Senior Employment: The Company Has Everything to Gain
15 July 2016
Read by 3490 persons
Senior employees bring valuable skills, knowledge, and experience. Let's explore the many benefits of hiring older workers. Difficulties adapting to new technologies, lack of mobility and flexibility…There are many perceived drawbacks to employing older workers. However, these criticisms are outdated and are far outweighed by their numerous strengths.
With the retirement age increasing, every employee will spend a significant part of their career as a senior. While prejudices against those over 55 were once a reality, today they are inaccurate. Older employees, often working beyond 60, easily adapt to change and maintain high performance until retirement.
They also stand out for their teamwork and unwavering work ethic. While these are generalizations, they apply to a majority of profiles from this generation, shaped by a shared socio-economic context.
With years of experience in their field, older workers possess invaluable expertise and knowledge for a company. Hiring seniors also saves managers time by eliminating the training period.
Moreover, thanks to the experience gained throughout their careers, those over 55 have a greater ability to stay calm under pressure compared to younger colleagues and demonstrate long-term vision.
Their careers being well-established, older employees prioritize job security over career advancement. This often translates to loyalty and reliability for their employer.
Senior Experience Serving Younger Employees
To prevent the loss of skills and knowledge held by those over 55, more and more companies are prioritizing retaining older workers. Companies need these employees to mentor younger workers and maintain essential skills.
This is crucial for the company's competitiveness, relying on both the dynamism and innovative ideas of younger employees and the experience and perspective of older workers. This intergenerational collaboration allows for knowledge transfer, facilitates the integration of new hires, and values the experience of those over 55.
For seniors, this exchange allows them to extend their professional activity and evolve their role in society, acting as mentors and learning from younger employees' knowledge.
Sometimes Complex Generational Coexistence
The workplace can sometimes be a scene of conflict. This coexistence manifests in the workplace as a "misunderstanding between young and older people."
Common points of friction include:
• Knowledge Transfer
Seniors are no longer the sole source of knowledge. They must learn from younger people, especially regarding the use of new communication technologies and virtual tools.
• Investment and Commitment to the Company
Younger workers, unlike seniors, aren't afraid to change jobs or companies. Unemployment and mobility are part of their professional reality. This results in a certain detachment and less identification with their company, unlike many older workers who have often built their careers within a single company.
• Hierarchy
The concept of authority is off-putting to members of Generation Y. Younger workers trust themselves or their managers more than a principle called "hierarchy." If they appreciate their superior and agree with their policies, they follow; otherwise, they are less likely to comply with orders.
• Concentration
Seniors tend to work in a more concentrated manner, unlike younger workers who are more easily distracted by the constant use of technological and virtual tools (Twitter, Facebook, mobile...) even during work hours.
Expert Opinion: Alexandra Montant, Deputy CEO of Rekrute
What are the benefits of seniors collaborating with younger workers?
Generation Y is constantly vigilant. They bring new ideas to a team. Seniors recognize that younger workers are concerned about the collective and readily share and help each other. Unlike their elders who were taught to remain quiet, younger workers speak up and solve problems.
Seniors bring experience and knowledge that younger workers respect. They teach them to prioritize and organize themselves.
What stereotypes do seniors encounter?
Lower productivity
Risk of skills obsolescence (the need to retrain people who sometimes learned a trade that no longer exists)
Difficult to manage
Higher general costs (salaries, social security contributions)
Costs related to lower adaptability (integration, new technologies)
May seem less motivated
How to improve the management of seniors in the company?
A shift in perspective is needed towards seniors and how career paths are managed within the company. This requires a fundamental shift in company culture with coherent, concrete actions. Cultivating a more positive environment requires training managers with different perspectives. Mentoring or sponsorship programs and internal mobility can also be considered. Providing training plans to facilitate the learning and integration of seniors is essential. This support phase is vital for ensuring the best possible integration.
With the retirement age increasing, every employee will spend a significant part of their career as a senior. While prejudices against those over 55 were once a reality, today they are inaccurate. Older employees, often working beyond 60, easily adapt to change and maintain high performance until retirement.
They also stand out for their teamwork and unwavering work ethic. While these are generalizations, they apply to a majority of profiles from this generation, shaped by a shared socio-economic context.
With years of experience in their field, older workers possess invaluable expertise and knowledge for a company. Hiring seniors also saves managers time by eliminating the training period.
Moreover, thanks to the experience gained throughout their careers, those over 55 have a greater ability to stay calm under pressure compared to younger colleagues and demonstrate long-term vision.
Their careers being well-established, older employees prioritize job security over career advancement. This often translates to loyalty and reliability for their employer.
Senior Experience Serving Younger Employees
To prevent the loss of skills and knowledge held by those over 55, more and more companies are prioritizing retaining older workers. Companies need these employees to mentor younger workers and maintain essential skills.
This is crucial for the company's competitiveness, relying on both the dynamism and innovative ideas of younger employees and the experience and perspective of older workers. This intergenerational collaboration allows for knowledge transfer, facilitates the integration of new hires, and values the experience of those over 55.
For seniors, this exchange allows them to extend their professional activity and evolve their role in society, acting as mentors and learning from younger employees' knowledge.
Sometimes Complex Generational Coexistence
The workplace can sometimes be a scene of conflict. This coexistence manifests in the workplace as a "misunderstanding between young and older people."
Common points of friction include:
• Knowledge Transfer
Seniors are no longer the sole source of knowledge. They must learn from younger people, especially regarding the use of new communication technologies and virtual tools.
• Investment and Commitment to the Company
Younger workers, unlike seniors, aren't afraid to change jobs or companies. Unemployment and mobility are part of their professional reality. This results in a certain detachment and less identification with their company, unlike many older workers who have often built their careers within a single company.
• Hierarchy
The concept of authority is off-putting to members of Generation Y. Younger workers trust themselves or their managers more than a principle called "hierarchy." If they appreciate their superior and agree with their policies, they follow; otherwise, they are less likely to comply with orders.
• Concentration
Seniors tend to work in a more concentrated manner, unlike younger workers who are more easily distracted by the constant use of technological and virtual tools (Twitter, Facebook, mobile...) even during work hours.
Expert Opinion: Alexandra Montant, Deputy CEO of Rekrute
What are the benefits of seniors collaborating with younger workers?
Generation Y is constantly vigilant. They bring new ideas to a team. Seniors recognize that younger workers are concerned about the collective and readily share and help each other. Unlike their elders who were taught to remain quiet, younger workers speak up and solve problems.
Seniors bring experience and knowledge that younger workers respect. They teach them to prioritize and organize themselves.
What stereotypes do seniors encounter?
Lower productivity
Risk of skills obsolescence (the need to retrain people who sometimes learned a trade that no longer exists)
Difficult to manage
Higher general costs (salaries, social security contributions)
Costs related to lower adaptability (integration, new technologies)
May seem less motivated
How to improve the management of seniors in the company?
A shift in perspective is needed towards seniors and how career paths are managed within the company. This requires a fundamental shift in company culture with coherent, concrete actions. Cultivating a more positive environment requires training managers with different perspectives. Mentoring or sponsorship programs and internal mobility can also be considered. Providing training plans to facilitate the learning and integration of seniors is essential. This support phase is vital for ensuring the best possible integration.
