Recent studies reveal that more employers are trying to recruit older people to overcome a shortage of skilled workers.
The firms are introducing age diverse practices even ahead of the new regulations in October and the reason is that this enables employers to tap into the relatively unused talent pool of older workers to overcome recruitment difficulties and help build an age diverse workforce that can add real value to business, not just in terms of older workers but all age groups.
The reports and statistics show that older workers will find difficult to get jobs. But this is true only for the poorly educated, blue-collar workers who have only done one thing all their lives. But older workers who are prepared to be flexible and have some transferable skills should have no problems finding work. At least this is what Barry Badham, the director of Dinosaurs Unlimited is saying.
Dinosaurs Unlimited, a recruitment agency which specialises in helping the over-45s find work, was established in April 2001 in order to help combat ageism in today's workplace and provide small to medium sized businesses with the wealth of experience and knowledge that a mature professional executive has accumulated over the years. The concept has been widely accepted by many employers throughout the West Midlands and, increasingly from other parts of the UK and even overseas, and their success has been achieved by supplying high quality candidates that accurately match the requirements of the vacancy. A Dinosaur is an experienced and professional business executive who is likely to be over the age of 45 and has usually either been paid off, or made redundant from, a large company. Due to mergers, downsizing, business failure or the age discrimination practiced by some large multi-national companies, many senior and middle managers over the age of 45 find themselves out of work through no fault of their own.
According to the director of this agency it has become "easier and easier" to place mature workers. From more than 4,000 older workers, 20-30 percent are actively looking for work at any one time.
Mr. Barry Badham talks about a change in employer's attitudes to older workers in recent years and the benefits these workers can bring: "Increasingly employers are looking to take on an older member of staff who can act as a mentor to help guide some of the younger, up-and-coming members of the team. They're often seen as a safe pair of hands."
Maybe one of the reasons of the increasing request for older workers on the market is that employers are fed up with younger members of staff who only want to party, who come late on Mondays and spend all morning telling colleagues how drunk they got over the weekend. Mr Badham argues that "mature workers generally aren't out clubbing every night. They turn up and get on with the job."
Even if most of the full-time jobs Dinosaurs Unlimited recruits for are management positions, they also offer jobs in call centers and a variety of other positions at various levels of pay. The only condition for the applicants is to be flexible and have the right attitude. Mr. Badham explains that “if they want a job, there is work out there, but they do need those attributes. I can see that poorly educated, blue-collar workers who have only done one thing all their lives could struggle."
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