The results are in: Older job seekers are more grounded
➔ One of the raps against older workers is that they won’t be around long because they’ll be retiring within a few years. It’s no real surprise to anyone who is paying attention that this is simply just not the case.
Let’s start with some of the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There are more people over the age of 65 who are working than ever before in the nation’s history. In addition, the number of older workers is growing five times faster than the overall labor force.
During a recent webinar on starting your own business, a poll was taken of the more than 300 attendees. What was the largest age group? 70 and older.
The older job seeker is a force to be dealt with
BLS also states that older workers remain with employers twice as long as workers between the ages of 25 and 35. In fact, some recent college graduates are being counseled by their college placement officers not to remain in a position more than three years.
This is a very important point that needs to be made – especially in light of the cost to replace workers in today’s work environment. Employers need to be extremely careful when selecting new hires because the cost to replace an employee is prohibitively high.
Consider: According to the Society of Human Resource Management, for a manager making $40,000 a year, to recruit and train the replacement, the cost ranges between $20,000 and $30,000. For higher earning employees, the costs are higher still. Even the cost to replace a $10/hour retail employee can be about 16 percent of the employee’s annual salary, or more than $3,300.
That’s a lot of money. Then you have to consider the time that the job sits vacant, the time and effort of the HR department spends to assemble candidates, screen them, interview them and finally make the selection. Replacing an employee can be a timely and expensive proposition.
If you can make the case that, as an older employee, you’re more likely to remain on the job a lot longer than the younger counterpart, you can be the economical choice for that hiring manager – not even taking into consideration your experience, work ethic, etc.
You bring a lot to the table, and by bringing a lot of these advantages to the attention of hiring managers, you’ll find yourself in a much stronger bargaining position.
Comments