How to Get the Most Productivity Out of Your Meetings

A report by Harvard Business Review showed that more than 70% of the senior managers surveyed said most meetings are inefficient and unproductive. Among the top reasons were they keep managers from finishing their work, take away time for deep thinking, and result in lost opportunities to unite the team.

A study conducted by Beenote showed that 80% of the employees surveyed had problems in at least one stage of the meeting lifecycle. A lack of minute-keeping, participant preparation, team communication, follow-up tasks, and finishing on time made most meetings unproductive.

As a result, reducing the amount of time spent in meetings can increase employee satisfaction and productivity. You can use these tips to get started.

 

Follow these guidelines to increase productivity during meetings.

Limit the Number of Participants

Keep your meetings between seven and nine participants. Smaller numbers promote greater participation than larger numbers.

Invite only the necessary employees to participate. Smaller groups can make faster decisions and accomplish more than larger groups.

Advance the Agenda  

Send participants an agenda well before the meeting. Include the meeting goal and anticipated outcomes.

Limit the number of discussion topics. This helps the meeting stay on schedule and finish on time.

Begin on Time

Start the meeting at the designated time. Avoid recapping the discussion for latecomers. Do not let them in 15 minutes past the start time.

Beginning on time enforces the habit of employees showing up on time. This helps keep the meeting on track and within the timeframe.

Designate Action Items

Write down specific follow-up tasks according to the decisions made during the meeting. Include which employee is responsible for each task and what the deadline is.

These action items help prepare employees for the next meeting. They can more effectively report on their progress and results.

Enforce Time Limits

Keep each meeting at one hour or less. End the meeting on time, even if items are left on the agenda.

Enforcing meeting time limits lets employees more effectively plan their work day. It also encourages meeting planners to include only the necessary discussion topics.

Send Follow-Up Information

Let employees know whether you will send additional details about the topics discussed during the meeting. This encourages employees to participate more in the discussion and take fewer notes.

Ensure you send the information so employees can review it. This reinforces the discussion topics from the meeting.

 

Need to Hire HR Professionals?

Limiting the number of participants, advancing the agenda, and starting on time increase the productivity of meetings. Designating action items, finishing on time, and sending follow-up information increase the likelihood of implementing the decisions made during the meeting.

If you need to add HR professionals to your team, involve Arlington Resources in your hiring process. Find out more today.

 

When Will the Talent Shortage End? Maybe Never, and Here’s Why!

In the first part of this two-part series, we share insights from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on why the economic and labor numbers are unfamiliar with the ongoing talent shortage.

Even though there are plenty of predictors for employment and unemployment, most hiring managers rely on the unemployment rate to determine if their company will struggle to acquire talent. Since the pandemic began, the traditional indicators that usually moved together aren’t. Have they gone haywire? Are magnetic fields affecting the numbers? The answers are no and no.

How to Interpret the Conflicting Numbers

Alex Domash and Lawrence H. Summers, both from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, have studied all the predictors and indicators and conclude, in their NBER working paper, that the “labor market tightness is likely to contribute significantly to inflationary [wage] pressure in the United States for some time to come.”

They note that, “Economists have typically turned to common slack measures, such as the unemployment rate or the job vacancy rate, to assess labor market tightness and predict nominal wage growth. Historically, measures of slack on the supply-side, like the unemployment rate and the prime-age (25-54) nonemployment rate[1], have moved in tandem with measures of slack on the demand-side, such as the job vacancy rate and the quits rate, meaning that different indicators gave broadly corroborative signals of labor market tightness. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the supply-side indicators and the demand-side indicators have diverged significantly. While the unemployment rate and prime-age nonemployment rate remain elevated at late-2017 levels and imply modest degrees of slack, the job vacancy rate and quits rate have surged to series highs[2] and imply a very tight labor market. The unemployment rate does not adequately capture all movements in the labor market that are significant for wage inflation.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggests looking at other indicators, like the prime-age employment- (25-54 years old) to-population ratio, to better understand the presumed lack of candidates every company is feeling. So, it’s not just a matter of how many people are employable, it’s a correlation between the population and those who want to work. More on this in a minute.

