The Silver Tsunami: A Follow Up To Yesterday's Ageism Post

After I wrote my riff (actually more of a rant) on AGEISM I came across a blog post on TomorrowToday's blog entitled The Silver Tsunami- Managing Older Workers. A very, very interesting blog post. Writer Graeme Codrington talks about the work of Martin Amis and Christopher Buckley who are writers who are entering their silver years and are worried about the costs of an ageing population. He says few people really grasp what is going to occur, especially people in the corporate world. Some of the facts he points out include:

• "Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly ageing workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also ageing rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better."
• "Most companies are remarkably ill-prepared. There was a flicker of interest in the problem a few years ago but it was snuffed out by the recession. The management literature on older workers is a mere molehill compared with the mountain devoted to recruiting and retaining the young."
• Companies are still stuck with an antiquated model for dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age and then disappear when they reach retirement.
• Companies will have to do more than this if they are to survive the silver tsunami. They will have to rethink the traditional model of the career. This will mean breaking the time-honoured link between age and pay – a link which ensures that workers get ever more expensive even as their faculties decline. It will also mean treating retirement as a phased process rather than a sudden event marked by a sentimental speech and a carriage clock.

He gives several examples of companies that are starting to catch on. These companies, like BMW, are making changes to make older workers as productive as younger ones with minor changes.

This blog post is a great follow up to the admonition I gave you yesterday about looking at skills and abilities of older workers. If you have an aging workforce THIS IS REQUIRED READING.

So go off and read this blog post on managing older workers, but be sure to come back and leave your thoughts, ideas or even better yet your programs you have instituted to deal with managing older workers.

Ageism Part 3: What HR Needs to Know

Age was not originally part of the protected catagories as defined by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was added with the 1967 passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. And unlike the CRA where coverage starts at 15 employees, its coverage does not start until 20 employees. (This lack of consistency drives HR people nuts.) The law protects workers age 40 or over. It does not provide any protection to workers under 40. It allows employers to favor older workers, even if the "younger" workers are over 40 years of age. This was determined by the Supreme Court in the General Dynamic Land System v. Cline case.

The ADEA prohibits discrimination in all usual areas of employment, but also includes areas not generally considered, such as training and apprenticeship programs and time-off. Harassment based upon age, such as "old" jokes, "old" cartoons, "old" slurs, is also prohibited. So watch the "gray beard" or "old dog" remarks.

There are some areas where age can be a factor. These include:

• State and local governments may institute a mandatory retirement at age of 55 for firefighters and law enforcement officers.
• Employers may require a high-ranking employee to retire if:
• the employee is at least 65
• the employee has worked for at least the previous 2 years as a bona fide executive or is in a high policy making position, and
• the employee is entitled to an immediate, nonforfeitable annual retirement of at least $44,000 from the employer.
• In some cases an employer may reduce benefits paid to older workers if done so in accordance with a bona fide employee benefit plan.

And that leads us to the other law that protects older workers, The Older Worker Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA). This was passed in 1990 and says:

• Employers must offer older workers benefits that are equal to or, in some cases, cost the employer as much as, the benefits offered to younger workers. The rules for determining whether they are equal depend on the type of benefit offered.
• A waiver of the right to sue for age discrimination is valid is only if it meets certain standards to ensure the waiver is knowing and voluntary.

There are alot of exceptions to the rules on pensions and other benefit plans, so each HR professional needs to be aware of these, as there are too many for this post.

I do want to cover the waiver issues however, because in  today's world more HR managers are dealing with them. Waivers have to be knowing and voluntary and the rules for this are:

1. It is part of a written agreement between the employee and employer.
2. It is written in language that is understandable to the employee or the average of the group.
3. Specifically refers to the worker's rights under the ADEA.
4. Does not require the employee to waive any rights or claims that may arise after the agreement is signed.
5. Gives the employee something of value, over and above to what they may already be entitled. This is typically a severance.
6. The employee must be be advised, in writing, to consult an attorney before signing the agreement.
7. Must give the employee at least 21 days to consider the agreement, or 45 days in a group termination.
8. Give the employee at least 7 days after signing to revoke the agreement.
9. If the waiver is in connection with a group termination the employer must also provide the information on the demographics of the group(s) selected for the program.

So there are the rules. Here are a few comments.

• By 2010 it is predicted that half the workforce of the US will be over the age of 40.
• You can tell this law was passed by a group of people who used to think 30 was old. If we were doing this today 40 would not be OLD!
• As someone well past 40, I still rankle at the idea that someone thinks it takes me an extra 21 days to make a decision and that I have to have help to do it.
• Age discrimination is one of the fastest growing areas of EEOC suits, so it is going to get worse before it gets better. 
• The law allows disparate impact lawsuits, so make sure you are checking the impact of your layoffs. They may end up being more expensive than you think.

Finally, when I reached my 40th birthday I celebrated big time because I had finally reached a protected catagory. LOL

Challenges for the Older Job Hunter

I occasionally write a blog post for the Atlanta Journal Constitution online version of the paper. Here is the link to Job Hunting Challenges for the Older Worker, that appeared in the March 12, 2009 issue. Feel free to comment in either area.

Is It Really Age? Why Older Workers May Not Get Work

Continuing with my theme of older workers, I have had a couple of people react to my quote about companies starting to hire older workers, by calling and saying they have been trying and have been unable to get work "BECAUSE OF MY AGE." My reaction to that is to be initially skeptical. If "because of my age" means:

• You have not kept your skills up to date
• You have not become Internet savy
• You are in the "rut" of "I have always done it that way"
• You have no idea what a blog or podcast or wiki is

Then yes you may not be getting a job because of your age. So my initial response has been "take a critical look at yourself" and lay the blame there. I have suggested that a job transition coach might be valuable. Have someone teach you how to interview, dress, and present yourself. Just as when you were younger, you have to have something "saleable" about you.

Now, does this mean that there is no age discrimination? No. It is there. And this is where good HR people come into play. A forward thinking, ethical HR professional does not let their organization succumb to age bias. They help hiring managers get beyond the surface and see the skill sets, the loyality, the work ethic and the energy that many "older" workers bring to the job. However, if you don't have anything worth "buying", all your skills are dusty and outdated, then even the best HR manager is not going to help you. Nor is a recruiter. So look in that mirror. If companies are not buying what your are presenting then do something about it.

HR managers, tell me what you think. Am I delusional?

Older Workers: A Follow Up and Opportunity

A blog from a couple days ago discussed an article about older workers (See February 12th). Just this morning I read an article written by Joyce Gioia-Herman in the Herman Trend Alert entitled Older Workers in Greater Demand. (You can subscribe to the Trend Alert by clicking here.) The material in this newsletter reinforced much of what was said in the AJC article. Older workers will be in demand and one place in particular that will be actively recruiting workers is the U. S. Federal government. According to the Trend Alert the AARP "...added three U.S. government agencies and six corporations to its list of employers looking to hire people 50 and older for a range of full-time, part-time, and seasonal jobs. In all, thirty-eight of the nation's employers have expressed an interest in hiring seniors." The Trend Alert further states that "The Internal Revenue Service, the Peace Corps, and the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Relief, are the first federal employers to join AARP's National Employer Team, the name given to the association's three-year-old partnership."

The numbers are pretty staggering. "Of the two million people who work for the federal government, more than 25 percent are expected to leave over the next five years. In the next two years alone, The Partnership for Public Service estimates over 193,000 mission-critical positions will need filling."

So, if you know someone who is looking for work I would send them to the Federal government or state governments, as I am sure they are in the same condition that the Fed is in.