Welcoming Retirees Back to the Workforce

Many of us have seen the movie “The Intern,” where a retired gentleman seizes a chance to go back to the workforce as a senior intern. He brings a wealth of knowledge and skills, work ethic and dedication, and quickly becomes an invaluable team member. This fictional movie has become a reality for so many retirees returning to the workforce.

Retirees have a variety of reasons to return to work. Post-pandemic, many individuals are looking to find a rewarding job opportunity that will make a difference to a business and community. They also have the luxury to do the work they like, not what they need to do to sustain a family. Some retirees are looking to earn extra money for travel or to have additional funds to pay bills. Most just want to remain active and engaged.

Over the last quarter, applicants for local job vacancies come from retirees. According to the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, Yavapai County currently has more than 54% of the active workforce in the age range of 55-64 years and almost 14% are over the age of 65.

Why Hire a Retiree?

There are several reasons, including the following:

Reliability and a strong work
ethic: This includes punctuality, maturity, a willingness and eagerness to learn, and a strong commitment to quality.

Varied work experience: Many seniors and retirees have a broad-based career, education and skills background, which enables them to bring a wide variety of knowledge and experience to the workplace.

Job flexibility: In many cases, seniors have accomplished their career goals and are excited and willing to take base jobs or intern roles. Senior employees have excellent attendance records because they rarely miss work for the myriad of personal and family reasons that other workers typically have.

Job loyalty: A fear about seniors and retirees is that they won’t stay on the job for very long. But, in fact, they tend to be much less likely than younger workers to job-hop and look for other opportunities. The average tenure in 2021 is two to three years or less.

Eagerness to learn new skills and a positive attitude: Another misconception about seniors is that they are hesitant or even resistant to learn new technologies and ways of doing things. Some studies have shown that seniors and retirees are among the fastest growing demographic of social media users and online communities as well as adopters of new technologies such as laptop and tablet PCs and handheld devices and software programs.

Strong people and customer service skills: While this is obviously not true of every individual, as a group, seniors and retirees tend to interact best with customers and their co-workers because of their history of experience in resolving conflict and strong communication skills.

If you want qualified, dependable, skilled workers, consider hiring quality workers by recruiting retirees! QCBN

By Teri Drew

Teri Drew is the executive director of Yavapai County Workforce Development Board.