Does This Have Something to Do With Soaring Wages?

Quite simply, yes. Domash and Summers comment that, “A high vacancy rate signals a high demand for labor and puts upward pressure on wages as firms compete to attract workers. A high quit rate signals that workers are confident enough to leave their jobs to search for a better opportunity, and can put upward pressure on wages since job switchers drive up wages as they move up the job ladder.” Let’s see a show of hands from the hiring managers out there who can relate to this.

Domash and Summers note their research indicates that “estimated wage inflation in the fourth quarter of 2021 is the highest it’s been in the last 20 years.” They also “simulated wage growth in 2022 and 2023 under the assumption that the vacancy rate, the quits rate, and the inflation rate remain the same…nominal wage growth under these assumptions is projected to increase dramatically over the next two years, surpassing six percent wage inflation by 2023.”

Where are the Workers?

Understanding indicators and predictors is one thing, but we are all feeling the pain of finding workers. Here’s the reality. Domash and Summers outline six factors as to where the workers have gone, and chances are, they might never come back. Those factors are:

  • Shifts in demographic structures (population aging specifically) = 1.3 million workers;
  • Covid-19 health concerns = 1.5 million workers;
  • Immigration restrictions = 1.4 million workers;
  • Excess retirements = 1.3 million workers;
  • Reduced incentives to work = 1 million workers; and
  • Covid-19 vaccine mandates = 0.4 million workers.

At the same time, they “project demand-side indicators such as the vacancy to unemployment ratio to continue to be very high over the next year.”

Conclusion

Domash and Summers predict that “the majority of the employment shortfall will likely persist moving forward. Moreover, if employment were to increase due to an increase in labor force participation, it would be accompanied by increases in incomes, and therefore an increase in demand. We believe that labor markets will continue to be very tight unless there is a considerable slowdown in labor demands.” This all suggests that companies need to sharpen their talent acquisition strategies and stay on top of the numbers since the tight labor market is bound to continue for some time.

In the second part of this series, we’ll discuss the “demographic drought” associated with the labor force participation and how it may shrink the available labor pool going forward.

If you would like to receive a copy of Domash’s and Summer’s complete working paper, email us at info@caseyresources.com. Let us help you develop effective talent acquisition tactics.

 

[1] This is equivalent to one minus the prime-age employment-to-population ratio.

[2] As of December 2021, the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) reported a seasonally adjusted

job vacancy rate of 6.8% (a near-record high, and much higher than any vacancy rate before 2021) and a seasonally

adjusted quits rate of 2.9% (the second highest quits rate on record).

Interview Skills You Should Brush Up On to Succeed!

As companies move forward during The Great Resignation, they need to hire the right employees. This requires effective interview skills.

It takes a significant amount of time for a hiring manager and HR to discuss the job requirements, source and screen candidates, and conduct interviews. It also takes time to conduct background checks, finalize the candidate selections, and wait for candidates to accept offers and begin working.

As a result, hiring managers should participate in training now to refresh their interview skills. This helps build candidate pipelines for current and future hiring needs.

Discover some benefits of hiring managers brushing up on their interview skills and topics to discuss during training.

Advantages of Refreshing Interview Skills

Proving a refresher for hiring managers’ interview skills training lets them practice in a safe environment. Because these managers may not have conducted interviews for a significant time, a mini session would be advantageous.

Refresher training ensures hiring managers and HR are on the same page regarding interviewing. This increases success in hiring the best candidates.

Topics to Discuss When Refreshing Interview Skills

Intake meeting: Talk about the meeting between the hiring manager and HR to discuss the job requirements and sourcing strategy. For instance, emphasize the importance of the candidate experience throughout the hiring process. Also, discuss specific ways to show commitment to diversity and inclusion so candidates feel they are welcome and can be themselves at work.

