, including how to get along with people.

“In knowledge-dependent and people-dependent industries like selling insurance, people tend to peak in their fifties, maybe even their sixties,” he said.

“There are certain advantages people acquire on the job over time, particularly about how to get around in the workplace — people skills, soft skills, specific knowledge in a particular industry — which maybe a younger worker wouldn’t have.”

Mature employees can also share the important lessons they’ve learned to benefit younger workers, added Porcelli.

“They’ve seen so much over the lifetime of their careers: learning how to overcome challenges, being part of a business expansion or a contraction, and understanding conflict resolution, communication and interpersonal dynamics with prospective clients — these are in-demand skills younger employees can observe in their older colleagues and then learn how to navigate those situations,” she said.

Rethink the Digital Divide

The Pew study found the fastest-growing group of older workers returning to the office are aged 75 and up, and one challenge facing this group is technology readiness, said Charness.

“There’s a fairly large digital divide as a function of age, so companies will need to provide additional support and training opportunities for older workers to be able to make use of the systems that are currently in place,” he said.

“We’ve done some research on managers’ biases towards older workers, and probably the number one bias with respect to technology is that they can’t use it. The research literature shows that yes, they can, but it may take them longer to get up to speed.”

In the end, Charness said, organizations that do this right may even get older workers who are better than their younger counterparts.

This makes having access to training is so critical for organizations trying to tap the unretiree advantage. These workers must have ways to stay up to date on things like software packages, said Charness.

“Having adequate and timely tech support to help you if you’re willing to engage in the learning is even more important in being able to retain older workers,” he said.

DEI Should Be Inclusive of Age

An age-diverse workforce can drive positive results for organizations, says Charness.

“Early research on this was done in Germany on car assembly, a physical labor situation, and it turns out mixed teams of younger and older workers were more productive than pure younger worker teams,” he said.

Other studies have shown age-diverse work teams are more innovative and efficient as varied groups learn from each other, adds Porcelli.

“When we have a mosaic of different ages across all the different demographics of diversity, it creates a fabric that makes us stronger organizations. Yet age is very infrequently considered a diversity factor in organizational diversity plans. We encourage leaders in business and organizations to be very deliberate about including age as a diversity element.”

Tomorrow’s New Normal

Employees returning to work after retirement, or those working well past the conventional age of 65, may be a new normal, said Charness.

“Leaders need to get used to it because there’s a dearth of younger workers in the workforce. People need to fill positions and where is the growth going to be coming from in terms of available workers? It’s going to be from the older segment of the population,” he said.

Charness speaks from experience. His own department lost a ton of people during and after COVID, and the team was struggling with having to onboard new people to replace experienced people. “We had lost a lot of the institutional knowledge about how the department works and how to get things done, so we’re hiring back a lot of people part-time who had retired to come in and help.”

Porcelli said leaders often consider what it takes to attract younger employees, but now it’s time to stretch that mindset.

“We need to think about what’s going to be attractive to mid-career and older workers as well. Think about the whole experience, not just the recruitment part, but the ongoing support in training and thinking about their futures,” she said.

“Create that inclusive workplace, making sure you’re in a community that’s tolerant of differences of diversity across the board — and age is an important piece of that.”

About the Author

Wendy Helfenbaum is a Montreal-based freelance journalist and television producer with 25 years’ experience. A long-time board member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors, Wendy has written hundreds of print, digital and television stories about career and leadership strategies, HR best practices, diversity in the workplace, job searching, marketing, networking, education and business.

https://www.reworked.co/employee-experience/why-a-retiree-may-be-your-next-new-hire