The Removal of the Compulsory Retirement Age Essay Example for Free

The Removal of the supreme Retire handst Age EssayHowever, our retreat check system is in a transition phase, and some the flesh out of the miscellaneas be contained in the table below Age regulations and qualifications g everyplacening superannuation and social security systems 55 Age to which superannuation entitlements atomic number 18 compulsorily preserved. From suppurate 55, preserved superannuation wrenchs available upon l sensationliness. For people antique 55 to 60 ripen, Regulations under theSuperannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993(SIS regulations) define retirement as permanent wave withdrawal from the manpower.A phased increase in the superannuation preservation age to 60 is to begin in 2015 and allow run people born subsequently 30 June 1960. By 2025, people born after June 1964 go away be subject to a preservation age of 60 geezerhood. People aged 55 years and all over can entrance money a range of social security pensions and benefits dep final stageing on their circumstances, e. g. baulk Support Pension, Newstart Allowance, C atomic number 18r Pension and Widow Allowance. From September 1997, superannuation assets of those aged 55 and over were taken into chronicle under the income and assets tests after 9 months on income bide (pending legislation). 60 Under SIS Regulations, after age 60, retirement may be taken to have occurred upon cessation of a period of gainful purpose even if the person intends to incur in gainful engagement. Current exit age for ripen Age Allowance. 61 Womens current qualifying age for age pension. The age pension age for women is organism slowly increase to 65 over the next 17 years (r severallying 65 years in July 2013). 65 Mens qualifying age for age pension. 70From 1 July 1997 people were allowed to continue to contribute to a regulated superannuation fund up to age 70, provided they atomic number 18 gainfully engagemented for at least 10 hours per castweek over the y ear. http//wiki. answers. com/Q/What_is_the_ channel way_compulsory_retirement_age_Australia http//www. alrc. gov. au/publications/2-recruitment-and-employment-law/compulsory-retirement Most people retire at 55 years or over. harmonize to theAustralian Bureau of Statistics, the fair age Australians intend to retire is 63 for men and 61 for women. selected retirement at 65 was made unlawful in South Australia in 1993. It is against the law to plunder faculty because of their age unless(prenominal) there is an occupational reason to be a certain age. Most staff cant be forced to retire because of age except * judges and magistrates must retire at 70 * Australian Defence Force personnel must retire at 65. The bonnie retirement age is probable to increase as we have an ageing population. More players leave alone move into retirement age and few will enter the labour market.As a result, there will be a shortage of workers. Governments and many employers are already trying to encourage workers to stay on long-run by offering assistance to old staff and options likephased retirement. You can defy your staff knightly retirement age by offeringphased retirement or flexible working conditions. http//www. eoc. sa. gov. au/eo- stock/employers/staffing/dismissing-retrenching-and-retiring-staff/retiring-staff/when-do-staf The likelihood of being retired increased with age.For those aged 45-49 years, just 5% were retired, compared to 16% of 55-59 year olds, 68% of 65-69 year olds and 87% of those aged 70 years and over. In 2010-11, 63% of men aged 45 years and over were in the labour force, 33% had retired, and 3% were non in the labour force but had non yet retired. In contrast, 50% of women aged 45 years and over were in the labour force, 39% had retired and the remaining 5% were not in the labour force but had not yet retired. The average age at retirement from the labour force for people aged 45 years and over in 2010-11 was 53. years (57. 9 years for men and 49. 6 years for women). Of the 1. 4 million men who had retired from the labour force 27% had retired aged less than 55 years 53% had retired aged 55-64 years and 20% had retired aged 65 years and over. The 1. 8 million women who had retired from the labour force had retired on average at a younger age than men. The ages at which women retirees had retired from the labour force were as follows 57% had retired aged less than 55 years 35% had retired aged 55-64 years and % had retired aged 65 years and over. Of the 2. 2 million retired people who had worked in the last 20 years, 94% had held a full- age job at some stage. For nearly three-quarters (72%) of those who held a full-time job, their last job held prior to retirement was full-time. The remainder worked temporary before retiring. http//www. abs. gov. au/ausstats/emailprotected nsf/Latestproducts/6238. 