Older vs Younger Employees – Old
Until very recently, a younger, less experienced individual, able to work for less pay, often not married or without a family, therefore, benefit cost, particularly medical coverage, was far less than for an older more experienced worker, had a distinct advantage over his more senior counterpart in employment opportunities. However, about three years ago, maybe four, that all changed. It changed for a variety of reasons and today the older, more expensive but also more experienced worker has the advantage over his younger equivalent. In fact many corporations today are aggressively rehiring former employees, the very same individuals who only a short few years earlier had been encouraged to take advantage of their early retirement offering. Retirement programs that existed for the sheer purpose of getting rid of the older worker while hiring younger workers for the explicit purpose of saving the company money or so they thought.
Corporate American and many businesses today are over populated and too heavily influenced by Harvard –Wharton –Stanford MBA’s, who by the way are usually very bright, well educated individuals, particularly in finance and financial analysis but therein lies their Achilles Heel. These individuals have been persistently guilty of being a penny wise and a pound foolish and the current scramble to rehire former employees is just one example of their narrow thinking and short-sightedness. Too often their focus is one dimensional, only upon the actual numbers that appear on the bottom line of a balance sheet or a profit and loss statement with little understanding or appreciation for how or what was required to produce those numbers. The numbers tell everything or so they believed.
Immediately following these cost cutting measures, which did result in reduced operating costs initially, after all you really don’t have to be a Harvard MBA to calculate the organizational costs of an older worker who had been on the job for a number of years, during which time their hourly rate - salary and accumulated benefit costs were significantly more than a entry level or younger worker. That’s just simple mathematics. However, only a few years after they made these changes to their work force did they notice, because it began to show up in their numbers, that their employee turnover rate had increased significantly and the down time resulting from turn over coupled with the costs associated with training new, even less expensive, employees was actuallyvery expensive. Younger employees, it seems, were less inclined to stay put ifsomething better came along. Their younger workers didn’t seem as dedicated nor as detail oriented as they had hoped and they didn’t seem to take the pride in their work that once existed. The corporate culture was changing and it was being reflected in their balance sheet and profit and loss statements.
Older workers, it seems, are just that older, more mature, settled, possessing judgment that can only be acquired through time and experience. Their metal tested. They are loyal, reliable, and adaptable with a history of meeting deadlines. They can mentor and lead. In short they offer an employer a bigger bang for their dollar as they possess all those intangible that are so vital to a successful and profitable enterprise. Intangibles that are certainly reflected in those numbers on the bottom line, that is if your experienced enough to interpret those numbers.
