On Wednesday nights for most of the year I facilitate a study group that helps HR practitioners prepare to take an industry recognized certification, SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP. Last week someone raised a really good question and I wanted to spend some time with it here. She asked, “should employers be offering career development and promotional opportunities to older workers? Are there reports and data on how to do that?” I spent time finding some best practices about how to offer older workers meaningful career development opportunities. We just elected the oldest president in the history of our country. Not just the demographics of elected officials are changing, the labor market is changing.
To keep learning and growing their skill sets older workers need to explore their interests and passions and keep a curious mindset. Employers need to provide learning and development opportunities to help older workers achieve these goals and improve work satisfaction. Approaches to career development and promotional opportunities for older workers shouldn’t look much different than opportunities provided to other generations in the workplace. Employers need to offer training, coaching, and mentoring programs, and support older workers interested in continuing education, seeking certifications, or additional credentialing. And just like with other generations in the workplace, supervisors must identify opportunities to participate in cross-functional teams, projects, or other assignments that offer new challenges and perspectives.
If you’re not considering your older workers for development and promotional opportunities, you could be negatively impacting your organization. Statistics show that fewer young people are entering the workforce for a variety of reasons while older workers are delaying retirement and staying in the workplace longer. Gallup found that 41% of American workers expect to work beyond age 65. Thirty years ago, it was 12%. Yet, data from AARP shows that little programming exists to address this shift.
According to Bain and Company, older workers seek interesting work and autonomy. Bain also found that older workers are offered training less frequently than other demographics of workers. For retraining and reskilling to be effective, older workers must demonstrate a growth mindset – a willingness to learn new skills. At the same time, employers can encourage supervisors with older populations to initiate conversations about what kinds of opportunities are interesting to older workers and create a plan that aligns with company goals as well as the employee’s.
Older workers are plentiful, knowledgeable, loyal, and more content at work and in life. If you’re not creating training and growth opportunities for your older workers, now is the time to start.
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