Knowledge & Experience through the Ages

There is no secret we are facing a shortage of skilled people across many facets. Trades, technical, administrative, human resources and health professionals. The list goes on. The Queensland Government has a list detailing the shortages across groups and occupations rating the level of these shortages. Obviously, regional areas appear to have more difficulties than metropolitan areas.

These skills shortages are dependent upon what is happening in the market. The mining industry has had an interesting cycle over the last 10 years which had a flow on affect to other industries. While the coal price was high and the resources sector required extensive bodies on the ground, it was difficult to get a plumber or someone to fix your car. Now it is the opposite. The people with the required skills are not available and it is difficult to provide the human resources to complete projects.

Interestingly, there continues to be a debate amongst some regarding the benefits or disadvantages of hiring mature aged candidates. Often the reason for not hiring older candidates is ‘they are stuck in their ways’, ‘it is difficult to get them to do things differently’, ‘they have baggage’ and ‘it’s hard to tell them what to do’.

Some of the reasons above may be legitimate for some people. Surely, if you set the expectations correctly on the first day, there is clarity regarding their roles and consistent communication regarding performance, is there not a fair chance for success?

There is a lot of knowledge and experience in brains of mature age candidates which may be invaluable to your business. This knowledge and experience has sometimes been created through trial and error. Remember these people had to work from scratch to solve a problem, not go straight to Google or some other search engine. They can provide other staff with the understanding of why something does or doesn’t work. Tricks of the ‘trade’. They also bring diversity.

So before you rule someone out because of their age, maybe consider the benefit of the sharing of their knowledge before the opportunity is lost.