TM - October 2007 - (Page 49) to engage a generation that is willing and able to continue working.” It’s hard to say when exactly the retirementtriggered talent crunch will come to a head, but she said it’s already becoming a reality. “In some industries and regions, people are feeling the pain now, and when you start feeling the pain, it may be too late,” Holmes said. Ageism haps because they can’t retain the same energy level. But Holmes said mature workers might be better able to focus on the job at hand, to the point where they’re actually more productive. “I would argue that a mature worker usually has a good work ethic and is going to pay attention to tasks and get something accomplished, so productivity might be higher if they’re not distracted by things that a younger worker might be distracted by,” she said. Holmes said examples of these are recreational modes of Internet communication, including peernetworking sites and instant messaging. She made clear, though, that the purpose in counteracting these prejudices against older workers is not to disparage younger generations but to encourage generational diversity. “For the first time in history, four generations are working together,” Holmes said. “So, when we have diversity or inclusiveness training in organizations, it shouldn’t just be about gender or people of color — it also needs to include generational diversity.” The Benefits of Age Manpower has encountered many perceived roadblocks among employers when it comes to hiring older workers. There are prejudices employers assign to older workers, and Manpower has been proactive in attempting to contradict them and getting employers to hire and retain older workers. One prejudice is that older workers will lead to exponentially higher health care costs. “It is true that older workers tend to spend a little bit more on health care, but health care is not the largest part of total labor costs — salary is the biggest cost of total labor cost, and most companies today pay for performance, not for age,” Holmes said. “People exaggerate the fear of increased health care. It might be true that it is marginally more, but again, it’s a small percentage of total labor cost.” Another perception is that mature workers can’t learn (particularly when it comes to new technologies) and resist change. “That’s going to be true on an individual basis, but to say with a broad brush that everybody over 50 or 60 is not going to be able to learn and is not going to be able to change and is going to be resistant to using new technology — those are generalizations that are not true,” Holmes said. Yet another perception of older workers is that they’re less productive than younger workers, per- “Life begins at 40.” “60 is the new 40.” These are popular phrases among those asserting that anything is possible at any age (as well as those trying to sell T-shirts, birthday cards and coffee mugs), but they might ring a bit true. Although it’s unlikely that an energy company is going to hire a 90-year-old to climb telephone poles, the U.S. economy is leaning so much toward service- and knowledge-based skills today there are few jobs that would be wholly inappropriate for a mature worker. More than that, companies that do take on mature workers, with any luck, enjoy certain benefits from having done so. See Application, page 53 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com October 2007 49 http://www.TalentMgt.com
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