What’s happening with employment opportunities for the “older worker”?

The subject of this post was suggested by Granite Solutions Groupe, a recruiting firm specializing in senior-level managers, analysts, and IT contractors in the financial services and high-tech industries.

As demand for highly qualified financial services and IT workers continues to strain the labor market, more attention is being put on hiring from alternative candidate pools. Outsourcing, off-shoring, H1B visa workers, out-of-state applicants, and less experienced workers with high aptitude are all being considered.

A huge recruiting and hiring opportunity exists in an often overlooked labor category — the so-called “older worker.”

Employers are increasingly looking to this category as a more viable option for filling key professional roles across industries — especially as the baby boomers approach retirement age. Many of them are not retiring due to cost of living pressures, a strong desire to continue working, inadequate savings, or the financial pressures of putting college age children through school.

Older workers suffer from stereotypes

Yet older hires — those 45 to 60 — are less frequently placed in fast-paced, senior-level corporate IT jobs — positions such as IT managers and directors, business analysts, Web and system designers and program team leaders.

The idea of technical “wiz kids” — energetic and driven — still dominates the cultural consciousness and perceptions. Stereotypes suggest older workers are less enthusiastic, dynamic, and innovative. This perception couldn’t be further from the truth.

Benefits of hiring older workers

In fact, the profile of the technologist who combines technical knowledge with business acumen and strong, measured interpersonal skills tends to appear more frequently with age. Human resources professionals should know that this profile is important for corporate development teams and managers, entrepreneurial companies, and C-level positions.

Older workers can also have important motivations driving them to succeed. Children in college are a huge incentive as the cost of higher education continues to outpace inflation. Along with that motivation comes seriously focused workers with fewer distractions. They don’t call in sick when their adult children are sick, and are often more focused on the work than employees with young families.

After a primary career, many workers in this group continue to work full-time or take contract and consulting roles to strengthen their own financial positions and help pay off educational loans. They’re looking at adding a few more years to their pensions, paying off mortgages and
helping children purchase their own homes.

Recruiters note that some employers still (unlawfully) privately admit they just want a younger candidate. It’s stated as a preference, but often companies are not examining their biases and the changing employment outlook. Positions go unfilled and there’s still reticence to hiring older candidates.

This isn’t true with all employers, and those that don’t have this cultural bias, and that do hire older workers, are reaping the benefits of this under-utilized workforce.

Resources

For companies interested in exploring employment of older workers, there are a variety of resources online, including the AARP, National Older Worker Career Center, and HireDiversity.com.

Much has been written recently about this issue, including a good deal of sound advice for older jobseekers and workers, as well as reasons for employers to hire older workers.

Rather than quote at length, I’ve collected a series of web pages on this subject, titled simply “Older Workers,” in my Trailfire research trail bank.

You can view this Older Workers trail bibliography-style or start at the first page, “Out Of Work And Over The Hill,” and follow the trail.

It starts with some general articles about the job market for older workers; the good and the bad news. It continues with some good tips for older job seekers, and includes the AARP list top employers for older workers.