Why overlooking ‘mature’ workers is a big mistake for Australian Business.
What would you say is the average age of everyone who works for your business?
You can just quickly estimate the answer in your head or get out the birth certificates and calculator if you want to be really precise.
I’m happy to reveal that the average age of all current members of the Martin Print team is…(drum roll)…137 years!
Hmm. No, that can’t be right.
This shock result might have something to do with the fact that Old Bert is rumoured to be the oldest man that ever walked the Earth.
(I’ll be attempting to estimate his real age in just a moment.)
Or it could just be that he pressed a wrong button on the calculator when I asked him to work it out earlier this morning.
Never mind.
Your own result may be slightly more sensible and accurate.
But do you have many ‘mature’ employees working for your business and helping to add a little extra ‘seasoning’ to your final score?
How much serious consideration would you give to hiring a new employee who was over the age of 55?
It’s a tragic truth that Aussie Business doesn’t always display a healthy attitude towards the older generations.
Last year’s report by Age Discrimination Commissioner The Hon Susan Ryan AO entitled Fact or Fiction? Stereotypes of Older Australians is well worth a comprehensive read.
One of the biggest – and saddest – findings in the report is that the majority of Australians still harbour negative feelings or believe negative stereotypes about older people.
And this of course leads directly to negative behaviour.
One in ten business respondents admitted that they have a maximum age above which they will definitely not recruit.
The average maximum age?
Just 50.
But could Australian businesses be missing a trick by frequently overlooking a giant chunk of potential employees with such unique strengths?
Let’s get rid of the outdated negativity and instead give serious thought to the tremendous advantages in growing a more mature outlook…
So, why hire a Mature Employee?
You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that one of the key assets a mature employee can bring to the table is experience.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be experience in your particular field of business – although that’s obviously a huge bonus!
But even just experience in working for a team, getting on with people, finding new solutions, getting things done, and general life experience can be huge and valuable assets to any business.
Looking ahead to the long-term advantages, a mature employee can also influence your younger team members in a positive way.
Mature employees are particularly strong candidates for training new team members. They are more likely to have natural experience in clear communication and getting the message across in the most effective possible way.
But this goes way beyond just teaching the tasks at hand.
Mature employees are also in a position to share their knowledge in other important areas. They can share their wisdom, ethics, work values, and life values.
When you take these strengths into account, you would imagine that younger job candidates would be the ones struggling to compete with the experience and influence that more mature candidates can naturally deliver to your business.
But strangely, it’s not true, and this is partly because the mature candidates are often battling against deep-rooted misconceptions…
Negative Stereotypes
Let’s get some of the sillier stereotypes out of the way.
You know the sort I mean.
There’s a noisy and unpopular guy down at Smokey Joe’s Business Bar who regularly rants on about the reasons why he won’t employ mature people.
“They’re too stubborn and stuck in their ways!” he will tell you.
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, everyone knows that. I need a young and energetic team working for my business. Old people can’t cope with the strain. They get tired too quickly.”
Hmm.
Firstly, I would argue that you most definitely can teach an old dog new tricks.
Mature employees could be brimming with previously untapped talent, and will often be just as keen as younger employees when it comes to absorbing new information, learning fresh skills, and getting to grips with new and improved ways of working.
But it’s the ‘tired’ accusation that is really the most ridiculous stereotype of all.
I know plenty of mature people with twice as much energy and enthusiasm as people less than half their ages!
Let’s look beyond the stereotypes and misconceptions, and work on the assumption that defining a person purely by their age is a very silly and damaging way to behave.
Here to Stay
Some employers tend to worry about just how long a mature team member intends to stick around before retiring or quitting from the position.
Well, here’s an interesting stat which might make a smart employer think again.
According to Experiencepays.gov.au, ‘workers aged over 55 are five times less likely to change jobs compared with workers aged 20–24.’
Food for thought…and clear evidence that a happy mature worker is most definitely here to stay.
A Financial Incentive
Finally, if I can’t persuade you with sound reasoning and logic, then how about a financial incentive from the government?
The Restart programme was launched in July 2014, and offers a $10,000 incentive to employers who hire and retain a full time job seeker aged 50 or over, who has been unemployed and on income support for six months or more.
Restart wage subsidy payments are made in four six-monthly instalments:
$3,000 at six and 12 months of employment, and then a further $2,000 at 18 and 24 months of employment.
To receive the full payment a business must employ the same employee for 24 continuous months. There is no restriction on the number of Restart wage subsidies for a business, but an employer can only receive one subsidy for each employee.
For more details on the Restart programme, check out the website at http://experiencepays.gov.au/what-restart.
So, onto much more trifling matters.
Just how old is Old Bert?
About an hour ago, we all thought we had stepped a little closer to uncovering the truth.
Old Bert announced that he was launching a quick competition which was open to all members of the Martin Print team.
There were a few rules and regulations and bits of small print which went largely ignored, but the gist of the competition was that one lucky Martin Print employee could win a whole afternoon in Old Bert’s secret tool shed.
All we had to do was guess Old Bert’s real age, and the person with the closest entry would win the prize.
I went for a nice round 100 years old.
100 is my lucky number, after all.
So, what was the final result?
Well, nobody won the prize and we’re still completely in the dark.
Apparently, the small print indicated that the winning entry had to be within at least one hundred years of Old Bert’s real age.
Staggeringly, nobody’s entry met this criteria.
Hmm. The plot thickens.
But I’m determined to uncover the truth one day very soon…
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