{"id":6023,"date":"2016-11-27T07:59:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T11:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2016-11-27T07:59:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-27T11:59:59","slug":"5-employers-that-welcome-older-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6023","title":{"rendered":"5 Employers That Welcome Older Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"images\"<\/a>It took six years, but Charlene DeWindt, 58, of Newport News, Va., is now an electrician. She\u2019s also a production planner and scheduler at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States), earning more than $50,000 a year. DeWindt honed her trade at the firm\u2019s Newport News Shipbulding Apprentice School and, in August, graduated with an Associates in Business Degree. That\u2019s when she completed the school\u2019s Production Planning Program. Even better, throughout her coursework, she continued working for the company.<\/header>\n
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DeWindt calls the apprentice program a life-changer for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been out of school for 40 years and suddenly there\u2019s Algebra, Calculus, Physics, I and II,\u201d DeWindt told me. \u201cBut I was persistent, and now I have a great job, benefits and a chance to excel.\u201d And, she adds, \u201cThis program has allowed me the opportunity to learn so much, keep my brain and body active and save more for retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

You might be thinking: Aren\u2019t apprentice programs just\u00a0 for recent high school grads and people in their 20s? As Nobel laureate Bob Dylan would say: the times they are a changin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Centrica’s HitReturn program is targeted toward senior-level professionals who want to return to the workforce after a career break of two years or more.<\/p>\n

READ ON FORBES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I learned about that age-friendly apprentice program in the new report<\/a> from AARP Public Policy Institute: Disrupting Aging in the Workplace: Profiles in Intergenerational Diversity Leadership<\/em>. The report looked at five employers that are wisely approaching the issue of age diversity in the workplace<\/a>: DeWindt\u2019s employer Huntington Ingalls Industries<\/a>, UnitedHealth Group<\/a>, PNC Financial Services<\/a>, AT&T and Centrica PLC,<\/a> parent company of British Gas, an energy and services corporation.<\/p>\n

An Age-Diverse Workplace Is Smart Business<\/h3>\n

\u201cMost significantly what they [the researchers] found is that moves by businesses to embrace and engage with the intergenerational workforce are not merely an exercise in good civics, they\u2019re smart business,\u201d Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO wrote in her recent column<\/a> on LinkedIn. \u201cStudies have shown that the productivity of both older and younger workers is higher in companies that have mixed-age work teams than in companies that do not and that age diversity within a team heightens performance in groups that must undertake complex decision-making tasks \u2014 but what\u2019s most interesting is that these things are already happening out there in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

What These Employers Are Doing Right<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ll get to some of the interesting initiatives in the report shortly and then offer suggestions about talking to your boss to make your workplace better.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with DeWindt\u2019s apprentice program. Of Newport News Shipbuilding\u2019s 21,000 employees, about 2,900 are Apprentice School alumni. Many of them are now in leadership positions at the company.<\/p>\n

Sixty years ago, the program\u2019s age limit was 21. \u201cI actually applied when I was 28, but I was too old,\u201d said DeWindt.<\/p>\n

Over time, the age ceiling was raised, and in 1996, ultimately eliminated as a result of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission\u2019s determination that apprenticeship programs should be subject to the requirements of the Age Discrimination<\/a> Employment Act.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the HII workforce (median age: 45) is currently comprised of 35 percent boomers, 32 percent Millennials, 32 percent Gen X\u2019ers, and 1 percent Silent Generation. Also adding to the mix are Gen Z employees, the oldest of whom are just coming out of college, interning and starting their first jobs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a portrait of age diversity, and to me, that\u2019s noteworthy. While there\u2019s lots of talk these days about the need for diversity in the workplace, when people talk about diversity on the job, it\u2019s usually not about age, just race and gender. The AARP report noted that only 8 percent of CEOs include age as a dimension of their diversity and inclusion strategy, according to the PwC 18th Annual Global CEO Survey in 2015.<\/p>\n

Common, Mistaken Assumptions of Older Workers<\/h3>\n

As this recent Harvard Business Review article<\/a> points out, common assumptions about older workers<\/a> are mostly hogwash. \u201cPeople of every age are reinvesting in their skills, looking after their health and thinking about options, transitions and career switches that weren\u2019t a reality for previous generations,\u201d according to authors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott.<\/p>\n

Speaking of reinvesting in their skills, the AARP report notes that Centrica \u2014 an international recipient of the 2011 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Award \u2014 participates in a fascinating pilot program helping workers do just that. It\u2019s called HitReturn and is targeted toward senior-level professionals (men and women) who want to return to the workforce<\/a> after a career break of two years or more.<\/p>\n

Launched with Mars and Vodafone, HitReturn offers 12-week, paid \u201creturnships\u201d giving people the opportunity to work on professional assignments and to receive coaching and a mentor. It\u2019s the first cross-company partnership in the U.K. Job opportunities are in areas including marketing, legal, finance operations, technology and human resources. Participation does not, however, guarantee a permanent job.<\/p>\n

Cross-Generational Mentorship Programs<\/h3>\n

Cross-generational mentorship programs <\/a>are a priority at HIII, PNC and AT&T. At PNC\u2019s Diversity and Inclusion Mentoring Program, each employee signing up makes an annual commitment; the mentee and mentor decide the frequency and activities for their meetings and what they\u2019ll work on together.<\/p>\n

For Sue Filiczkowski, 48, a senior underwriting manager at PNC, \u201cone of the most memorable and rewarding moments was when my mentee, who is a Millennial, presented in front of PNC\u2019s senior management team. She had explained to me during our first meeting that she did not like to present in front of large groups and felt uncomfortable. We worked very hard throughout the year, taking baby steps such as meeting with and presenting to smaller groups of managers. Eventually, my mentee felt comfortable and ready to present a topic of her choice to the senior management team, and she did a great job!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the duo\u2019s regular meetings, they\u2019d each read articles about leadership and work challenges they faced. \u201cWe would discuss what we got out of the articles and how we would have responded to similar situations at PNC,\u201d says Filiczkowski.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the heart of what these companies, and others like them are doing: different generations working together to solve problems. PNC also offers an Employee Business Resource Group called IGen, focusing on intergenerational issues. It \u201cprovides a natural way to transfer knowledge from older generations to younger generations,\u201d the AARP report said. AT&T\u2019s >50 Employee Resource Group focuses on professionals there who are 50 and older. It also has another focusing on young professionals, called oxyGEN, which, AARP said, \u201csponsored events to educate seniors about mobile technology in 26 cities in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

These efforts remind me of a conversation<\/a> I had with Paul Irving, chairman of the Milken Institute\u2019s Center for the Future of Aging<\/a> and editor of the inspiring book The Upside of Aging<\/em><\/a>. \u201cLeaders in business are beginning to appreciate that older workers retain unique values, skills, wisdom and judgment and are recognizing, frankly, that the intergenerational teams and workforces may be the most powerful workforces of the future,\u201d Irving said.<\/p>\n

What You Can Do<\/h3>\n

OK, so what can you do, or try to get your boss and employer to do, to foster a terrific intergenerational workplace? Here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n