Human Resources

What is the Age Profile of Your Workforce?

The median age of workers varies from industry-to-industry but it may be worthwhile looking at your company’s profile compared with others in the same industry and gauge whether you’re locking out some of the most skilled, productive and experienced people in our community.

At Bluestone Recruitment the median age is 37 – which is among the youngest. By way of comparison, the high growth health care sector is 43 years while the ‘youngest’ sector, not surprisingly, is fast food and food retail outlets at 24 years.

According to Bluestone’s national business development manager for hospitality, Marian Stratford, older employees often make the best hospitality recruits.

“You often find the older generations take more care with their manners and courtesy when dealing with members of the public through hospitality, which is something we really appreciate for our clients,” she said. “There’s just an extra element of care and attention to detail with older employees and it’s a quality that’s of great advantage to them when looking for hospitality positions.”

A key question for all employers to ask is whether their employment practices are discriminating – even if unintended – against older workers? Is the attitude towards older workers in your workplace a positive one?

According to research from Bupa, older works tender to be:

• loyal as they are less likely to want to change jobs for the sake of it
• adaptable to new practices and technologies
• dependable, with less sick leave and compensation claims, and
• connected – providing good cross-generation connections

Another study, by Australian Health Management, showed that workers aged 55 years or more performed ‘at their best’ for seven hours in an eight hour day – an achievement that others in the study were unable to match.

Treasury data confirms this as well as the Bupa research, suggesting that older workers can deliver an average net benefit of $1956 per year to their employer, compared with others because of high retention rates, lower rates of absenteeism, the cost of recruitment and induction training and the greater return on investment.

“It’s important when recruiting for people that you have a job analysis, a job description that accurately reflects the work to be done, and you get the language right in advertising and at interview so it is age-inclusive. If you’re using a recruitment services company – whether it be Bluestone or one of our competitors – make sure they know about your policy for employing older people to avoid mature age candidates being screened out,” warns Ms Stratford.

“Bluestone is truly an equal-opportunity employers so it really doesn’t matter how old you are or where you’re from – if you have the skills and experience in hospitality, we’re always happy to assess potential candidates for our roles,” she said. “It really is about changing your perception of older workers and opening your mind to the possibilities,” she added.

It’s quite reasonable to ask a recruitment agency to demonstrate how they ensure they are not discriminating on the basis of age. Earlier this year, the federal government introduced a Jobs Bonus of $1000 to employers who employ a person aged 50+ for more than three months. Up to 2500 employers will receive this assistance over the next four years, with the bonus kicking into gear in July this year.

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