Recognizing the Need for and Value of Experienced Workers

The times really are a-changin’, and that’s good news for your job-hunting prospects. Whether you want to work in an office job, teach yoga, or head up a company, more employers are starting to realize that hiring workers age 50 and older is good for business, and more and more employers are discovering the value of experienced workers. Unfortunately for job seekers 50 and older, the fact that demand for experienced workers is on the rise is a well-kept secret. Realizing that employers need you is an important first step in the process of finding and landing the job you want. It gives you the enthusiasm and confidence to set out on what may be a long and arduous journey. This section reveals the reasons that the demand for older workers is rising — to invigorate you for the journey ahead and remind you of just how valuable you are to employers who need your skills, talents, and experience.

A job search can be disheartening for anyone, regardless of age. And if that’s what you’re feeling, never show it to a prospective employer. Always highlight the value you have to offer in every job-search communiqué you send out. If you need a confidence lift, take some time and review all your previous achievements.

Tallying the Benefits of Staying in the Workforce

To get you even more fired up about your job search, here are five money-wise reasons to stay in the workforce as long as you can:

• The more years you contribute to your retirement plans, the better off you’ll be down the road. You’ll be able to delay taking Social Security, which will dramatically boost your eventual payout. If your full retirement age is 66, for example, and you start collecting at age 70, your monthly check will be 32 percent higher than if you begin benefits at 66 and 76 percent more than if you start taking benefits at 62 (when most people do).

  The longer you work, the longer you delay tapping retirement funds, which can continue to grow.

• Working longer provides income to pay for health insurance until you’re eligible for Medicare at 65. Fewer employers are offering their retired workers medical benefits, and those who do are ramping up the amount retirees must contribute to the cost of coverage. Even better, you may find a job that offers you access to a health plan.

  Consider the advantage of a health savings account (HSA). If your employer provides one, take advantage of it. It’s a good way to save as a tax deduction and use the dollars tax free for qualified medical expenses.

• Money aside, you may want to keep working to maintain a sense of well-being. For people over 50, being engaged, not just involved, is important, according to a report by The Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College. Similarly, when asked about their life and careers, 75 percent of people in their 40s and 50s said they want to make their life more meaningful, while 82 percent said they want to give back more, according to a study commissioned by Life Reimagined, which was created by AARP to help people with midlife transitions. Nearly 30 percent plan to make a career change in the next five years; top reasons include having the opportunity to learn more and giving more back to the community. Work gives you a sense of purpose and of feeling connected and needed. It makes you feel relevant. Pinning a dollar figure to that is difficult, but it’s real.
• Work sharpens the mind. Researchers from the RAND Center for the Study of Aging and the University of Michigan published a study showing that cognitive performance levels decline faster in countries that have younger retirement ages. What? Brain cells dying from lack of use? You bet. It’s the old “Use it or lose it” axiom. Many aging experts say that to stay healthy, older adults have to learn new things, stay active socially, and exercise.

Bottom line: We’re living longer, healthier lives. As a result, we’re staying longer in the workforce because we can and often because we need to in order to have a financially secure retirement.

Reorienting Yourself to Today’s Job-Search Realities

What’s new since your last job hunt? If it’s been a while, you’ll quickly find that technology has made job searching easier in some ways but more complex than ever in others. Although the Internet has improved access to openings, it has also increased competition for those same openings. Typically, an average of more than 250 résumés are submitted for every job posting, and the first résumé appears within 200 seconds of the posting “going live,” according to online job-search expert Susan P. Joyce, publisher of WorkCoachCafe.com.

Although job-search sites make finding jobs easier, online applications and automated screening technologies pose additional obstacles to getting past the gatekeepers. According to a study by job-match site TheLadders (www.theladders.com), many companies use talent-management software to screen résumés, weeding out up to 50 percent of applications before anyone ever looks at a résumé or cover letter.

