Why do many workplaces reject valuable knowledge and experience by prioritizing youth in recruitment as well as competency development?

Do young people have a patent on motivation, initiative, desire to learn new things, or perform at their best? Are they even cheaper than experienced employees when you consider what you have to invest in them to give them the necessary training and qualifications? No.

In the coming years, the increase of elderly citizen combined with diminishing workforce will make many workplaces vulnerable. It therefore makes sense to retain and develop the experienced workforce, especially outside the big cities.

This issue has caused a Danish municipality in collaboration with FirmaPlus to implement a 55+ pilot project to find out how the municipality can retain and develop the skilled senior employees. The reward was tangible: Better utilization of valuable experience in combination with a greater job satisfaction and self-esteem for the 10 employees who decided to stay three more years than expected. On top of this, a cash saving of 2,5 million DKK.

“Most large workplaces have a senior policy that is not used actively. As a matter of fact, elderly employees are not very appreciated these days. That makes them insecure and kills their motivation, initiative and ambitions. Therefore, thousands of managers and employees above 55 years turn their attention to the golf course, their allotment garden, or spending time with their partner, which they may not have had a lot of time for in their most active working years,” Hans Ussing from FirmaPlus tells us. Using targeted 55+ programmes, he helps municipalities and companies obtain tangible results with their senior policy funded by the government.

One of the main points in the 55+ programmes is the senior interview developed by Dialoogle. It helps develop an action plan where managers and employees outline their activities one year ahead with an extra number of years in the workplace as a goal. The interview also involves the partner of the employee in order to strengthen the desire towards a longer work life.

An HR manager and a training manger, both in their prime, working in a municipality with 4000 employees quickly felt the effect for themselves. After Hans Ussing had introduced them to the senior interview, they were at once inspired with an idea of how to create new roles for themselves in future that could benefit themselves as well as their workplace: They would start a new department together for competence development with various professional training courses for the 55+ employees in the municipality!

“Performance reviews with senior employees often focus on retirement rather than development. When the interview gets visual, it changes character and can inspire new dreams and opportunities for the employee and the workplace in the future,” Hans Ussing explains.