Discussing the intake meeting ensures the hiring manager and HR are following the same policies and procedures for interviewing. This speeds up the hiring process, increasing the likelihood of hiring top candidates.

Interview questions: Emphasize the importance of asking effective, compliant behavioral interview questions. These questions provide insight into a candidate’s experience.

You may want to use the STAR method to create interview questions. This involves asking a candidate about a situation they encountered, the task they needed to accomplish, the action they took, and the results they attained.

Ensure the hiring manager asks follow-up questions to gather enough detail for a complete picture of the situation, task, action, and result. This helps provide the necessary information to make a hiring decision.

Candidate selection: Remind hiring managers to look past their unconscious biases when choosing the best candidate. This can be accomplished through an online training program that may be included in your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

Need Help with Hiring?

Refreshing hiring managers’ interview skills ensures managers and HR are on the same page throughout the hiring process. Sharing details about the intake meeting, interview questions, and the candidate selection process increases the likelihood of hiring the most qualified candidates.

For additional help with hiring, partner with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Get started today.

What Employers Can Do to Better Support Their Working Parents

Employers always are looking for ways to support their employees. This improves productivity, performance, and retention.

One key area of support is for working parents. Because most employees have families, they make up a significant part of the workforce.

Working parents often deal with issues that affect their professional performance. Examples include taking time off to care for a sick child and needing to finish work early to handle family responsibilities.

As a result, employers who provide accommodations for working parents are more attractive to employees and job seekers. Taking small steps can result in a substantial impact on your organization with little impact on the bottom line.

Choose among these methods to provide support for your working parents.

Talk About Working Parents’ Needs

Find out more about what your working parents want help with most. You may want to begin with a survey to understand their issues, concerns, and suggestions for help. Then, you can use this information to begin discussions between working parents and management about methods to increase support.

You may want to identify a specific issue that many working parents face. Then, you could encourage managers to speak with their employees for more details. The managers could meet with HR and leadership to share feedback and discuss implementation methods.

Create a Parents’ Network

Encourage working parents to share ideas, provide support, and organize family-friendly activities. This may include creating an email chain for parents to swap out gently used children’s clothing. Or, parents might provide tips to ease the stress of raising children while working full-time.

Having this network helps fill working parents’ wants and needs by connecting them with the right individuals at the right time. You may want to create a dedicated intranet page or Slack channel to encourage working parents to join the network.

Provide Flexibility

Offer employees a flexible schedule and options for how they work. Examples include working remotely, hybrid, flextime, part-time, or having a compressed workweek.

You may want to make accommodations for when working parents’ children start school or change their childcare routines. This reduces the stress of fitting in work around childcare. It also increases productivity and retention.

Looking for Additional Advice?

Working parents appreciate help supporting their personal and professional needs. Talking about and accommodating working parents’ needs, creating a working parents’ network, and providing flexibility are effective methods to provide this support. This increases employee engagement, productivity, and performance. It also increases employee attraction and retention.

For additional advice to better support your team’s working parents, reach out to the professionals at Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Contact us today.

 

Are the Economy and Inflation Hampering Recruiting?

We’ve all heard the news reports on how unusual the economy is right now. Interest rates are rising – great for our bank accounts, terrible for loans and mortgages. Wages are up. Unemployment is down. Consumers are feeling the pinch at the gas pumps and grocery stores. And while employees may be earning more money, it isn’t covering the increased costs of goods and services. While the Federal Reserve hasn’t declared a recession, everyone from the CEO to the receptionist certainly is wary that our country is headed in that direction. How can you keep your eye on the potential impact all this may have on finding and retaining employees in an already competitive talent war?

