(source: SME)
With the mounting difficulties in finding employees due to the lack of a qualified labour force, companies are starting to be more flexible. This includes being more welcoming to employees, more open to making compromises when it comes to their original requirements for a position and more willingness to offer flexible working contracts. Being more open to hiring people over 50 is part of that new mindset.
Nevertheless, many companies continue to see older employees as having less potential and prefer to invest their time, money, and professional growth opportunities in their younger employees. Such investments do not always offer a return though and often older employees, who are genuinely interested in the job and have the experience and energy to do it well, can prove to be much more of an asset to their employers. They are more loyal, often more precise at work, more responsible and generally more stable and predictable. It is also very probable that such employees value their jobs more and intend to stay in them until retirement age.
With the aging of the population, people are remaining active much longer and employers need to react to this change in the labour market and focus on hiring older candidates. Even though people over 50 are not going to solve the problem of an inadequate labour force, they might be suitable for some hard-to-fill positions.