0Main%20Features1July%202010%20to%20June%202011? opendocument angstromtabname=Summaryampprodno=6238. 0ampissue=July%2 02010%20to%20June%202011ampnum=ampview= ttp//jobsearch. about. com/b/2013/03/08/too-old-to- put down-hired. htm In go on and discontinueing economies, ageing populations and low birth rates are emphasising the demand for retaining and sustaining competent sometime(a) workers. This paper examines human imagery and governmental insurance and practice implications from the impertinent accounts directed towards those workers aged over 44 years, who are usually classi? ed as honest-to-goodness workers. It focuses on a key and paradoxical impediment in the men retention of these workers.Using Australia as a case study, this paper argues that policies and practices to retain and sustain workers aged 45 or much need to de-emphasize the term elder workers and reconsider how human resource management and government policies, as considerably as practices by workers themselves, might pursue longer and more productive working lives for employees aged over 45. It seeks to plump out the paradox of the (under)valuing of previous(a) workers contributions and provides direction for retaining and supporting the ongoing employability of these workers.It concludes by proposing that government, industry bodies and sector councils that seek to change employer attitudes will likely require a dual process comprising twain engagement with sr. workers and a balanced appraisal of their worth. Alone, subsidies and/or mandation may swell up serve to entrench age bias without measures to correct that bias by dint of a systematic appraisal of their current and potential contributions. In addition, to support this mutation of bias and sustain their employability, old(a) workers will likely need to exercise great(p)er dominance in their work and learning.Quite consistently across international and national surveys, a pattern emerges of employers and managers holding senior(a) workers in low esteem which appears quite entrenched. Indeed, managers assessments of older workers are consistently negative, evidently irrespective of appraisals of their true performance (Rosen and Jerdee 1988). The register from studies across Europe and North America comm lone(prenominal) make known that employers are far more likely to fund the manoeuvering of the young and well educated, kinda than older workers (Brunello 2001 Brunello and Medio 2001 Giraud 2002).Truly, some Federal European countries adopt more compulsory attitudes towards and claim a strong sense of obligation to older workers as exercised through a set of national policies and practices (Bishop 1997 metalworker and Billett 2003). Yet, it is noteworthy that elsewhere the ways in which employers set apart and fund developmental opportunities for their employees, is resistant to legislated (Giraud 2002) and mandated measures (Bishop 1997).Instead, the privileging of youth (and perhaps never more so than when they stimulate a scarce commodity within ageing populations) is that which shapes employers decisionmaking about the distribution of sponsored workplace-based opportunities for learning. The multinational ledger of charitable Resource caution 1251This suggests that government intervention by pressing or subsidising employers to employ older workers will not be suf? cient, unless the attitude of employers can in some way be transformed. Australian studies of attitudes towards older workers report similar ? ndings to those inform elsewhere.One study concluded that regardless of the perceived more positive qualities of older workers , employers appear to prefer to recruit employees in the younger age stems for about employee categories with minimal engross in recruiting anyone over 45 years for any job and no preference for anyone 56 years or older (Steinberg, Donald, Najman and Skerman 1996, p. 157). Despite the increase recognition of the looming labour shortage at that time and quest it, much(prenominal) attitudes appear to have been slow to change. Y et, such(prenominal) attitudes are quite potent. Taylor and Walker (1998, p. 44) concluded that workplace perceptions about older workers (and different groups of older workers) may directly in? uence not only their candidates for gaining employment but similarly their prospects for development and advancement within an organisation. A 2003 guide by the problem Council of Australia (BCA) identi? ed numerous readily accepted negative stereotypes of mature-age workers, including their overleaping motivation and enthusiasm, being close-minded, more susceptible to injury and illness, having outdated skills, less capable, unwilling to take on new-fangled training or challenges, put on the line averse and having less potential for development (p. 2). Yet, the issues raised by the BCA (2003) pose dif? culties in generalising about employer attitudes and practices. In a telephone survey of some 1000 enterp fancy ups in