Little wonder then that a recent CareerXroads survey shows that only 15 percent of positions were filled through online job boards. So visiting job boards and applying for jobs is probably not the best use of your time, even though you feel like you have to. Most jobs are either filled internally or through referrals. Yes, the old-fashioned way. In fact, only about half of the roughly 5 million jobs now open in the United States are ever advertised publicly. Employers still prefer to hire people they know either directly or indirectly through a referral. In studies of many different employers going back to 2001, employee referrals are the top source of people hired into a company — not job postings. In fact, employee referrals provided more than 55 percent of the hires in one of the studies.

In other words, employers want to hire someone who has already been vetted in some way, which can save a lot of hassle and cost of the hiring process and of replacing people who don’t work out, even if they looked great on paper and interviewed like pros. Employers love it when someone who already works for the organization can vouch for the person. And the employee making the referral often has some skin in the game, so to speak. Many employers pop a bonus reward of up to $1,000 or more for referring someone who’s hired and does a good job in the first few months on the job.

Does this mean that applying for a job on job boards isn’t worthwhile? Not at all! Scanning the boards gives you a sense of who’s hiring, what types of openings are out there, and salary ranges. But it does mean that other approaches, such as networking and marketing yourself, may ultimately forge a better route to landing a job.

Deciding What (Else) You Want Out of Work

For many, their paychecks aren’t generally what get them juiced about going to work. Most people say they’re motivated by the people they work with, the opportunity to keep learning and growing, or the mission or cause of their employer’s services or the products it makes. Sometimes they say they love the travel opportunities. So don’t get locked into a must-have salary. When searching for jobs and comparing offers, be sure to account for other benefits, including the following:

• Flexible workday: Being able to work from home or having flexible hours or a compressed schedule are biggies. It comes down to being treated as a responsible adult and weaving work more seamlessly into the fabric of your life. And that may be getting easier to achieve. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of 650 human resources executives recently found that half of employers are willing to offer flexible arrangements, such as working part time or job sharing, to their most skilled and experienced workers.
• Healthy work-life balance: Three in five people interested in a second career midlife say it’s very important that the job leaves free time for things they want to do, such as travel, education, or engagement in other activities they enjoy, according to a report by Encore.org, a nonprofit organization that’s building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities. Indeed, many of those interested in encore careers appear eager to mix fewer hours of work per week with more years of work in total. Finding more flexibility may make working a few more years more palatable.
• Meaningful work: More than 25 million Americans 50 to 70 years old are eager to share their skills, passions, and expertise in encore careers that address social needs, typically in education, healthcare, human services, and the environment, according to a 2014 study by Encore.org and Penn Schoen Berland. Of those 25 million, more than 4.5 million are already working for social impact. Another 21 million are ready to join them within the next five years.
• Opportunities to interact with others and stay productive: Human beings are hard-wired to create, produce, and collaborate, and rewarding work provides opportunities to remain active and productive. A Pew Research Center survey found that working for non-financial reasons, such as job enjoyment or the desire to be productive, increases with age.
• Competitive benefits: An AARP/SHRM survey of workers age 50 and up suggested older workers place significance on having competitive benefits and flexible work arrangements. When these workers consider a job offer, health insurance, retirement savings plans, and paid time off benefits play an important role in their decisions. For example, approximately eight in ten workers age 50 and older consider the availability of benefits such as health insurance (82 percent); a pension, 401(k), or other retirement plan (77 percent); and paid time off (80 percent) to be “very” or “somewhat” important considerations in the decision to accept a job.
• Learning opportunities: Boomers tend to be curious, eager, and adventuresome. They’re not geared to be couch potatoes passively absorbing entertainment. As such, they value learning opportunities both on the job and through employer-sponsored continuing education programs.

Employers are increasingly tuning in to these incentives. So though they worry that they may not be able to meet your salary expectations, they’re discovering that workers 50 and older are attracted to more than pay. So employers are increasingly offering such non-financial perks as flexible work schedules, telecommuting options, and training and education opportunities.