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Opening Doors for Encore Careers
Imagine the power that will be harnessed when older adults seeking a new phase of work are connected with social sector organizations that need talent for solving our communities’ most pressing problems. Encore careers are being invented by baby boomers and pre-boomers who want to work in new ways and on new terms to realize a deep interest in leaving the world a better place than they found it.1 The experience dividend this offers our nation should be good news, given growing labor shortages in education, health care, government, and the nonprofit sector. But as with all uncharted terrain, capturing this dividend presents challenges as well as opportunities. Nonprofit and government employers are only beginning to recognize their self-interest in tapping the passion and talent of encore seekers. And pathways are just beginning to emerge to bring these individuals and work opportunities together.
These leading-edge employers are clear about why it is in their interest to tap this talent pool. At Leesburg Regional Medical Center/Villages Regional Hospital, recruiting and retaining employees over 50 became a central strategy for opening a new hospital with big staffing needs and the challenge of industry-wide nursing shortages. For the Rochester YMCA, an expanding older adult membership led to hiring fitness instructors who know from experience the aches and pains of aging and the limits of older bodies. And at the University of California at Berkeley, temporary vacancies (resulting from transitions including parental leaves and sabbaticals) are being filled through an innovative online resource created by the Retiree Work Opportunities Program. The experience of BreakThrough Award winners shows how including encores in the workforce produces high-quality service for clients, and valuable cost savings. For example, in contrast to typically high and costly turnover rates among child care workers, turnover is virtually nonexistent at the Rainbow Intergenerational Child Care Center. Frail elders are well served by the unusually stable 50+ workforce at the Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency. Job performance is strengthened, and the costs of employee training reduced, when veterans who become teachers through the innovative Troops to Teachers program bring to their new careers the leadership, discipline, teamwork, planning, and organizing experience that is essential to success in the military and teaching alike. And the life and work skills developed by former truck drivers over 50 who are hired by Allied Coordinated Transportation Services create an experienced workforce that safely transports children whose moms are in welfare-to-work programs and kidney dialysis patients going to medical appointments. Yet another benefit is that the entire workforce is strengthened when encore employees mentor younger colleagues. BreakThrough Award winners also show other employers how they can boost workforce recruitment efforts, shape flexible work options, and get creative with compensation. For example, at Leesburg, flexibility has become the norm, with scheduling options including shifts ranging from 4 to 12 hours, compressed schedules, seasonal jobs, job sharing, and telecommuting. And in Ohio, the Cleveland Metroparks OWLS program — which is attracting 50+ adults to seasonal and part-time positions — found a way to help its part-time workers with their health insurance needs without extending insurance as an employer-paid benefit. Finally, this vanguard has developed innovative strategies for connecting demand with supply. For example, two “connector” programs at opposite ends of the country, ReServe in New York and Mature Workers Connection in Arizona, help social purpose employers find well-qualified employees over 50. The programs offer two different approaches for handling the recruitment and screening of jobs as well as people. Both work closely with employers and employees to assure a good fit. Although the marketplace for encore careers is still far from robust, doors are being opened by these organizations and others. Community colleges are developing programs to help boomers launch the next phase of their working lives. Corporations like IBM are supporting employees who want to transition to teaching and other social purpose work. The InternShop offers a path for encore seekers to explore their interests and possibly gain access to paid work (see article by Julie Lopp in this issue). Search firms, retraining programs, and specialized job listings, including on-line resources, are helping individuals find their encores. New and innovative programs are emerging to fill the need for easily accessible pathways for encore seekers to find opportunities for social purpose work. And we are becoming clearer about the barriers to overcome, including employer misconceptions about older workers; nonprofits with limited resources to invest in human resource management; hiring practices that get in the way; and a dearth of flexible work opportunities.3 In short, seeds of change
are beginning to sprout all around us.
You can learn more and become part of the movement that will build this future at www.encore.org. Notes 1 Marc Freedman, Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life 2 2007 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures BreakThrough Award (Civic Ventures, 2007). 3 Jill Lasner-Lotto, Boomers are Ready for Nonprofits, But Are Non-profits Ready for Them? (The Conference Board, 2007) and Max Stier, Are You Experienced? How Boomers Can Help Our Government Meet its Talent Needs (Civic Ventures Policy Series, 2007). |
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number of organizations are blazing the trail. Of particular
note: The ten employers and pathway programs that recently won the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures BreakThrough Award for their work in capturing encore talent to get critical societal work done.2 The diversity of these winners signals the broad potential for others to follow their lead. They range from small nonprofits in rural Kentucky and central Pennsylvania, to a large public university, to one of the largest YMCAs in North America. Some operate with as few as 20 employees, others with over 2,000. Their employees are engaged in a wide range of important social-purpose jobs in direct service and organizational roles — as child care workers, teachers, advocates for the elderly, environmental stewards, non-profit program managers, fundraisers, administrators, marketing executives, and more.