the business services sector, which included computer, legal, sco re and employment services, Bittman, Flick and Rice (2001) instal no clear pattern of negative attitudes towards employing older workers. They claimed (p. vii) that contempt employers reputation for favouring younger, risk-taking innovators, the study revealed a preference for a diverse workforce of intelligent, reliable, team workers with industry rather than computing experience.However, Gringart, Helmes and Speelman (2005) claim the methodology used in that study did not allow respondents to consistently stereotype workers on the basis of age. Moreover, the business service sector may well be one of those better disposed to employing and supporting older workers than many others, as its work may be more age tolerant than others. Across a range of industries, a survey of 8000 Australian employers found the most proactive recruitment for mature age workers was in the ? ance sector (47% of ? rms), compared with only 32% in training technologies and 24% in telecommunications (Dear e 2006). This kind of difference indicates that employer attitudes are not uniform in their application or intensity, across industry sectors. For instance, in their 2001 study, Gringart and Helmes found that older female jobseekers were discriminated against more than males. Yet, 4 years later, the researchers (Gringart et al. 2005) found no signi? cant gender difference.They concluded rather baldly that the sample of 128 hiring decision makers in businesses of up to 50 employees was generally unlikely to hire older workers. These studies indicate that employer attitude is central not only to recruiting and retaining older workers, but also in advancing support for maintaining their employability through opportunities to further develop and make more widely the knowledge they have learnt. Indeed, Howell, Buttigieg and Webber (2006, p. ) concluded that senior managements support for variation and effective utilisation of older workers as fraction of the retail workforce resulted in age-positive practices by those managers who make do older workers. Nonetheless, in its own way, this kind of endorsement indicates, ? rstly, the importance of attitudes being premised on the basis of assured accounts of performance and not age bias and, secondly, that these attitudes can change. 1252 S. Billett et al. Such change in attitudes would need to be broadly applied across decision-making in businesses. For instance, the BCA (2003, p. 8) claimed that voluntary retirement is often seen as a workforce management tool, but that such policies are often based on age alto enamorher, and that consideration is not given to the employees skill and experience pro? les. The depth and pervasiveness of the employer discrimination against older workers are illustrated further in the BCAs (2003, p. 11) ? ndings which suggest that recruitment agencies may actually practise ageism when shortlisting applicants for their clients, a claim denied by the agencies (Hovenden 2004). Certainl y, some of these agencies promote mature age employment through their websites.One of them commissioned a report on the implications of the ageing population in the Australian workforce that described ageism as a fussyly insidious form of discrimination (Jorgensen 2004, p. 13). Recommending that employers compulsory to confront their own prejudices, Jorgensen also suggested (p. 13) that policy approaches that hatful with ageism also need to be carefully framed so as not to differentiate older workers, isolate younger workers or impose obligations on older workers who simply do not have the health or desire to continue in full time or part time employment.It follows from here that in the current social and ? nancial environments, speci? c and targeted policies and sustained initiatives are likely to be required to change attitudes about older workers occupational capacities and employability across their working lives. However, these initiatives will need to overcome a range of s ocietal and workplace barriers for the maximum retention of and full utilisation of these workers capacities. severalize barriers here include a societal preference of privileging youth over age across countries with advanced industrial economies.This preference manifests itself in workplace practices of not only favouring the employment of younger workers, but also directing far more resources towards their development than older workers, among other groups (Brunello 2001 Brunello and Medio 2001). These preferences seem powerful and enduring. Even evidence suggesting that older workers are as capable as other workers and have the very attributes employers claim to grade, seemingly fail to change managements views, i. e. f those who employ and make decisions about workers advancement and access to development opportunities. Some might argue that this preference will change as older