By Desmond Elliott

Employers ‘turning blind eye’ to mature-age job seekers

14/11/2012 – More than three quarters of mature-age job seekers are unhappy with the response they get from employers — despite the ever-growing need for skilled workers, a survey has found.    Courtesy Industry Search

It was alarming today to see these headlines, after sitting in despair, bashing on locked doors waiting for an opportunity to continue earning a living, the problem is more widespread than we imagined. Starting work in the days before social security, OHS, automation and pay equality across the workforce, we worked hard developing the technologies and systems the Z Generation take for granted. Maybe after five years waiting in the abyss,  we can look forward to re-entering the workforce to do a bit more (or can we), discarded before employers had to justify retrenching people over 60’s on age grounds. With three quarter of mature age applicants unsuccessful or discarded from selection, as we look for work it shows we need to rethink employment policy at corporate level.

Industry and business should realise that throwing all that knowledge and experience out was a bad idea…or someone will understand that the shortage of skilled workers is a fallacy, a state of mind. As one commentator stated, “We have abandoned a whole section of society”, while an industry spokeswoman stated she was seeking mature employees for their stability and reliability  We seem to be getting mixed messages.

While the big end of town seek cheap labour from overseas the story appears a little different now. Maybe there are plenty of skilled workers in the market place. It is more a case of why should we employ “old farts”. As the work place culture changed in the early 2000’s young university trained executives rose through the ranks to middle and senior management. Maybe not full on experience but definitely overfull on ideas. As we were passed by, slowly but surely the baby boomers began to seek easier times with maybe some lesser responsibility as the superannuation stacking up. Bang! went the GFC and the promise of a comfortable retirement quickly became enough money for long service leave.

I guess industry was not totally to blame but the stone was rolling and gathering momentum. I for one could see the void getting greater. I remember at 30, when I was finding my feet in management, I was always looking over my shoulder seeking reassurance from the old guys, they were our mentors. From the beginning of the 21st century this culture was quick to change. The high flyers and the super managers, I hope there is time to make a mend and look back to the loss that business and enterprise have thrown out with the bath water, to and we can turn the ship around. The baby boomers don’t want the top jobs, far from it we have been there and done that but it would be rewarding to have the opportunity to give back some of our experience and knowledge to secure the rebuild of industry to retire gracefully at 65 or is it 67 now?

If we do it right maybe, just maybe we can avoid the enormous cost we would bear by bringing in cheap labour from overseas to fill a short term void in the labour market using the skills from within. There were comments floating around the forums today, suggesting there are baby boomers who don’t quite cut the speed, of course we cannot keep up with the young people on the sprint but when it comes to endurance, reliability and keeping a focus on the job ahead, the mature staff will be there, everyday not the fastest but reliable and dependable.

With the right mix of baby boomer and sensibility we will find we do not have the short fall in skilled workers we thought we had. I applaud the person who was commenting in the forum today suggesting that something should be done to enlighten government to the issue. A good heart but realistically we will be in wheelchairs or walking canes by the time our government could make things change, especially our rudderless Labor party. This needs a full-on focus at management level, no time to wait the 5 years for government policy to have any affect.

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