Lack of Engagement

There has been a strong recovery in the lost jobs since the pandemic started – faster than seen when jobs went away during previous recessions. Labor Economist Andrew Flowers commented, “In the previous recession that started in 2007, it took 76 months for job openings to return to the level at the start of the downturn. But in the recent COVID recession, it took only 12 months for job openings to recover to the February 2020 level, and by November 2021, openings had risen 50% above that.” However, Flowers notes that “there remain 5.6 million people who say they want a job but are not actively searching for one.” Even with the lure of more money and better job benefits, there are many potential job candidates out there who just aren’t interested. Have we hit a plateau in labor market participation? Perhaps. Are we in a transition? Maybe. Either way, we need strategies to recruit and retain the best.

Tips to Weather the Storm

With the labor market so tight, many companies have settled for the best available candidate versus the best candidate. Part of the challenge is the disconnect between what companies will pay and what candidates will accept. Currently, candidates are in a position of power.

Whether you are still struggling to fill positions or you’re in preparation mode for a recession, or both, there are some ways to improve recruitment strategies.

A recent article on SHRM’s website offered the following suggestion: review all open positions, why it exists, and what value does it bring to the company – drive business, contribute to employee engagement, or serve the customer. “Every role and position must have a purpose, a defined expectation for achievement of specific metrics, clarity in the purpose of the organization’s business strategy and how their position plays into that strategy. Just because you thought you needed a senior leadership role in the past does not mean you need that same position today,” commented Melanie French, managing principal at DLP Capital.

Review your job advertisements. In the old days, it was acceptable to simply list the skills requirements and other necessary credentials, and candidates would apply. Now, job seekers are looking for the WIIFM on job posts. Consider attracting candidates with a picture of what it looks like to them if they were offered that job. Companies are also waiving some of the education requirements if there are other assets and skills a candidate offers that bring value to the company.

Trent Cotton, Senior Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Retention at HatchWorks, offers these three strategies:

  • Identify top talent and show the love
  • Stop being cheap – you get what you pay for
  • Develop and nurture your pipeline

He also notes:

  • Workers are plentiful, but they have a higher price point than most companies are willing to pay.
  • Large employers are changing requirements, pay, and benefits to compete for the workforce.
  • We still have a huge number of long-term unemployed workers who are not entering the market.

Summary

The combination of economic conditions may be souring the mood of employers and employees, but it’s not all bad news, and there are opportunities in front of us.

A recession is bound to happen at some point, but we aren’t in one right now. Balancing your needs to fill positions right now with the odd economic conditions will be key. “Employers are probably keeping in mind that they went quickly from letting people go to hiring them, and they had a hard time rehiring people,” commented Nick Bunker, economic research director at Indeed.

How can we help? Casey Accounting and Finance Resources is here for all your sourcing and outsourcing needs. We can prepare recruiting strategies that offer the flexibility you require to manage the ups and downs of the labor market. Call us today!

Struggling to Get Applicants? Why You Need to Examine Your Hiring Process and How Long It Takes to Hear Back

Like many employers, you may be having difficulty filling your job openings. One of the reasons may be that you take too long to respond to candidates.

Regular follow-up throughout your hiring process is important. This may include letting candidates know you received their application, would like to schedule an interview or are considering offering them a job. It also involves what the next steps in the process are and when the candidate should expect to hear from you.

Discover why regular communication throughout your hiring process is an effective way to hire the best applicants.

Respect

Responding to each candidate shows you respect their time. Applying for a job takes a significant amount of research and decision-making. Expressing interest in working for your company says a great deal about your organization. Showing appreciation is important.

Realistically, you may be unable to personally respond to each candidate. As a result, you might want to automate your responses with your applicant tracking system (ATS). This helps provide a positive candidate experience.

Candidate Engagement

Top candidates have many employment options. Following up with them throughout your hiring process helps keep them engaged. This increases the odds that your best candidates will accept potential job offers from you.

Be sure to let each candidate know when they should expect to hear from you. Also, fulfill these expectations as much as possible. If you need to extend a timeframe, let each candidate know as soon as possible.

