Recruiting and Employing Older Workers: Benefits and Challenges Report

This report examines the implications of employing older workers in contemporary organizations. It delves into the benefits, such as dedication, punctuality, focus, and strong communication skills, while also addressing challenges like increased wages, potential physical and mental decline, intergenerational tensions, and discomfort with new technologies. The report highlights strategies for recruitment and retention, including flexible work arrangements and phased retirement options. It also provides recommendations for mitigating challenges and maximizing the contributions of older employees. The analysis draws on case studies and academic research to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

EMPLOYING OLDER WORKERS IN
CONTEMPORARY ORGANISATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Benefits and strategies for recruiting the old workers.................................................................1
Challenges and strategies for recruiting older workers................................................................3
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Hiring the old workers in the contemporary organization it has lot of advantages for the
firm as the employee have good leadership skill, stronger communication as compare to the
young colleague and as experience they know what they want and remain loyal for the company
(Taylor and et.al., 2016). This report highlights the old employee benefits and challenges by
hiring them in the organization. Also reveal the strategies use by the company to recruit the old
employees. In this regard the present report has been prepared.
MAIN BODY
Theories and practices are important for the effective HRM as the theories of
management which are relies on mathematical and observation probability to make management
practices and perfect business model, which can draw upon the case studies & the genuine
experience which can drive for improvement (Angeloni and Borgonovi, 2016). Also, both
practices and theories are required to combined to achieve the great leadership and management
skill and also one of the large essential area where get the right balance of this element in the
Human resources.
While recruiting the old employees in the Contemporary organisation. Firm has to face
lot of issues such as the old employees are lack in talent as compare to the other new talented
candidates and are not able to balance the speed and have low in work efficiency. Old employees
are not having the ability to handle the using data or information effectively. To enhance the
performance of the employee Contemporary company uses various strategies to raise the
performance level such as set clear expectation of the company and make them clear. Make the
employee understand the objective through asking them with their own words (Bal and Jansen,
2015). Also, hiring the train manager which help the employees and lookout the employees that
are underperforming and find what root cause and trained them.
Case Study
Benefits and strategies for recruiting the old workers
Benefits of hiring the older worker in the Contemporary organization, there are several benefits
are their, that are.
Dedicated– Old workers are more dedicated towards the work and produce higher
quality in their work which help the British gas company for higher cost saving. Also, the
employee are highly committed in finding the other potentially for costly mistake regarding the
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misspelling of the client names and price and accounts mistakes can be reduced that can be
beneficial for the ASDA company (Hennekam, 2015). Additional to it because of dedicate in
nature it helps the company for increase in the productivity and profitability of the firm and make
the good repo of the organisation in the business market.
Punctuality- Old employee are seems to be more time punctuality as compare to the
current employees as they look for the future and are likely to arrive on time and always be ready
for the work. Punctuality creates a major impact on the British Gas and the ASDA company as
punctuality can create good work culture in the organisation which result in the higher
profitability of firm and also motivate the other employee to come on time.
Focused and attentive- These employees are more focused and attentive towards their
work, and they considered the organisation task or objective as their individual objective and try
to achieve the objective and become more attentive and focus on their work as compare to the
current employees ( Hennekam, 2016). Such focused old employee can reduce the mistake in the
British Gas company and reduce the cost and wider the diversity. Also, It is beneficial in the
ASDA company for more flexible in working and help to reduce the labour turnover because of
employee focus work.
Communication Skills- Older employees are good in communication skill as they are
experienced one, so they know well, that how and when communicate to the others and
understand the work environment and politics & how to convey message to the boss. Such
communication skill of the employee is more beneficial for the British gas and the ASDA
company for making good workplace and better understanding of the things (Juriševič, Brčić and
Mihelič, 2015). This can make the good environment in the organization and make the employee
more comfortable to understand the things at workplace.
Strategies used for recruiting old workers in the Contemporary organization.
Flexible Arrangement of work- These strategies are mainly used by the British Gas for
the older employees who are no longer want to work in traditional and full time schedule because
of many other region such as family care physical problems or energy due to age. Some old
employees work with an a enough saving and maintain enough living standards through lower
earning. Like providing the various flexible working which can be beneficial for the organisation
and also the employee can so it such as flex time that help the older employees to control on time
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and job sharing where the employee share the job with the other partner and part time shifts, as it
is good opportunity for older employees to seek challenges. Snow bird program can be use by
the ASDA company where the employees shuttle between the two location seasonally (Oostrom,
Pennings and Bal, 2016). Such flexible arrangement are viable for large ASDA organisation.
Phased Retirement options- This strategies are can use by both the British Gas and
ASDA company. As it allows the Deferred retirement option plan (DROP) to employees to work
beyond the retirement age without an forfeiting the pension benefits. Where the workers reaches
the age of retirement, workers deposit in DROP account and the pension benefit that have paid if
the employee retired.
Challenges and strategies for recruiting older workers.
Various challenges are to be face by the Contemporary organisation by hiring the older employee
in the firm and face many difficulties. Such challenges are.
Increased wages- As if the British Gas company hire the older employees in their
organisation than the company has to pay high wages to the older employees as they are older
and experience. So they can demand more wages as compare to the current employee
(Ravichandran and et.al., 2015). It create difficulties for the company to pay higher for the
experience employee and if they hire the current employees than they have to give training to the
new employee which is also costly and time wasting.
