BY KENNETH RICHARD SCOTT,
GENERAL MANAGER
CHOICE HOTELS, INDORE
INDORE, 27 MARCH 2023:
What would your response be if I were to ask you about “the” watershed year in your
professional life today? Well, the answer would be to be on the other side of 45 years of
age…..and now that I have crossed this divide / watershed line myself , I have been thinking and
looking up some data, implications and what interventions we could take today that will tackle
and overcome this problem. The age group of 45 plus have good education and greater
expertise however, this group is underrated; there is a struggle to find new employment.
Data suggests that 63% of mid career employees who are 45 years and above have been
unemployed for a year or more as compared to 36% of the employees between the 18- 34
years age bracket.
The fact of the matter is that employers look at the capabilities of these mid career workers
very differently than the workers themselves.
What would be the impact of this issue on global economy in the future? Well, this issue would
be more pronounced by 2050 when 4 out of 10 employees would be 50 plus, the most
educated yet without a job. It would be tragic if industry is not able to take advantage of the
expertise on offer.
On the other hand, what hiring managers say about these mid career employees? Hiring
managers perceive that only 15-18% candidates of such candidates can be an actual fit; yet,
when this group actually does get a job, performance wise, 87% of these were working as well
as the younger peers and the retention potential was 90% if not more if they were compared to
the younger peers.
That this bias is across all industries and it is a tragedy of today.
Mid career employees do 2-3 times more job interviews just to get a job offer and then having
to compromise significantly in their pay checks.
So, what are the interventions that industry and employers can take to ensure a better
represented workforce?
- Industry first needs to understand the performance of different demographics of the
work place and the hiring manager needs to keep in mind.
- Ensure that the 45 years plus candidates are not screened out of the reckoning
- Make interviews demonstration based rather than the traditional sitting across the table
kind.
- Ensuring that trigger words like agile, fit in the culture, savvy for candidates are not used
and we need to find ways to test these.
- Make age inclusion as an important part of the Companies diversity policy as a strategy.
We need to embrace an intergenerational work place: Our youth and the mid careers need to
work successfully together as no employer would get the best of both worlds if these two
groups don’t get to work together.
At the moment, there is very little that policy makers, employers industry is doing currently.
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