Candidate Experience

Effectively following up throughout your hiring process improves the candidate experience. This helps set your company apart from the competition. It also helps you hire more high-quality candidates.

Even if you’re not ready to provide a job offer, share with your most desirable candidates feedback on their interviews. This encourages them to want to work for your organization.

Talent Pipelines

The more you keep in contact with candidates, the more your talent pipelines remain filled. A candidate who has a positive experience with your company but isn’t offered a job may apply for a role in the future. They also might refer other candidates to your organization.

Employer Brand

Regular follow-up with each candidate enhances your employer brand. The more you communicate with candidates, the more positive your company’s reputation remains.

Many candidates post reviews on Glassdoor and other employer review sites. They’re likely to share positive reviews when you follow up on an ongoing basis. This encourages other candidates to apply to your organization.

Want Help Hiring?

If you’re not regularly following up with candidates, you may be having trouble filling your jobs. Ongoing communication with candidates promotes respect for their time, engagement in the hiring process, and a positive candidate experience. It also helps keep your talent pipeline full and your employer brand positive.

If you need help hiring, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can match you with qualified candidates to fill your business needs. Learn more today.

Are You Getting Noticed? How to Stand Out in Your Job Search

Landing a job interview requires more than just a top-notch cover letter and resume. Your skills, experience, and qualifications likely align with other in-demand candidates.

This is why you need to add something that makes you stand out to hiring managers. They want to see how your contributions and results differ from other candidates’ contributions and results. Showing the unique value, you can offer a company increases your odds of being contacted for an interview.

Implement these tips to help secure your next accounting and finance interview.

Include a Pain Point Letter with Your Resume

Rather than a cover letter, submit with your resume a letter discussing a company pain point you noticed. Include a challenge the organization is facing and how you would solve it if you were hired. This shows you understand the company and are able to add value to it. Hiring managers appreciate candidates who are proactive problem-solvers.

Share Your Professional Portfolio

Create an online portfolio of your professional qualifications and work examples to submit with your resume. This may include a copy of your resume, transcripts, reference letters, or copies of your licenses or certifications. You also may want to add financial statements, variance reports, or financial analyses you created. Make sure your work examples tie in with the highlighted items from previous job postings you applied to. Change the numbers to avoid sharing confidential information.

Consider using information specific to the company you’re interviewing with to create financial documents. For instance, if the business is publicly traded, analyze the online financial statements to create different financial ratios and analyses. Then, use the information to prepare recommendations for the company. This may include paying down debt, reducing inventory, or increasing collection efforts. This shows proactive investment in the company’s success.

Secure an Employee Referral

Find out whether you know an employee at the company you want to work for. If you do, talk with them about referring you to the hiring manager. Include how your skills, experience, and qualifications make you well-suited for the role. Provide your resume as well. You’re more likely to land an interview with a referral than without one.

Partner with a Recruiter

Listing your skills, experience, and qualifications in your cover letter and resume likely isn’t enough to land an interview. You need to show how you stand out from the other candidates and can provide unique value to the organization. Submitting a pain point letter with your resume, sharing your online portfolio, or securing an employee referral can help.

You also can partner with a recruiter from Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to increase your odds of landing an interview. Contact a recruiter or submit your resume today.

Are Cover Letters Outdated? Why Requiring a Cover Letter in Your Application Process May Deter Candidates from Applying

The majority of hiring managers have stopped requiring cover letters to be included with resumes. Most managers feel that cover letters have no impact on which applicants they decide to interview.

As a result, you may want to consider eliminating cover letters from your application process. Because this saves candidates time, they are more likely to apply for your roles.

Because they typically do not influence hiring decisions, you may want to stop including cover letters in your application process.

Automation in Hiring

The process of matching candidates with jobs is increasingly being done with technology. With the amount of online information available, applicant details are easily accessible. As a result, cover letters typically are not necessary.

You can learn about applicants through their social media profiles, online portfolios, websites, and blogs. This provides greater nuance and detail than a cover letter can.

