Hiring over 50

Lately I've heard a lot, both in the news and from clients, that people just don't want to hire a candidate that is over 50. This is short sighted and wrong, and here's why: 

In our culture no one stays in a job for their entire career. If you can get an employee to stay for 3 - 5 years, you're laughing! The Millennial generation is even encouraged to switch jobs every 3 years or so to build up their skill set. Penelope Trunk even said that staying at a job for too long is career suicide! So why are employers afraid to hire someone who is older when they will get no guarantee that a younger candidate will stay any longer? 

Knowing that employee tenure is about 3 years, why wouldn't employers be scrambling to hire older workers? If you know that you can hire someone who is only looking to work for another 5 - 10 years, shouldn't they be at the top of the candidate pile?

One may argue that a younger employee costs less. In some cases this can be true. Health benefits aside, a less skilled employee would definitely be at the lower end of the pay scale than a higher skilled employee. However, if you've been upfront with what your salary range is, and you're paying market value for the role, and the candidate is interested, then what's the problem?

There are 2 types of older workers: Those who are working because they enjoy it and those who are working because they have to. That's not to say that they can't be both. But there are those who have savings and a retirement plan, and who will work until the age of 65 and that's it. Then there are those who, for many reasons, have no savings and no retirement plan, and need to keep working in order to survive. Both types can be great employees. Both can be loyal employees.

Plus, think of the maturity that an older person can bring into your office. Oh sure, you have a "young culture" and you worry that they won't "fit in". But maybe this is exactly what your office needs. There's nothing wrong with a little variety. Many Managers are managing with 4 generations in their workplace.

Ideally we all want to retire - at least I know that I want to retire. Unfortunately I think that there will not be much "Freedom 55" happening anymore. So toss out your misconceptions about older workers and give one a chance. Please, I'm going to be one of them one day! 

Posted by:Kimberley Dart, CHRP Candidate

Why Innovators Get Better With Age

By TOM AGAN

“WE need some gray hair” once referred to needing someone with more experience. But I haven’t heard that expression in a very long time.

In fact, many companies are intentionally reducing the average age of their work forces in an effort to save money. Younger employees are generally paid less and have lower health care expenses and retirement costs. As one executive remarked to me recently, “I don’t think anyone really likes this — we all know our own 50-year-old moment will be coming, too.” 

There is a surprising downside, however, to encouraging older workers to leave or, at some companies, pushing them out: Less gray hair sharply reduces an organization’s innovation potential, which over the long term can greatly outweigh short-term gains. 

The most common image of an innovator is that of a kid developing a great idea in a garage, a dorm room or a makeshift office. This is the story of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple. Last week, Yahoo announced that it had bought a news-reading app developed by Nick D’Aloisio, who is all of 17. 

In reality, though, these examples are the exception and not the rule. Consider this: The directors of the five top-grossing films of 2012 are all in their 40s or 50s. And two of the biggest-selling authors of fiction for 2012 — Suzanne Collins and E. L. James — are around 50. 

According to research, the age of eventual Nobel Prize winners when making a discovery, and of inventors when making a significant breakthrough, averaged around 38 in 2000, an increase of about six years since 1900. 

But there is another reason to keep innovators around longer: the time it takes between the birth of an idea and when its implications are broadly understood and acted upon. This education process is typically driven by the innovators themselves. 

For Nobel Prize winners, this process usually takes about 20 years — meaning that someone who is 38 at the time of discovery will most likely be nearly 60 when he or she receives the prize. For most eventual laureates, that interval is spent attending and making presentations at conferences, networking with colleagues, writing additional papers, editing academic journals and talking with the press. 

Let’s assume that with company resources, it will take a corporate innovator 10 years instead of 20 to educate others about the nature, implications and applications of a new idea. If that’s true, a reasonable target retention age for attaining an average level of innovation would be at least 50. 

YET despite the overall aging of the work force, many organizations are heading in the opposite direction. One executive at a major investment bank remarked with concern that the average age at his firm was 32. This phenomenon is not unique to corporations. Many medical institutions and universities  have also shifted to younger workforces. But according to research by Benjamin Jones of Northwestern University, a 55-year-old and even a 65-year-old have significantly more innovation potential than a 25-year-old. 

If an organization wants innovation to flourish, the conversation needs to change from severance packages to retention bonuses. Instead of managing the average age downward, companies should be managing it upward. 

We can act within our own organizations to make a difference. For example, we can end policies that limit the time people are allowed to stay at a certain level in a given position. And we can stop rotating high-potential managers across different businesses. Instead, we need to encourage the best performers to stay put, giving them the years — perhaps even decades — to support and lead major innovations from inception to commercial launch. 

And to encourage innovation, we must provide economic incentives to C.E.O.’s, boards of directors and investors through changes in the tax code and elsewhere that favor long-term returns driven by innovation over shortsighted pressure to reduce costs.

The journalist A. J. Jacobs has perfectly described our current situation when it comes to the relationship between age and innovation. In his book “The Year of Living Biblically,” he writes: “I’m 38, which means I’m a few years from my first angioplasty, but — at least in the media business — I’m considered a doddering old man. I just hope the 26-year-old editors out there have mercy on me.” 

