My company was a good corporate citizen, but this was not about doing good. By being an "early adopter," they attracted the creme de la creme. Having capable women in responsible positions made them far more competitive than their contemporaries who were still making do with half the talent--the male stuff.

We are to that same kind of place in 2009. But this time, the competitive advantage is in seeing the potential of older workers.

Why?

Because they bring a lot more to the dance. Here's how:

YOU GET MUCH MORE THAN YOU PAY FOR. It's like getting a Ferrari for the price of a Miata. Forget the foolish business about "overqualified." Many older workers are ready to throttle back but not ready to stop working. They will step into a non-management job after years of running the whole show and be content with that. A former neighbor, a retired Army colonel and high-end management consultant, is happy as a clam driving a bus for the local transit authority. Would a twenty-something with no experience dealing with difficult people do as well?

And if they ARE willing to manage for you, the value of their experience is exponential.

OLDER WORKERS HAVE BETTER WORK HABITS Inaccurate stereotypes lead hiring supervisors to assume that older workers can't perform the way younger workers do. That they will miss work or not get as much done. Assuming the superstar whose resume you're about to toss will do that, when you have no idea of her personal work history, is absurd. She may have missed two days in 30 years. Don't rely on unfounded assumptions to rule out older workers.

In a study of work habits in 39 separate organizations that included 3000 non-management workers, those younger than 26 years of age were found to be substandard in all six work habits: work standards, safety awareness, reliability/follow-through, attendance, punctuality, and avoidance of disciplinary actions. Workers in the 26 to 45 age range were average on all six. Workers age 46 to 55 were above average on four of the six categories. Workers over 56 were above average on five of the six and twice as far above average as the 46 to 55 year-olds on four of the five. If your hiring needs lean heavily on work habits, you should be looking for people with gray hair. Unless you're selling body piercing or long boards, you shouldn't be ruling them out for any job you have open.

YOU BROADEN YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC APPEAL. Unless you're selling youth-exclusive products, having someone on staff who does NOT answer "Thank you" with "No problem" is a plus. If you want to appeal to the full range of customers, you need a full range of ages to serve them.

Two weeks ago, I was checking out at the grocery store I've used for five years. The checker, who was young, talked with the woman behind me in line--a co-worker--the whole time she worked on my order. Then part of the order never made it back into my basket--or to my car. I had to go back to the store a second time for it.

The young checkers again barely acknowledged me. Not "I'm so sorry this happened." Just "Well..uh... do this and this and this and then stand in that line." It was a very long line.

I solved the immediate problem after a bit of a wait. The rest was taken care of when I walked out the door. I will never go back there.

Lots of older customers vote with their feet. Don't let them walk out forever because you have the wrong people serving them.

THIS IS THE AGE GROUP WITH THE MONEY The biggest irony in all this is that the over 50 crowd is the population that actually has money to spend. They own upwards of 70 percent of the financial assets. Their per capita discretionary spending is two and a half times the average of younger households. They hold almost half of all the credit cards in the United States.

You need people who think like them on your team so you can capture that business. THIS IS A GROWTH MARKET. Leave your competitors to duke it out over the twenty-somethings whose credit has just dried up.

To curry this market, you need to have a connection to it. Your marketing, strategic planning, and customer service functions need people who can relate because they are over 50 themselves.

We can look in other directions for why to employ older workers. Those are more in the realm of ethics and law. We don't need to go there. The competitive advantages of hiring highly qualified older workers are more than enough to justify doing it.

Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd