Appreciating Your Older Untapped Resource

Many of us are familiar with and knowledgeable about what we term “simple societies”. These societies tend to be relatively small, rural, and agricultural based. Somebody in the third phase of their life has a value in their community that is hardly reflected in what we call mature societies. The contribution that elders in simple societies make in terms of community is that they care for the children and home, enabling younger, more energetic adults to go out and work on the land. Within the community, these elders have respect. People respect the advice they give based on the longevity of their years. We have a lot to learn from that in terms of negotiating the journey ahead.

At the moment, in our society, employees are little more than economic workers, i.e. people who go out and sell their labour. What usually happens is that someone finishes school or university, and then becomes a wage slave until they hit retirement age. And then they retire and do something else, but what? A lot of people end up being relatively inactive in retirement. There is therefore a huge pool of human resource that is massively underused. Not only do individuals in this position feel like they’re not doing much, but also at a societal level, you as an employer are not tapping into that repository as much as you could be.

Some elders feel like they’re healthy and capable of carrying on being active, and it’s true that the more you do, the more you can enjoy retired life. For those of us who have reached this stage, we’ve got 25-30 years of life after work, so it’s worth planning how we’re going to use them.

Many workers will be keen to continue working for you given the right circumstances.  It is worth giving their needs and views some consideration because with a little bit of accommodation to what they want, you can get a great resource pool ready, willing and able to work loyally and effectively for you.

Set up discussions with your employees to help them understand what they could do as they move into their later years.  Provide them with the support they need to really understand how they can contribute and add value to your organisation whilst at the same time do the other things that they want to do.  Help them create a plan for what they will do beyond the age of 65. 

By helping your older workers develop a creative and clear plan, your employee will be in a much better position to give you their full time, energy and focus when they are working with and for you.