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November 2, 2010 by Dianne Shaddock

The Advantages of Hiring Older Employees

Transcript of ESBHR Podcast #17: The Advantages of Hiring Older Workers.

Listen to the audio.

The last few podcasts have focused on diversity hiring and recruitment. Today’s article will focus on the advantages of hiring older workers.

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Future episodes in my hiring series will cover:

  • The recruitment and retention of employees with disabilities,
  • How to determine a salary offer
  • Making the job offer
  • Steps you can take to orient your new employee

…And a whole lot more, so you won’t want to miss future episodes of this hiring series.

During season 2 of Employee Hiring and Managing Tips, I’ll share tips on everything from how to handle difficult employee situations, evaluating employees, developing employee policies, special guest expert interviews, and so much more,

…so be sure to subscribe to the podcast which can do either on iTunes or at EasySmallBusinessHR.com.

Now let’s talk more about the Advantages of Hiring Older Workers.

When considering job candidates; it’s always important to base your decisions on whether the person is qualified to perform the job that you are hiring them for.

That means assessing their skills and experience against the job requirements.

Discrimination in any form is illegal as we all know, yet older job hunters are still suffering from the sting of age discrimination.

Like other forms of discrimination, age discrimination can be very subtle and not always recognized by the applicant or acknowledged by the employer.

The more subtle and often unintentional forms of age discrimination can include:

  • Choosing not to hire an applicant because they have too much experience.
  • Assuming that the older job applicant won’t stay with the organization very long because they must be close to retiring.
  • Making assumptions that the older worker is not as computer savvy as younger applicants.

Asking the right questions, and having a solid job description in place that clearly highlights the skills and abilities needed for the job will help you to keep your focus on  the experience that you need for the role.

You want to stay clear of assessing candidates based on attributes that have nothing to do with the job and whether the job applicant is capable of performing the work.

In the show notes which you can find on the website for the podcast version of this article, I’ll share links to some resource articles that will help you to understand why you need to have a job description, how to write a job description and the best interview questions to ask job candidates.

There are so many advantages to hiring older workers.  Older workers bring:

  • A strong work ethic to the workplace
  • Strong problem solving, and trouble shooting skills
  • Ability to work autonomously
  • The maturity and interest to mentor co-workers based on their years of experience in the workplace.
  • Excitement about the changes in the workplace as it relates to new technology.
  • Ability to think on their feet
  • The ability to draw on past experience to make critical decisions and use solid judgment based on past experiences
.

Don’t misunderstand me.  It goes without saying that younger employees have similar attributes and not all employees whether they are younger or older can be labeled as the “best” type of employee to hire in any situation.

But, mature workers offer skills and real life work experience and perspectives that their younger counterparts simply cannot match based on their lack of overall years in the workforce.  What is most important is that as an employer, you take advantage of what our entire potential workforce has to offer.

Don’t automatically rule out a candidate because you assume that they may not be as committed because of the candidate’s vast experience.

A workforce made up of a microcosm of our community, be they young, mature, male, female, disabled, our LGBT population, or people of color can only help to make a company more dynamic and richer given the varied skills, experience and perspectives that difference brings to the table.

Until next time… to your success!

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Dianne Shaddock

President and Founder at Easy Small Business HR
Get more tips on interviewing, hiring, managing and engaging your employees. Dianne Shaddock is the President of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips and the author of the eGuides, "How To Supervise:  What Your Boss Never Told You Before You Took the Job", A Step-By-Step Guide For New and Seasoned Managers and "How To Find and Hire the Best Employees".
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Latest posts by Dianne Shaddock (see all)

  • Build the Best Team for Your Small Business - November 12, 2019
  • Cross Training Staff – Doing the Right Thing For the Wrong Reasons - January 18, 2019
  • Proactive Employee Management Really Boils Down To The Basics - December 21, 2015
  • Office Meetings Do Not Have To Be A Productivity Time Drain If Done Right - November 17, 2015
  • Proposed Changes To Employee Rights Laws: WAGE Act Bill - November 3, 2015

Filed Under: Diversity, Managing Employees, Recruitment/Interviewing/Hiring, Supervisor Tips and Strategies Tagged With: Mature workers

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Recent Posts

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  • Proposed Changes To Employee Rights Laws: WAGE Act Bill

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