workers become an increasingly common element of the workforce and a necessity for employers. Counte ring such a claim is the prospect that a scarcity of younger people may well lead to greater enterprise aspiration for and sponsorship of younger and well-educated workers and more intense resourcing of these workers and away from older workers.Moreover, despite the growing presence of older workers in the Australian workforce over the last 20 years, comminuted appears to have changed in basis of employer preference or workplace responses to their growing participation. Salient here is the comparison of older workers with women workers. Despite their increasing participation in the workforce, women workers across a range of national workforces have struggled to secure worthwhile work conditions, despite legislative arrangements associated with equal opportunity (Cavanagh 2008). Therefore, unless signi? ant changes occur in both the attitudes towards and Australian employers practices, older workers may well increasingly struggle to secure worthwhile work, and opportunities for th e development and advancement required to retain them in socially and economically vital work and improve their effectiveness in that work. Indeed, there are potentially strong negative consequences here. Consequences of negative employer attitudes and practices There are both personal and societal cost of employer attitudes and practices that discriminate unreasonably against older workers.These costs include the limits in range of The International Journal of valet Resource Management 1253employment options for these workers and dif? culties becoming employed. Indeed, a consequence of policies designed to promote a deregulated and ? exible labour market is the growing distinction between core sector jobs (good jobs that require high skills, offer mightily wages and provide bene? ts such as support for training and development) and peripheral sector jobs (dead end jobs that require few skills, offer poor wages and few bene? s, as well as little in the way of job security) (Kossen and Pedersen 2008, p. 5). Given such a bifurcation, the great risk is that older workers will be seen as only being employable in the peripheral sectors. This may well be particularly true for the range of options that are available for many older workers. Challenging the notion of meritocracy in the labour market, Kossen and Pedersen (2008, p. 6) cite research indicating that older workers who have been excluded from employment experience far greater dif? culty in rejoining the core orkforce. The point here is that older workers may have greater dif? culty securing worthwhile work when they re-enter the workforce. Indeed, the negative attitudes that older workers experience may well contribute to the widespread culture of early retirement in Australia (Encel 2003) in which workforce participation by those over 55 is considerably lower than in many other OECD countries (ABS 2007) as these workers fail to ? nd compressedingful employment, and withdraw from the labour market. A recr uiting agency (Adage, n. d. 1) concluded that mature age workers are more likely to experience the compounding effect of being out of the workforce resulting in being seen as less employable. Another agency inform that nearly three-quarters of 2000 baby boomers surveyed believed that it is nearly impossible to get a job after age 45 (Brinsden 2007). The studies cited to a higher place, along with a range of other research ? ndings (see OECD 2006a, 2006b Syed 2006 Kossen and Pedersen 2008) con? rm that age prejudice is alive and well in Australian workplaces, and likely play out most heavily on those who are currently out of employment.Consequently, a priority for policy is to ? nd ways of supporting unemployed older workers re-employment, and in worthwhile work, and ? nding ways of praising their worth that can transform the attitudes of their employers. Yet, others suggest that factors other than age alone play key roles in decision-making, particularly that such decisions are b ased on a business case, not on ageism. In an Equal Opportunity Commission seminar, Ranzijn (2005, p. 1) argued that in general, age discrimination is not a function of a negative attitude towards older workers, but based on an unquestioning cost/bene? analysis. The OECD (2006a, 2006b, p. 10) also noted that a dif? culty for employers with older workers is wages and non-wage labour costs that rise more steeply with age than productivity and also that there are shorter expected pay-back periods on investments in the training of older workers as well as their lower average educational attainment. Perhaps, because of such imperatives, Encel (2003, p. 4) warned that age discrimination is commonly covert and evasive and easily masked. Similarly, Bittman et al. (2001, p. 6) reported to an Australian nursing home of Representatives inquiry into