Employers reaping benefits of experience

Media release 26 March 2007

Employers reaping benefits of experience

An Auckland recruitment specialist has congratulated New Zealand employers for opening their workplaces to older, more experienced workers.

Kim Smith, division director of Robert Half Finance and Accounting, was commenting on a Department of Labour report that shows the number of people aged 50 plus in the workforce more than doubled between 1991 and 2005, with New Zealand now having one of the highest participation rates in the OECD for this age group.

“Older People in Work: Key Trends and Patterns 1991-2005”, released last week, also showed that the workforce was getting older, with a greater proportion of 55- to 59-year-olds working than 20- to 24-year-olds.

And professional occupations in general, and finance and business in particular, are leading the way.

The report shows that from 1997 to 2005, among industry sectors, the fastest growth rate in the number of older workers occurred in the Government, Accommodation and Community Services sector, with a 73.4% increase from 103,000 in 1997 to 179,000 in 2005.

Close behind was the Finance and Business Services sector, with a 68.3% increase, from 39,000 to 66,000.

When looking at occupations, the fastest growth rate was for professional employees, with the number of 50- to 64-year-olds employed rising 95.8%, from 43,000 in 1997 to 84,000 in 1995.

Ms Smith said the figures highlighted the changing demographics of the workforce, which employers had to adapt to if they wanted their companies to prosper.

“At entry level, young people are now spending longer at university, with any accounting graduates wanting to become chartered accountants needing a four-year degree rather than the traditional three-year degree,” she said. “It is also now much less common for young people to work and study part-time while they qualify than used to be the case.

“When you add into this equation that more young finance professionals are taking extended OEs, rather than just the traditional one to two years, it explains one side of the ageing of the workforce.”

Enlightened employers were responding to this by hiring more older, more experienced workers, she said.

“In hiring older workers, they get a lot of experience, and they get a lot of different ideas because older workers have experience from many, many different companies and sectors.”

Employers also got more loyalty and longevity by hiring older workers, she said. People aged 50-plus were less likely to want to climb the corporate ladder, rather they wanted to add value in a job they enjoyed, and which helped them achieve their personal goals. As a result, they were likely to remain with the same employer for longer.

“And, as an added benefit, Baby Boomers and Gen Y seem to get on really well, and relate to each other in a positive way. By employing Baby Boomers who can mentor and pass on their skills to young employees - who have much less job loyalty than older generations - employers can lessen the flight risk in that age group.”

However, Ms Smith said Robert Half consultants had noticed that some employers, particularly among larger companies, were still reluctant to hire older workers.

“Some employers have a specific profile in mind of the person they want to hire, and they’ll just wait for that person to turn up, rather than being a little bit more open-minded.”

Employers who would rather wait weeks, or even months, rather than hire an older person faced very real costs as a result, she said.

“You have work that’s not being done. If there’s an open position, there are bound to be things that are not being done.”

Other employees might take on some of the work, and end up being so over-burdened that they would start job-hunting as well. And the tasks that remained undone were likely to be ones that would help to move the company forward, rather than just keep it ticking over.

Ms Smith said it was great to see that, after facing many years of discrimination from employers, older workers were being appreciated for the skill, experience and stability they could bring to a company.

“Businesses that are responding positively to the trend of the ageing workforce can only reap the benefits that these employees bring,” she said.

ENDS

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