Work & Family
Companies Must Try Harder To Attract Older Employees
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WHAT IF YOU held a contest for best workplace and no one
applied?
AARP, the advocacy organization for people 50 and over,
almost found out when it invited employers to compete for a
listing in its Modern Maturity magazine as one of the "best
employers for workers over 50." Aware that other workplace
contests draw hundreds of applicants, the 35 million-member
nonprofit mailed invitations to 10,000 companies.
Total applicants: 14.
"The best places for older workers? Gee, we hadn't even
thought about that," was the reaction at many companies,
says Deborah Russell, an AARP senior program coordinator.
"Older workers are just one of those areas that haven't been
particularly big on the radar screen of employers."
Indeed. Employers are largely out of step with the aging of
the work force. Nearly 20% of the nation's workers will be 55
years old or over by 2015, up from 13% now, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics says. This year, the number of workers who
are 40 and above will surpass those under 40 for the first
time.
Yet when companies want new employees, they still look on
college campuses. When they want to get rid of people, they
offer early retirement. "The idea of creatively using older
workers hasn't caught on," says Donna Wagner of Towson
University's Center for Productive Aging, Baltimore.
A FEW EMPLOYERS have made strides; 15% of the
employees at CVS, a drugstore chain, are over 55, up from
7% in 1992. CVS actively recruits older workers. It says they
stay with the company longer and show more commitment.
But most companies have a long way to go
to attract and retain top-flight older
workers. Age bias is a deep-seated barrier,
of course. And there are cost obstacles.
Too many pension plans require the
largest employer contributions as workers
approach retirement, making older workers
more expensive.
Beyond that, many employers need to
fine-tune work-life conditions, an element
of workplace quality that's more important
to many older workers than to younger
ones. During 13 years as a store manager
for a retailer, Phyllis Ostrowsky, 56 years
old, worked hard to provide good service to customers.
"When you found them that one refill for their pen, they'd be
so happy they'd come back for the big-ticket items," she
says. She enjoyed chatting with a company vice president in
the break room, sharing ideas.
But as the business grew and changed ownership, her
workdays stretched from eight hours to 12, her job expanded
to cover a workload once handled by two people, and
management lost the personal touch. Ms. Ostrowsky bailed
to sign on as office manager with Bay State Elevator, a
family-owned Agawam, Mass., concern. "This company
exemplifies the working conditions I like," she says.
Buddy Potts, Bay State's president, says he's delighted. "A
lot of employers miss the opportunity to employ older
workers, and that's good for us, because we can line up
people like Phyllis," he says. Though he hears other
employers fret about high turnover among older workers, he
finds "the 20-somethings leave their jobs a lot more quickly
these days than the 50-somethings."
But many employers will need to retool their workplaces to
attract these older employees. Many older workers want
flexibility even more than younger ones, says Laurie Young of
Flexible Resources, a Greenwich, Conn., consulting and
staffing firm. Some have teenagers to parent; others want to
care for grandchildren or aged relatives, travel, return to
school or devote time to new careers, businesses, hobbies or
volunteer work.
Norma Collier, a 62-year-old marketing manager, finds her
adult daughters "still need me a lot." The New Canaan,
Conn., grandmother also wants the freedom to do volunteer
work. "Before I die, I want to do something to make the
world a better place and this is the time to do it -- not when
I'm really old and decrepit but when I'm still active."
LEGISLATIVE OBSTACLES to phased retirement, which
allows part-time work before retiring, need to be removed,
says the Committee for Economic Development, a nonprofit
business group. Among other things, federal law makes it
difficult to pro-rate pension benefits, a barrier to part-time
work, says the committee's Van Doorn Ooms.
Finally, and perhaps most difficult, many older workers tend
to want a measure of autonomy. Ms. Collier, an MBA who
works as an independent contractor, says that to return to a
corporate environment, she would want a four-day week and
freedom to meet objectives as she chooses. "I don't mind
long days, but I don't like being locked in" to a rigid
schedule, she says.
Michelle Boggs of McKinley Marketing Partners, Alexandria,
Va., an interim placement firm, says she has seen a sharp
rise in the past three years in skilled over-50 workers leaving
corporate America for more flexible interim placements.
Respect, flexibility, a measure of autonomy -- don't these
sound like workplace conditions anyone would value, at 24 or
64? An oft-missed fact is that a good workplace for older
workers is a good workplace for everyone, from Gen Y on up.
Fortunately, AARP plans to continue its contest for at least
five years. While a fall issue of Modern Maturity will highlight
a few laudable practices, Ms. Russell says, "the '50 best
companies for the 50-plus population' is what we're
ultimately striving for."
Send your comments to sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com