Relax, A. J., you still have a few more years to hit it out of the ballpark with a mega-best seller.

Tom Agan, 51, is a co-founder and the managing partner of Rivia, an innovation and brand consulting firm.

Why Innovators Get Better With Age

By TOM AGAN

“WE need some gray hair” once referred to needing someone with more experience. But I haven’t heard that expression in a very long time.

In fact, many companies are intentionally reducing the average age of their work forces in an effort to save money. Younger employees are generally paid less and have lower health care expenses and retirement costs. As one executive remarked to me recently, “I don’t think anyone really likes this — we all know our own 50-year-old moment will be coming, too.” 

There is a surprising downside, however, to encouraging older workers to leave or, at some companies, pushing them out: Less gray hair sharply reduces an organization’s innovation potential, which over the long term can greatly outweigh short-term gains. 

The most common image of an innovator is that of a kid developing a great idea in a garage, a dorm room or a makeshift office. This is the story of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple. Last week, Yahoo announced that it had bought a news-reading app developed by Nick D’Aloisio, who is all of 17. 

In reality, though, these examples are the exception and not the rule. Consider this: The directors of the five top-grossing films of 2012 are all in their 40s or 50s. And two of the biggest-selling authors of fiction for 2012 — Suzanne Collins and E. L. James — are around 50. 

According to research, the age of eventual Nobel Prize winners when making a discovery, and of inventors when making a significant breakthrough, averaged around 38 in 2000, an increase of about six years since 1900. 

But there is another reason to keep innovators around longer: the time it takes between the birth of an idea and when its implications are broadly understood and acted upon. This education process is typically driven by the innovators themselves. 

For Nobel Prize winners, this process usually takes about 20 years — meaning that someone who is 38 at the time of discovery will most likely be nearly 60 when he or she receives the prize. For most eventual laureates, that interval is spent attending and making presentations at conferences, networking with colleagues, writing additional papers, editing academic journals and talking with the press. 

Let’s assume that with company resources, it will take a corporate innovator 10 years instead of 20 to educate others about the nature, implications and applications of a new idea. If that’s true, a reasonable target retention age for attaining an average level of innovation would be at least 50. 

YET despite the overall aging of the work force, many organizations are heading in the opposite direction. One executive at a major investment bank remarked with concern that the average age at his firm was 32. This phenomenon is not unique to corporations. Many medical institutions and universities  have also shifted to younger workforces. But according to research by Benjamin Jones of Northwestern University, a 55-year-old and even a 65-year-old have significantly more innovation potential than a 25-year-old. 

If an organization wants innovation to flourish, the conversation needs to change from severance packages to retention bonuses. Instead of managing the average age downward, companies should be managing it upward. 

We can act within our own organizations to make a difference. For example, we can end policies that limit the time people are allowed to stay at a certain level in a given position. And we can stop rotating high-potential managers across different businesses. Instead, we need to encourage the best performers to stay put, giving them the years — perhaps even decades — to support and lead major innovations from inception to commercial launch. 

And to encourage innovation, we must provide economic incentives to C.E.O.’s, boards of directors and investors through changes in the tax code and elsewhere that favor long-term returns driven by innovation over shortsighted pressure to reduce costs.

The journalist A. J. Jacobs has perfectly described our current situation when it comes to the relationship between age and innovation. In his book “The Year of Living Biblically,” he writes: “I’m 38, which means I’m a few years from my first angioplasty, but — at least in the media business — I’m considered a doddering old man. I just hope the 26-year-old editors out there have mercy on me.” 

Relax, A. J., you still have a few more years to hit it out of the ballpark with a mega-best seller.

Tom Agan, 51, is a co-founder and the managing partner of Rivia, an innovation and brand consulting firm.

How to Get a Job Past the Age of 50

inShare317

By: U.S. Army

Having recently gone through an employment change at 55, I battled my own demons as I thought about the possibility that somebody would actually hire me, versus the options a potential employer has to fill their openings with someone younger and cheaper.

It wasn’t just about finding a job. It was about finding a job I wanted. It was about taking whatever steps necessary to “stand out” among the candidates being considered for the role I was interested in. Preparing myself to compete in a tight job market required me to take stock of the factors that were motivating me to action.


The first was reflecting on the question, “Why am I still looking to be gainfully employed at my age?”  My dad retired at 59, and he’s enjoyed his retirement to this very day (he turns 84 this year). In the generation of my parents, with life expectancy a decade less than it is today, retiring between 60 and 65 years of age was the norm. Looking at my generation, many of us “Baby Boomers” lead healthier lives than our parents did. We eat better, exercise more, smoke less, and take better care of ourselves. We can expect to live longer. Given this, why not extend our professional careers at least a decade beyond that of our parents?
Another factor influencing people to remain employed longer is a financial one. Not being children of the Depression Era, our spending and saving habits were not as rigorous as our parents, and many of us extended ourselves, having taken on bigger mortgages, and paid to put our children through private high schools and college. Additionally, we may have gone overboard with the wedding plans for our children. The list of financial commitments made over the years is staggering.