older workers unemployment that the latter were consistently advised that they were over quali? ed for lower positions and under quali? ed for hig her positions. Whatever the reasons advanced by employers for not retaining or employing mature age workers, Ranzijn (2005, p. 8) pointed out that the ever-changing demographics of the workforce will inevitably mean that employers will have to resort to older workers in nightspot to maintain productivity, a point also made by the OECD (2006b) based on a multi-nation survey.However, such a pragmatic and expedient premise may not be the best one to hold with. Despite becoming increasingly infixed for the production of goods and services, older workers will continue to be seen as last resort workers at the bottom of employers preferred kind of workers (Quintrell 2000). Employees categorised in this way will often be a low priority for employer-sponsored development opportunities and support in the 1254 S. Billett et al. workplace (Billett and Smith 2003) of the kinds required to retain them and further develop their capacities.Hence, even if the government supports the re-employment of older workers, it is likely that within the workplaces the opportunities are still likely to be shaped by a cultural preference where youth is championed and privileged, and where age is seen as a natural decline (Giddens 1997). Therefore, older workers cannot be con? dent of being afforded the kinds of employer support required to maintain their workplace competence and successfully do work transitions.Moreover, given the privileging of youth, it is unlikely that older workers will make demands for employer-funded training, lest they reinforce the sentiment of being a liability. Analogously, Church (2004) refers to disabled workers who have particular needs for support, yet are strategic and cautious in their demands for workplace support, including that from their co-workers, lest they be seen as liabilities in cost-conscious work environments. Nevertheless, the widely held view among employers that older workers are less able and in? xible, and offer peculiar(a) return on d evelopmental opportunities is questioned by data arising from informants with direct experience of these workers. McIntosh (2001), for instance, notes that enterprises actually employing older workers take to be their contributions in quite distinct ways survey responses of nearly 400 American employers and human resource development managers characterised older workers as (a) being ? exible and open to change, (b) having up-to-date skills, (c) interested in learning new tasks and (d) willing to take on challenging tasks.Furthermore, 68% of the respondents concluded that training older workers costs less or the same as training their younger counterparts 57% reported that age does not affect the amount of time required to train an employee (14% disagreed) and 49% believed that older workers grasp new concepts as well as younger workers (18% disagreed). In all, this survey portrays older workers as ideal employees, which confounds the sentiment behind practices that distribute emplo yer-funded support away from these workers.The exercise of this sentiment may also re? ect the contradictory and misidentify discourse that many older workers experience and try to understand in the workplace they are essential to maintain the production of goods and services, yet discriminated against in terms of the opportunities afforded them. Despite the suggestion in the survey reported by McIntosh (2001), few studies effectively describe the reaction and role of older workers to the changing nature of work processes. Indeed, McNair, Flynn, Owen, Humphreys and Wood? ld (2004) claim their surveys indicate that most workers reported not being given assistance to negotiate new work roles and new work as their work life transforms. Hence, this reinforces not only the lack of support, but also the need for and apparent success of these workers being able to independently develop their capacities. Consequently, policies and practices by government, industry bodies and industry secto r interests may have to interweave both support for older workers re-employment or continuing employment, with processes that also attempt to transform the views and perspectives of employers.Yet, sitting in here also is the need to develop and support these workers capacities to be agentic learners, i. e. in line with their own interests and intentions (Billett and vanWoerkom 2006). Direct subsidies may well indeed reinforce the perspective that positions older workers as being de? cient and worthy of societally incurred subsidies, and places employers as being only able to employ and promote the interests of these workers when such subsidies are available. It would then seem that policies and practices are needed to both engage employers with older workers and promote their worth to employers in a way which incrementally in? ences their decision-making. It is these kinds of engagement and development that will be required to both overcome and transform well-entrenched preferences. