Move to target older workers

Tuesday March 18, 2008 |

Recruitment firm TMS Asia Pacific has called on the industry to re-think its hiring strategies and target the over 50s to help solve staff shortages.

General Manager Ainslie Hunt said research shows that the number of Australian workers aged over 55 will increase by 14 per cent in four years. Yet there still remains a negative attitude towards older workers, she said.

“Overall the travel and hospitality industry still leans heavily towards recruiting younger staff,” Hunt said. People often think that older workers can’t operate basic office machinery such as computers and are slow on the uptake when it comes to learning new systems which is complete nonsense.”

She said older staff bring more experience to a role and are “always ready to learn.” While some companies are slowly realising the benefits of hiring over 50s, a “huge effort” continues to be channelled into recruiting heneration Y workers.

“It is time for organisations to become more flexible and look beyond candidates starting out in their career as the only source of potential talent,” Hunt said.

By Steve Jones

Move to target older workers

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