Speed and Convenience

Online and mobile applications are becoming the new norm for job applications. This partly is because efficiency and effectiveness are required to attract top talent.

Requiring a cover letter may dissuade the best candidates to complete your application process. Most candidates will not spend more than 15 minutes on an application. Elimination of a cover letter can help resolve this issue.

Other Screening Methods

You may choose different methods to prescreen applicants. For instance, you might use assessment tools to validate the skills you are looking for. Or, you could request video submissions to get a feel for applicants’ personalities. This can help determine which applicants would be a good culture fit.

Make sure you use the right job titles and descriptions in your job postings. This can narrow down the list of applicants with the soft skills that otherwise may be listed in cover letters.

Tailor your job content to attract qualified applicants. These applicants have the experience, achievements, goals, and personality to excel in the role.

Get Help with Your Hiring Process

As cover letters continue to become outdated, you may want to reconsider whether should be included in your application process. The best talent does not want to spend a lot of time applying for a job. Also, most hiring managers aren’t considering content in cover letters when deciding which applicants to interview. As a result, it may be in everyone’s best interest not to require the submission of cover letters with resumes.

For help with hiring accounting and finance professionals, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Reach out today.

How a Strong Company Culture Can Lead to Better Retention

Your company’s culture is one of its biggest assets. It shows what your organization stands for and serves as a guide for employee interactions.

Having a well-developed culture can encourage the best talent to work for you. Once these employees become part of your organization, they are likely to remain for an extended time.

The longer your employees remain, the higher your retention rates. This lowers the amount of time and money spent on hiring, which improves your bottom line.

Find out how you can develop a strong company culture to improve your employee retention rates.

Business Guidance  

Displaying a strong mission, vision, and values provides employees with a sense of guidance and security. It shows what you stand for as a company. This helps attract employees who align with your culture.

Employees with values in line with your company’s values tend to make better business decisions. This typically aligns with your company’s vision and business strategy.

Be sure to advertise your culture and exhibit it in everything your organization does. For instance, regularly talk about your company’s vision and strategy. Include what these topics mean for different teams. Helping your employees better understand the company can improve engagement, motivation, and retention.

Include your company values when evaluating employee performance. This can improve engagement.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Offering remote or hybrid work and a flexible schedule helps your employees manage work-life balance. Letting them handle their personal needs during the workday helps lower stress. This reduces the odds of experiencing burnout.

Your employees may desire additional paid time off (PTO), stipends for child care, or paid parental or personal leave. Providing these accommodations shows you care about your employees’ well-being.

Talk with your employees about individual accommodations they may need to fit their personal circumstances. Increased flexibility typically leads to increased retention.

Performance Recognition

Regularly thanking your employees for their efforts and results helps them feel appreciated. This tends to elevate engagement, productivity, and retention.

Performance recognition should take a variety of forms. This may include a hand-written thank-you note, verbal praise during an individual or team meeting, or a mention on the company intranet.

Regularly point out your employees’ contributions to benefit the organization. Include each employee’s specific actions, their results, and how they impacted the business. Provide bonuses, raises, or promotions when appropriate.

Looking for Accounting and Finance Professionals?

Employees want to work for companies that have a strong culture. You can promote your culture by using it to guide employees to make business decisions. You also can offer flexible work arrangements and provide performance recognition to increase the attractiveness of your workplace. All of these factors contribute to your retention rates.

If you need help adding accounting and finance professionals to your team, talk with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Learn more today.

Appreciating Senior Workers as an Asset

“Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.” – Stephen Hawking

Do you view employee longevity as an asset? As most companies face staffing shortages due to The Great Resignation, have you revised your recruiting strategy to include attracting and retaining older workers? So many companies have a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) plan, but it may not include hiring people over the age of 50. If it doesn’t, it should. One reason is that you don’t want to be called out for age bias. Second and more importantly, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 25% of the U.S. workforce is currently over the age of 55. The number of people ages 65 and older who are still working is expected to rise to 29 percent by 2060.

