Older Workers favoured for skills & experience

According to many recruiters, placement of older workers is on the rise and the trend has not just been driven by skills shortages.

A qualitative survey by the Recruitment and Consulting Services Assocation (RCSA) of 50 of its members, found that Australian businesses are increasingly dissatisfied with younger workers, instead opting for workers with greater skills and experience.

"The recruiters surveyed noted that clients value olders workers very highly because they have good life experiences to apply to decision making, are good mentors for young employees and have a good skill base. They also found older workers to be more stable employees with a lowe rate of job turnover," said Julie Mills, CEO of RCSA.

The research found that while recruiters are particularly positive about the value of older workers, they find that they often need to sell these benefits to clients who sometimes perceive older workers as deficient in IT skills, more difficult to retrain and lacking in drive to learn new skills.

To have the capacity to effectively tap into the potential of older workers, it is important for workpalce change to support older workers, including changed job design, fleibility and phased retirement.

Courtesy of HR Manager and CareersMultiList