Whether by choice or necessity, many of us who may have wanted to retire at the age our parents did could be facing another 10 years of employment, with retirement more likely closer to 70 years of age versus 60, particularly if we want to live comfortably in our “Golden Years”. There are many things you can do to strengthen your candidacy when you are faced with finding employment in your fifties or later. Here are four areas to focus on:

1) Research the market rates for the positions that you plan to apply for

You need to understand what the market is willing to pay for a person with your background and experience.  Know that your most recent total compensation package may not represent what the market is willing to pay. This is particularly true if you were released from a company that employed you for many years, providing you with annual increases that brought your total income to a level that is no longer “marked to market”.  This is important. While you may feel you deserve every dollar that you made, you need to understand that if your goal is to earn “not a penny less” in your next job, you may be searching for a job for a long time. Make an effort to understand what the market is willing to pay for a person with your experience, and prepare yourself to be willing to accept this level of compensation.

2) Maintain your professional networks

By: Victor1558

It may be overstating the obvious to remind you that who you know is more important than what you know. Don’t confuse this point, because what you know is in fact important, it’s just that who you know is more important first.

Today, the internet is an easy and effective way to identify employment opportunities (Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, Indeed, etc). Research the companies offering the jobs by perusing their websites. Find out who is employed at those companies by scouring a source like LinkedIn and research what is being said about the quality of those firms as an employer (Glassdoor is a good site for gathering this intelligence.) Once you have done your research submit your resume and cover letter. Sounds easy, right? It is not.

If everybody is looking for a job in this manner, you need to differentiate yourself from everyone else. How can you do so? Use your social networks! Do you know anybody who is employed at the company where you are a candidate? Would they recommend you? Have you worked with them in the past? Have you kept up with them, so they would be comfortable recommending you? If you’re not great about keeping up with current and former work colleagues, professional acquaintances, fraternity or sorority brothers and sisters, etc., then make a renewed effort at this, as it will most likely pay off for you when you most need it.

3) Don’t become obsolete

As you age, you must embrace technology and its rapid daily evolvement. I know you have no idea what makes a “smart phone” smart, and for the life of you, you don’t understand why your daughter keeps insisting on installing something called a “router” in your house.

Here’s the best advice that I can give you: Don’t become your father. Remember how after they stopped making vinyl records, he stopped having an interest in music? Think about how every time he comes to your house, he pushes every button on your remote controls, to the point it takes you an hour to get everything back to normal. It’s safe to say that at some point, he made a decision to stop embracing technological change, and now he’s become an outlier when it comes to understanding how the advances in technology enable and empower the world in which we live and work. It is imperative you keep up with technological change and embrace it. Don’t allow yourself to become the equivalent of a “technology dinosaur.” Today’s companies embrace technology and use it to their advantage when competing for business. Don’t allow yourself to be eliminated from consideration for a job you desire because you have lost touch with technology.

4) Preparation, preparation, preparation!

By: buyalex

The great basketball coach John Wooden said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. I couldn’t agree more, nor could I give better advice. Here are several key components to being prepared:

• Have your resume professionally done for you – There are dozens of companies willing to help you with this, many of whom will do it for free. Most employment companies have a “resume production” team or capability, and can work with you to create a resume that is germane to your experience and highlights your greatest competencies.
• Check your wardrobe – Have you been working in a “business casual” environment for years? Does your suit or blouse no longer fit the way it did when you purchased it? Is the style of your clothing representative of a different time? Spend a little money to make certain the first impression you make is a quality one.
• Have you researched the company you will be interviewing with – Do you know what their annual revenue is? Do you know what their primary product and service offerings are? Are they a public company? If so, what is their stock trading at? Do you know where their primary offices are? Do you know who their main competitors are? Have you read their website? Do you know who the members of the leadership team are? Take the time to learn this information, as it may distinguish you from your competitors during your interview.
• Interview your interviewer - This is a must! When the interviewer finally asks you if you have any questions, it is not ok to say, “No, not at this time.” Be prepared to ask your interviewer two or three questions. Asking questions expresses genuine interest on your part. Here are a few you can ask:
• “What are the strategic plans for growth for the company over the next three years?”
• “Who are your main competitors, and how do you go about beating them, in the markets where you compete with them directly?”
• “What is the company’s commitment to community service?”
• “Does your company have a Mission Statement or Core Values statement?”
• “How would you describe the culture of your organization?”

Conclusion

While the “Baby Boomer generation” is more inclined to seek permanent employment, the workplace has evolved to a point where most companies now employ a mix of consultants and contractors as a strategic component to their workforce. Many staffing companies work with their clients to place both permanent and temporary workers with them, and can be a terrific resource in helping you find that next great job. These tips are equally useful should you desire to pursue contract work instead of permanent employment. Hopefully I have given you enough information to encourage you to tackle the employment marketplace with confidence. Great luck and success in landing your next big role, even though you’ve moved well through your 50s and your 60s are fast approaching!
Author: Thomas Hart joined Eliassen Group as its Staffing Business Development Leader and CMO in October 2012. He also served as the senior executive for Fidelity’s HR Access Solutions in Paris, France, from 2004 through 2006.