Human resources executive Brandon Melton doesn’t want to know his employees’ ages, or their health issues, either. It’s his way of protecting himself and his company.
“The less I know about someone’s health and the less I know about their age, the better off we are,” said Melton, Lifespan’s senior vice president of human resources. “I can’t discriminate if I don’t know an employee’s age. The less I know about things that are not relevant, the better off we are.”
Melton’s age-blind approach isn’t typical of how some employers across America are dealing with their aging work force, says The Conference Board, a nonprofit global business organization.
Many are fearful of violating discrimination laws so they leave older workers to their own devices. And while the legal concerns are legitimate, they may be preventing employers from doing valuable things to help their older workers thrive on the job.
Aiming to help managers better deal with so-called “mature” employees, The Conference Board recently issued a new guide, “Putting Experience to Work – A Guide to Navigating Legal and Management Issues Relating to a Mature Workforce.”
The 100-page document offers fictional workplace scenarios involving older workers and advice on handling those situations within the law. Diane Piktialis, mature work force program leader for the Conference Board, said judging by the feedback, the guide has resonated with executives.
Piktialis said she has heard from some companies that they are leery of even asking older workers about their future career goals for fear that the inquiries will be perceived as discriminatory. “We’ve heard, ‘Our managers are afraid to have these conversations; we’re not sure how to have them and stay within the bounds of the law,’ ” she said.
But Piktialis said the topic can be broached, if handled with sensitivity. “It doesn’t mean you can’t ask people what their plans are in the context of, are you interested in taking on more responsibility? Are you interested in a different type of job?”
The guide, written by labor consultants Deborah Weinstein and David Micah, addresses delicate topics such as how to assess a mature worker’s performance and how to discuss a worker’s employment goals for the future. It also offers advice on how to keep seasoned workers who are eligible for retirement from calling it quits.
“Often what happens with older workers is they get to a point in their career and, for a variety of reasons, some of them aren’t as actively managed as they have been in the past – they’re retired in place,” Piktialis said. “And one of the reasons for that is a concern and a fear about age discrimination and other kinds of things. But many times those fears are really unfounded.”
“Actively managing mature workers is new,” Piktialis added. “Before [some companies] tried to get rid of them before they got old.”
Shifting demographics have changed that mentality.
According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, the number of workers in Rhode Island between the ages of 55 to 64 is expected to grow 31.4 percent by 2015, from 111,700 to 146,751. At the same time, the 65-and-older segment is expected to increase by 16.1 percent, from 150,891 to 175,242.
The forecasts indicate that the number of people in each of those categories will outnumber the number of workers ages 35 to 44. That segment is projected to decline by 12.7 percent, from 161,287 to 140,872 between by 2015.
When companies see that many of their employees are reaching retirement age, “they go into panic mode,” said Piktialis. “What they see is that talent, experience and knowledge might be walking out the door. And there aren’t as many younger people coming up the pipeline.”
Dealing with an aging work force isn’t a problem at Taylor Box Co. in Warren, according to Pat Liddell, the manufacturing company’s controller.
Although many of the Taylor’s 50 employees have been working there for more than a decade, managers have had few complaints about their performance. “As for the older workers, their work ethic has been outstanding,” Liddell said.
That’s not to say the company doesn’t have issues with its aging work force: Many are approaching retirement age. “We’re very worried about losing them because they’ll be difficult to replace,” Liddell said.
The company offers some flexibility in scheduling and financial incentives, but Liddell said it’s the workplace atmosphere that has helped Taylor retain its knowledgeable workers. “They’re part of a family,” she said.
At Electric Boat, company spokesman Robert Hamilton said the company has not experienced older employees “retiring in place,” even though its 2,000 workers at Quonset Point and 7,600 workers in Groton, Conn., have been there for an average of 20 years.
“If someone is a master shipbuilder, we’d like to keep them around for as long as possible,” Hamilton said. “And we put that experience to work.”
To that end, the submarine builder instituted a mentoring program several years ago. “The experienced shipbuilders were energized by it,” Hamilton said. “There’s really nobody better to teach shipbuilding.”
Melton, Lifespan’s HR chief, is expecting the aging of the work force to hit the health care system hard. There’s already a shortage of nurses, and it’s only going to get worse, he said.
To retain older nurses – the average age of Lifespan’s employees is 47 – the company offers flexible scheduling, including job sharing. In fact, 60 percent of the employees work on a part-time basis. “If we can accommodate their lives, a lot of them have been willing to stay,” Melton said. “We can’t afford to lose too many people.”
Despite the staffing shortages, Melton said he has never shied away from addressing a worker’s poor performance, regardless of age. “We have workers here at Lifespan well into their 70s, and we hold them accountable for doing a good job,” he said. “It’s really only about doing a good job, and if you’re doing that, then we want you to stay here forever.”
Piktialis said more managers should have that type of outlook.
“It’s really more about taking what’s fast becoming the largest segment of the work force and really maximizing that human capital asset instead of leaving it fallow in the field,” Piktialis said.
