The Value of Experience: Recognizing and Retaining Older Employees

Older employees have a wealth of experience to provide for your company, and many wish to continue working to combat the challenges of high living costs and uncertainty surrounding retirement.

In order to keep elderly employees, you will have to do more than provide a little wage boost. 

Allow for Flexibility

When people reach their senior years, there’s more to life than work - many people wish to have more time to spend with their families and take part in activities they enjoy. Therefore, they most likely won’t stick around for the same full-time or erratic schedule they worked over the last couple of decades. This means employers must allow for flexibility, which can mean offering part-time work or even hiring younger part-time members of staff to cover sabbaticals for senior employees. 

Offer Additional Compensations

Every member of your team will have compensation on top of their basic salary, but older employees might need that little bit more. For example, you can provide a stipend for seniors to buy healthy food, which will help take care of their health and well-being. Not only will this type of benefit save money for your elder employees, but it’ll also help make sure they’re well enough to continue working at their best. 

Provide Meaningful Social Roles

A 2014 study called “Encore Careers: The Persistence of Purpose”, found that 6 in 10 workers over 50 seek out roles that provide social opportunities. If you want to boost your chances of retaining older employees, you need to move them away from menial positions. Given that all businesses rely on customers for success, this shouldn’t be too difficult. 

Make Adjustments to Pay

Workers under 50 are largely happy receiving their compensation and a salary that increases with time and experience. However, senior employees often have additional challenges like combating the heavy rate of inflation. Therefore, you should consider adjusting pay to make sure seniors are receiving a true living wage at all times. As well as this, they may benefit from being paid weekly over monthly, allowing them to better manage their finances. 

Practice Honest and Clear Communication

Most employees are more willing to stick around when management is capable of communicating expectations clearly, and this is certainly true for elderly employees. However, many younger management members struggle to effectively communicate with seniors, which harms the employer-employee relationship. To combat these issues, managers have to receive training on how to communicate with elderly employees under their command. 

Beating Ageism

In a world where inclusion and diversity are boasted by many employers, it’s surprising how much ageism still takes place across America and the world. When seniors feel discriminated against, it can have a detrimental impact on their productivity, general health, and well-being. To tackle these issues and retain seniors, leaders must create a concrete community built around the mutual respect of people from all backgrounds. 

Senior employees have often given their life to providing for their families through work, and they’ve picked up a wealth of experience on the way. To retain this rare commodity, employees must integrate the above strategies into their operations and policies.