Outdated assumptions about older workers persist but did you know that senior employees add value to your business? According to Josh Bersin, a global industry analyst, and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief innovation officer at Manpower, “people over the age of 40 are more entrepreneurial, patient, have collaborative natures, and they’ve moved beyond a phase of having to “prove myself.” In their article published in the Harvard Business Review, they note that even though there is an entire media and publishing industry that glorifies youth, the scientific evidence on this issue shows differently:

  • On average, raw mental horsepower declines after the age of 30, but knowledge and expertise – the main predictors of job performance – keep increasing even beyond the age of 80.
  • There is also ample evidence to assume that traits like drive and curiosity are catalysts for new skill acquisition, even during late adulthood. That means that there is no age limit to learning things.
  • Older workers can bring cognitive diversity to the workforce to help maximize team output.

In an opinion piece published by the Boston Globe, Tim Driver – president of the Age-Friendly Institute and founder of retirementjobs.com, Jody Shue – executive director of the Age-Friendly Institute, and Alice Bonner – director of the Age-Friendly Institute state a convincing case on “why employers should recruit and retain older workers.” The article explains that “smarter organizations view their employees’ longevity as an asset: their experience, lower turnover rates, ability to foster higher customer satisfaction, and diverse perspectives are among the crucial contributions older workers offer.”

Why Hire and Retain Workers 50+

Kerry Hannon, author of Never Too Old to Get Rich, provides the business case for seeing the benefits of hiring senior workers: “The truth is experience, put simply, gives you an edge.” In an article published by Forbes, Hannon offers 10 reasons to hire and retain workers 50+, including:

  • Loyalty and stability, attitude, productivity, and mojo
  • Decision-making skills, leadership skills, essential skills, and networks
  • Cognitive capacity and collaborative
  • Mentors

“When it comes to hiring, smart employers know that it’s not about age…An innovative company wants talented people, period,” commented Hannon. And with talented employees, companies win.

But considering that one-third of available workers are 55 years of age or older, there is an economic impact, as well. As the workforce ages, so will the global economy. Many people do not have enough money in their retirement accounts, which means they need to work and want to work longer. They enjoy the mental and physical stimulus going into an office provides and like to provide value to their companies and community. If your company is struggling with unfilled jobs, it is unable to meet the demands of customers, thereby creating ongoing supply chain challenges and affecting your profits.

Driver, Bonner, and Shue note that “postponed retirements are similarly beneficial to the economy as a whole: increasing GDP, providing skilled and less-skilled labor in a tight labor market, and reducing public health costs because people are active and engaged. By working longer, older adults are more likely to remain physically and mentally active, are better able to support themselves financially, and stay four times more socially engaged (vital to good health).”

How Can Organizations Appeal to Older Workers?

Bersin and Chamorro-Premuzic offer these suggestions:

  • Give older people titles and roles
  • Offer accommodations for flexible work such as more accessible workstations, the ability to perform tasks while seated rather than on their feet all day, and a varied schedule
  • Look at pay equity by job and level, not tenure
  • Bring age diversity into your DEI programs
  • Give older workers managerial roles, supervisor roles, and mentor roles
  • Coach and teach recruiters not to discriminate by age
  • Teach younger leaders about reverse mentoring

With a strategy in place, retaining your senior workers can be as easy as letting them know you want them to stay and/or offering phased retirements, reconsidering training and education opportunities, and incorporating the advice above. To attract senior workers, find organizations, programs, networking groups, and job boards targeted to the 50+ people in your community.

Summary

It’s time to rethink any antiquated points of view regarding senior workers and shift to a more well-rounded talent acquisition strategy. What else do you need to convince you to develop a plan for retaining and bringing back senior workers to your workplace? Let Casey Accounting and Finance Resources help you pursue talented Accounting and Finance professionals with years of deep-rooted knowledge, confidence, practicality, loyalty, and stability.