Mental and physical decline- Due to old age of the employees they may have more
physical issues, and they can't able to work with their full efficiency and because of which delay
in the work, which create problem for the ASDA organization. As they have to face the lose of
work due to delay in work. Many a time due to health decline due to blood pressure etc. they
can't able to work and take leave for more than two days which also affect the work of the
organization.
Tension between the older and younger workers- By hiring the older employees in the
organization it creates more problem to the company as it create the conflict between the young
and old employee (Schermerhorn and et.al., 2019). As the current employees not listen the old
experience employee because of which the older employee became more tense due to disrespect
by the younger employee and make the older employee tension and Challenges and strategies for
recruiting older workers.Vise versa. When the younger employee say to old experience person
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than the older employee can not listen as they think as experienced and senior so why they want
to listen to the young employee, this creates the tension to the young employee. Because of
which they are difficult to cooperate with each other. Which create major challenges for the both
ASDA and British Gas organization.
Discomfort- As the company using the new technologies it creates problem to the old
employees to accept the new technology and their performance may decline because of the new
concept. Which create a major challenges for the organization, and they are done their work
without using the technologies which decline further process of the British Gas company. Old
employees feel discomfort while working with new technology and they feel that are now not
capable for the company and the confidence decline (Taylor and et.al., 2016). Which result many
times they take voluntary retirement because of such new technologies, which is one the issues
for the lose of experience and older employee from the company.
Reluctance to train the older workers- By hiring the old workers to the company it
faces the challenges. Because the ASDA company feel reluctance to train the old workers as the
company don't want to waste their time to train the old workers. As the older employees it is
difficult for the organization to train as they are the experience and the senior one, and they will
not accept the thinks fast as the current employee. It is one of the challenge for the company to
train the old employee as they not accept the new things such as new technology or trends.
Which nay slow down the process of the company (Urbancová and Hudáková, 2015). If the
company want to compete in the current market than it have to adopt the new trends and
technology to sustain in the business market.
Recommendation
Company by hiring the old employee it is very essential for the firm, as the older
employee are more in experience as compare to the current employees, and they not require the
training further. Which can help the organization to increase the work efficiency and reduce the
mistakes such as simple spelling mistake, account mistake etc. British Gas organization should
use older worker for better work performance for the appropriate time period but when the
organization feel that now the age become higher on the employee due to which employee
performance getting decline. In such case the company should hire the other employee at the
place of existing employee. If the company not change the old employee than the ASDA
organization may get lose because of decline in old employee performance, which is not
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beneficial for the company. On the Basis of the old employee the company cannot get success It
also hires the young employee because current employees are more active and energetic, have
capability to accept the new trends. So if the organization want to sustain in the market and want
to achieve the goal than they have to use both old employees and the current employees.
Company should reduce the challenges by providing the various alternative, as the company
facing the challenges because of the demanding of high wages by the older employees where the
company should do recommendation and make them suitable wage which is beneficial for the
company and the old employee and make the employee happy. Also the organisation should
reduce the physical and mental decline by providing the well health safety and provide low work
pressure on the old employee, so that they not get tension and create flexible working so that
they not feel burden and the employment tension free.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that practices & theories are very essential for the
HRM by combination of both to achieve the management skill and leadership and create balance
in the human resources. Also, concluded that by hiring the old employee company has to face
many benefits and issues such as mental and physical decline, discomfort. Benefits are
punctualities in work, focus and attentive towards the work and have good communication skill
because of experience one the old employee know the when and whom to convey. Which make
the good environment at the workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Angeloni, S. and Borgonovi, E., 2016. An ageing world and the challenges for a model of
sustainable social change. Journal of Management Development. 35(4). pp.464-485.
Bal, P.M. and Jansen, P.G., 2015. Idiosyncratic deals for older workers: Increased heterogeneity
among older workers enhance the need for I-deals. In Aging workers and the employee-
employer relationship (pp. 129-144). Springer, Cham.
Hennekam, S., 2015. Career success of older workers: the influence of social skills and
continuous learning ability. Journal of Management Development. 34(9). pp.1113-1133.
Hennekam, S., 2016. Competencies of older workers and its influence on career success and job
satisfaction. Employee Relations. 38(2). pp.130-146.
Juriševič Brčić, Ž. and Mihelič, K.K., 2015. Knowledge sharing between different generations of
employees: an example from Slovenia. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja. 28(1).
pp.853-867.
Oostrom, J.K., Pennings, M. and Bal, P.M., 2016. How do idiosyncratic deals contribute to the
employability of older workers?. Career Development International. 21(2). pp.176-192.
Ravichandran and et.al., 2015. Exploring the training needs of older workers in the foodservice
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 44, pp.157-164.
Schermerhorn and et.al., 2019. Management. John Wiley & Sons.
Taylor and et.al., 2016. The older worker: Identifying a critical research agenda. Social Policy
and Society. 15(4). pp.675-689.
Urbancová, H. and Hudáková, M., 2015. Employee development in small and medium
enterprises in the light of demographic evolution. Acta universitatis agriculturae et
silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis. 63(3). pp.1043-1050.
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