Dealing with greying workers

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looking for career growth, opportunities are more, but for those who are seeking a comfortable job, it’s an endless wait.

Says a senior HR manager in a private bank, on condition of anonymity, “Many people took VRS from public-sector banks and joined private ones in the nineties. But not everybody performed well and many banks today are burdened with such people. So, recruiters need to be very sure whether these middle-aged workers will be able to deliver.”

Difference in work-styles and communication methods can also be a problem. While older workers are more balanced and stable, they are not too comfortable with too many changes.

Also, the younger-boss-older employee syndrome is another issue that is increasingly cropping up with many companies in the new economy sectors run by people in their youthful 30s.

Every industry has its own requirement of skill and experience, dynamism and innovation. But it is mostly the old economy sectors that have more experienced employees than the new economy sectors like ITeS and IT. “Traditional sectors like banking, finance, telecom, print media, pharma and healthcare mainly consist of workers with long years of experience,” says Vipul Prakash, partner, Elixir Web Solutions, an executive search firm. However, most companies do not really bother to store data on the demographic profile of their workers, let alone strategies targeted for specific groups.

A study by Deloitte Research says that between 2005 and 2025, generation Y (those born between 1982 and 1993) as a percentage of the working population will increase from 17% to 28%. By 2025, less than 25% of the workforce will be 45 years or older, with more than 75% of the workers belonging to generation Y or even younger.

The best way to recruit and retain older workers is to try and provide them with the jobs they want and statistically speaking, the older workforce is attracted to flexible, part-time jobs that interest them. “The employer who wins the competitive war for talent will be the one who determines how to make plenty of part-time jobs available to attract older workers and how to redesign existing jobs into part-time roles in order to retain current staff for a few years longer,” says Bali.