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 1255All of the above points to the importance of identifying what has to be through to effectively retain older workers and develop their employability. Added here is the prospect that the fewer available younger workers will be in high demand and, as such, are unlikely to select low-status occupations such as aged care.Hence, and as noted, a key consideration for approaches to improving policy and practice for older workers is shifting employer attitudes towards a more positive accounting of the capabilities and potentialities of these workers. polity reform is needed to respond to engage and inform to secure such a shift. Therefore, it is helpful to identify what has been done to sire about such changes, policy wise. References Adage (n. d), Why Adage Targets Mature Professionals, www. adage. com. au Ainsworth, S. (2001), The Discursive braid of the aged(a) body of worker Identity A Re? ction on Process and Methods, Tama ra The Journal of Critical postmodern Science, 1, 4, 2946. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004), Paid Work Mature Age actors, Australian Social Trends, series, schedule no. 4102. 0, June 15, poopberra, ABS. 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(2001), An bill of International Differences in Education and Workplace Training, European Economic Review, 45, 2, 307322. Business Council of Australia (2003), Age Can Work A Business sentinel for Supporting honest-to-god Workers, Melbourne BCA.Cavanagh, J. (2008), Women Auxiliary Workers Learning and Discovering Self Through Work, in Emerging Perspectives of Learning Through Work, eds. S. Billett, C. Harties and A. Etela? pelto, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sense Publishing, BV, pp. 6782. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 1259Church, K. (2004), Dancing Lessons A Choreography of Disability in Corporate Culture, Paper presented at the WALL yearbook Meeting, Toronto. Colebatch, T. (2009), Retirement by 70 a Fading Hope for Many, The Age, 25 February, online.Deare, S. 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Queensland Government (2008), Experience Pays Pack, Brisbane Department of Employment and Industrial Relations. 260 S. Billett et al. Quintrell, M. (2000), Older and Wiser or Just at the End of the Line? Westminster Studies in Education, 23, 1931. Ranzijn, R. (2005), Discriminat ion Against the Older Worker Psychology and Economics, Paper presented at seminar, Of Working Age, May, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney. Rolland, L. (2007), Ageing and Work in 2030 In or Out of Our Hands? Paper prepared for forum, Ageing 2030 Creating the future, Sydney, NSW Government. Rosen, B. , and Jerdee, T. H. 1988), Managing Older Workers Careers,Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 6, 3774. Smith, A. , and Billett, S. (2003), Enhancing Employers Expenditure on Training, Adelaide National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Steinberg, M. , Donald, K. , Najman, J. , and Skerman, H. (1996), Attitudes of Employees and Employers Towards Older Workers in a Climate of Anti-Discrimination,Australian Journal on Ageing, 15, 4, 154158. Syed, J. (2006), Older Workers in Australia A Policy Perspective, Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 1, 11, 2143.Taylor, P. , and Walker, A. (1998), Employers and Older Workers Attitudes and Employment P ractices, Ageing and society, 18, 641658. The Treasury (2010), Australia to 2050 Future Challenges, (Intergenerational Report), Canberra, Australian Government. Tikkanen, T. (1997, May), Consequences of Unemployment on Professional Competency, Paper presented at the Nordic Conference on Adult Education, Trondheim, Norway. Tikkanen, T. , Lahn, L. , Ward, P. , and Lyng, K. (2002), Working Life Changes and Training of Older Workers, Trondheim Vox. an Dijk, T. A. (2008), Discourse and Power, New York Palgrave Macmillan. capital of Seychellesn Government (2005), The Ageing Workforce, The State of Working Victoria Project, Information Paper No. 4, Melbourne. Weller, S. (2007), Discrimination, Labour Markets and the Labour Market Prospects of Older Workers What Can a levelheaded Case Teach Us? Work, Employment and Society, 21, 417437. Wooden, M. , VandenHeuvel, A. , and Cully, M. (2001), Barriers to Training for Older Workers and Possible Policy Solutions, Adelaide DETYA/NILS, Flinders U niversityThe International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 22, No. 6, March 2011, 12481261 Employees. Theyre the one thing that businesses everywhere have a need for. And not just employees, but employees who are honest, responsible, dependable, loyal, focused, organized and mature. Is