Labour market over 55

Company, HR, Careers, Organisational development

Our prejudices in the labour market

The author of the following article is my dear colleague Emike Péter - HR expert. Thank you for the article Emike!

We read all the time in the press about labour shortages in the labour market. There is a lot of exaggeration and sensationalism. As an HR professional, I find this particularly damaging. Because I see that the labour shortage is not just in all professions, but there are huge differences even between age groups. The latest statistic that surprised me: the Only 56.9% of the over 55s are in work. As this age group is much more populous than the age groups after it, this could be a serious labour reserve. However, my own experience supports this. The business world has no need for life experience. For some reason, it can no longer be a value creator!?

I see it as a strange paradox that many people associate sick leave with ageing as a result of rapidly decreasing previous skills, learning capacity or workload, combined with deteriorating health.

Part truths in the labour market, but which part is true?

My problem with these stereotype boxes is that decisions are made on the basis of very partial truths. Today's labour market serious knowledge packages are wasted. For example, if a former senior manager wants to take back a bit of responsibility and become an expert, this is already being blocked by the selection colleagues. You won't even get to the interview or your CV to the hiring manager. 

Let's take another example: there is currently a huge shortage of skilled workers in the labour market. This is perhaps one of the most pressing issues. A 55 year old car/forklift/air conditioning mechanic, for example, will no longer be selected unless he has his own clientele. The reason is in most cases, apart from outdated skills, their health. That they can no longer carry a load, "they must be sick a lot".

The problem is that despite the fact that there are often no other applicants, these people are not given the chance to prove themselves. I used to ask young sourcers, recruiters, even managers, to their family members in this category would be discriminated against, what would they do? Are they not fit for quality work either? The answers are surprising.

  • Your knowledge is out of date and you are unable to learn new things

Yes, professional knowledge is something that can quickly become obsolete in many areas. But in this the employer also has a responsibilityto enable its employees to acquire new knowledge. Yes, you have to take into account that learning is not as fast as when you are young. But, this should not be an obstacle. Because new knowledge, combined with life experience, can bring very real benefits. But only if we can use it.

  • Not accepting the young leader

Research shows that they are the most loyal age group to job stability is important. As time goes by, people find it harder to tolerate change, and become more attached to what they have - whether it's a tool, a colleague or a manager. What if the young manager sees the experienced colleague as a partner and accepts his life and work experience as expert level. How much of an advantage can a young leader with some of these experienced specialists on his team gain? How much extra business can this generate?

  • Not fitting in with the young

In fact, he's at a different stage of life, he's not going to be partying/after-party with his twenty-something colleagues. My personal experience is also that it tends to work the other way round. A young colleagues are not open to older colleagues. More than once I have witnessed young people, out of some misguided self-expression or just plain inattention, abusing their up-to-date IT/technical knowledge advantage, condescendingly approaching the older generation. They use jargon that only their own age/subculture understands, but even a colleague five or ten years older than them might not. In such cases even if the older colleague approaches with respect, often only failures. Yes, this is also where managers/HR professionals have a role to play in preventing fault lines (whether over lunch or in meetings where the ground rules of intra-group communication are discussed.)

  • High demand for wages

I also need to refer to research. For this age group it is not so much the size of the salary that is important, but its secure existence. Research also shows that wage growth tends to stop and not increase significantly for people in their mid-forties. In other words, they will not cost more in wages than those ten to fifteen years younger.

  • They get sick a lot

Here's a personal tip. At my former workplace I looked at the sick leave statistics. Apart from one or two cases (accidental injury, dealing with cancer), this age group was no more absent from work for these reasons than younger people. Yes, you do get a bit slower as you get older, which can be a problem in physical work. But I think that with clever work organisation these problems can be solved there too. And in mental work, experience can compensate for this slowness. One more thing employers can do: reduce the harm of stress through sensible work organisation (this is true for all ages!), you can introduce a "send workers for screening" programme. Assess any sporting needs. But you can also use the team building label to take employees on outings, sports days, etc.

Unfortunately, I have to mention that in the labour market, they are not only subjected to this kind of discrimination in the selection process, but often also in the workplace. E.g. they are not given tasks that match their skills, they get the most boring/difficult jobs, etc.

 

Is there a solution to the "over 55..." problem in the labour market?

I don't see any problem with effective cooperation between the different age groups. Rather, what struck me after reading the many research results and professional articles is that a willingness to cooperate is always the key to progress. Results come when open to all ages on each other's knowledge and experience and work together to achieve results. If the selection professionals/managers are aware of to stop making decisions based on stereotypes and start looking at the facts. And yes, every young leader needs to learn how to harness the knowledge of his experienced subordinate. Because that is what gives him the competitive edge in numbers.