The future's grey: older workers on the rise

Senior benefits
In 1989 B&Q carried out an experiment of staffing a complete store in Macclesfield with employees over 50. ‘Warwick University were so interested they carried out an academic study of the case and found that the store came top of the league in almost every department – sales, profits, staff turnover and low absenteeism. I think it was a surprise to all of us,’ says Lorraine Coutts spokesperson for B&Q.

B&Q prefer to employ a mixed age range, in order to reflect their customer profile, but they also admit that older workers do have certain assets over their younger counterparts. ‘Older people have lived in their own homes for a long time and know what DIY entails, so they can advise customers better on our products. They also tend to have good people skills,’ explains Coutts. The company also uses older employees rather than actors in their television adverts to subliminally promote their commitment to diversity.

One of the biggest advantages for employers taking on older women is that they are unlikely to take maternity leave. Michael Jackson, 60, is operations manager for Wrinklies Direct, a recruitment agency specialising in senior workers. ‘Older workers are loyal and quick starters,’ he explains. ‘They understand that when you get a job you have to get your head down and they’ve been educated in the three essentials, reading, writing and arithmetic,’ he says.

Wrinklies Direct have absolutely no problem finding their clients jobs and have placed them in careers as mortgage consultants, in customer relations departments and call centres, largely because they have life’s greatest form of education on their side – experience. For employers who are anxious that senior workers have few IT skills, Jackson points out that so-called ‘silver surfers’ are one of the largest developing communities on the Internet. ‘What you have to remember is that inside every old person is a young person yelling, ‘What on earth happened?’ We really don’t feel as old as we are.’

More information on employment opportunities for older people

• Visit your local jobcentre
• Find out about the New Deal
• Employers Forum on Age, 0845 456 2495
• Wrinklies Direct, 0870 600 1921
• Forties People, 020 7329 4044
• Thirty Plus Recruitment Ltd, 020 7323 4155

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