this too much to ask? U. S. employers spends millions of man hours each year placing ads, prescreening and interviewing candidates, and hiring and training workers, only to divulge that many of the employees they hire work for them for just a ew months only to decide they dont want to just be a clerk anymore or looking at something betters come along as they work their way up the corporate ladder. So where can businesses find a dependable, steady workforce that has no plans to move up and out? A workforce commit to the job at hand and that takes pride in its work? Who will cost them less to hire, train and maintain? The answer? Older workers. Below are twelve reasons why hiring older wor kers can help you maintain a reliable, dedicated workforce and provide a significant cost savings for both the short and long term. . Dedicatedworkers produce higher quality work, which can result in a significant cost savings for you. Stories abound of highly committed older workers finding others potentially dear(p) mistakes regarding everything from misspelling of client names to pricing errors and accounting mistakes. 2. Punctualityseems to be a given for older workers. Most of them look forward to going to work each day, so theyre likely to arrive on time and be ready to work. 3. Honestyis common among older workers, whose values as a group include personal integrity and a devotion to the truth. 4.Detail-oriented, focused and attentiveworkers add an intangible value that rubs off on all employees and can save your business thousands of dollars. One business owner I know once told me that one of his older workers saved his company more than $50,000 on one tumescent mailing job . The 75-year-old clerical worker recognized that all the ZIP codes were off by one digit. uncomplete the owners mailing house nor his degreed and highly paid marketing manager had noticed it. 5. Good listenersmake great employees because theyre easier to trainolder employees only have to be told once what to do. 6.Pride in a job well donehas become an increasingly rare commodity among younger employees. Younger workers want to put in their time at work and leave, while older employees are more willingly to stay later to get a job done because of their sense of pride in the final product. 7. Organizational skillsamong older workers mean employers who hire them are less likely to be a part of this startling statistic More than a million man hours are lost each year simply due to workplace disorganization. 8. strength and the confidenceto share their recommendations and ideas make older workers ideal employees.Their years of experience in the workplace give them a superior understan ding of how jobs can be done more efficiently, which saves companies money. Their confidence, built up through the years, means they wont hesitate to share their ideas with management. 9. Maturitycomes from years of life and work experience and makes for workers who get less rattled when problems occur. 10. Setting an examplefor other employees is an intangible value many business owners appreciate. Older workers make excellent mentors and role models, which makes training other employees less difficult. 11.Communication skillsknowing when and how to communicateevolve through years of experience. Older workers understand workplace politics and know how to diplomatically convey their ideas to the boss. 12. Reduced labor costsare a huge benefit when hiring older workers. Most already have insurance plans from prior employers or have an additional source of income and are willing to take a little less to get the job they want. They understand that working for a company can be about muc h more than just collecting a paycheck. Any business owner whos hesitant to hire an older worker should consider these twelve benefits.Older workers unique skills and valuesand the potential savings to your company in time and moneymake hiring them a simple matter of rethinking the costs of high turnover in a more youthful workforce vs. the benefits of experience and mature standards older workers bring to the mix. You simply do not have the time or resources to deal with high employee turnover. The next time you need to make a hiring decision, you should seriously consider older workers Their contribution to your company could positively impact your bottom line for years to come.Stephen Bastien isa business consultant and an honorable on leadership and managing employees. Hes the author ofYes, One Person Can Make a Differenceand natural to Be. Having started several successful businesses, his current venture, Bastien Financial Publications, provides businesses with the latest deve lopments on fast-growing and distressed companies nationwide through his daily newsletters. Visit his sitefor more information on his financial publications, books or consulting services. Read morehttp//www. entrepreneur. com/article/167500ixzz2QXXcMEQO