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 Recruiting Baby Boomers
The employment game has changed. With the recession, more people are looking for work in some areas of the country. In other areas, there are plenty of jobs but it’s hard to find people to fill them.
Employers may need to change their expectations when it comes to the staff they look for and hire. Often, employers want people who are going to stay a long time, thus fulfilling their own perception that their investment of time and training is well spent. That way of thinking should change.
The younger generations may not stay with an organization for a long time because they want new experiences and challenges, and often have their career paths mapped out. The Baby Boomers may not stay for a long time because they may want to lighten their work load, have greater work/life balance, or retire altogether.
These are the realities. Employers who recognize and work with these realities will have greater success in recruiting, mostly because they’ll have redefined their notion of “success.”
To attract the often untapped Baby Boomer demographic, for instance, employers may want to get creative in what they offer:
- Job-sharing
- Flexible schedules and/or telecommuting
- Shorter term contracts rather than full-time positions
And employers will want to:
- Show Boomers their experience will be valued and respected
- Challenge them, telling them how they can make a difference
- Show them where they can excel and be star performers
What will organizations get when they hire Baby Boomers? Employees who:
- Are knowledgeable and reliable
- Are often more content and happier in their jobs
- Possess a solid work ethic, efficient time management skills, and strong problem-solving abilities
- Are motivated to show their value to the organization, and share their knowledge and experience with others
 The Computer is NOT a Typewriter
Some of you who learned typing on a typewriter rather than on a computer keyboard may have old habits and bad formatting infiltrating your documents. Here are a few changes you could make:
- one space after punctuation rather than two
- use en or em dashes rather than two hyphens (find them in Insert/Symbol, where it will also tell you the keyboard shortcut)
- insert accented letters when you need them, such as résumé, as it should be written in Canada (again, Insert/Symbol)
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—Communications Tips—
Communicate by Personality
Does it sometimes seem you are speaking a foreign language to others? They just don’t get what you are saying? You may need to change the way you communicate with them. For instance, when speaking with “Dominant” personalities:
- Give brief, to-the-point answers; confront them to get their attention.
- Ask “what”, not “how.”
- Stick to business.
- Outline possibilities for the person to get results, solve challenges, be in charge.
- Stress the logic of ideas or approaches.
- Agree with facts and ideas, not the person.
Quotes
“To exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution, Hamilton from serving as secretary of the treasury, Clay from being elected speaker of the House, and Christopher Columbus from discovering America.”—John F. Kennedy
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