Recruiters seek maturity
The national recruitment firm Michael Page is targeting mature aged workers to attack the chronic skills shortage in Australia, especially in accounting and financial services. It has set up a division to deal exclusively with older job seekers. The firm sees such workers as able to build better relationships with their customers than younger graduates.
Another firm, Robert Walters agrees. “Forty to fifty year olds don’t want to be told what to do with their money by 23 year olds full of debt and who have got no wealth,” one of its directors said.
Canberra based recruitment firm Professional Careers Australia, in conjunction with CPA Australia, has established a successful division to put retired accountants back into the workforce.
It encourages employers to be more flexible in their workforce organisation, such as creating roles that are more project based, or easily transferable between staff members, to incorporate mature aged workers who needed to come and go.