55 is the New 45

Rachel Cuyler; Logotex Mfg. Ltd. Photo by Colleen Flanagan ©Black Press

When Rachel Cuyler quit a lucrative job in sales last year, she found herself at a crossroads. Though in her mid-fifties, she had no intention of retiring.

At the same time, Cuyler, who’d spent the better part of her career in sales, was tired of the rat race. “I’d just had enough of dragging myself to work at 6:30 on a rainy morning,” she says. “I was making good coin, but I couldn’t stand it anymore.”

She still wanted to work, and decided that for her next gig, the ground rules would have to change. At a personal development seminar in January, Cuyler, who describes herself as “very brave individual”, hopped up on stage and boldly announced to the room, “I need a job, and I’m not leaving until someone hands me one.”

It was a daring move, and it caught the attention of numerous employers on hand, including Anne Carroll, president and owner of Vancouver-based Logotex Manufacturing Ltd.

Recognizing moxie, Carroll offered Cuyler a position peddling Logotex’s promotional products by phone.

“(Logotex) had a database that hadn’t been contacted in years, and I said I’d do it”, recalls Cuyler, who considers herself an “incredible cold call person”.

There was one key condition, though: she insisted on working from home.

Carroll agreed, and Cuyler now manages the company’s telesales from the comfy confines of her South Surrey condo. And manages them well, apparently.

Drawing on a “tremendous amount of experience”, Cuyler boasts that her skills have helped Logotex “turn the ship around”.

Welcome to the new revolution.

Just as baby boomers overturned society’s conventions 40 years ago, today, this massive, influential generation is redefining retirement.

Gone is the time when older workers might collect a pension, a gold watch, and ride off into the sunset (or, not so long ago, be ushered out the door to make room for fresh talent.)

These days, boomers — the oldest of which are entering their 60s — are staying on the job longer, and employers are happy to have them on their bench.

55 is the new 45, you might say.

According to a recent Statistics Canada study, the participation rate for workers aged 55 to 64 jumped to 59 per cent in 2006, up from 53 per cent in 1976.

The most notable change was among women, who have increased their participation rate dramatically to 53 per cent in 2006, compared to 32 per cent three decades ago.

In 2006, over two million people in that age bracket were employed or looking for work, representing 12 per cent of the labour force, compared to one million (or 10 per cent) two decades ago.

It’s not just the boomers, though.

Nearly one in six British Columbians between 65 and 69 were employed in 2005, higher than any other year in history.

“The changing demographics are such that older workers are playing a more important role in the individual labour forces of any company”, says Katherine Marshall, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada and co-author of the study.

The B.C. government, recognizing the need for older workers to offset a skilled labour shortage, plans to abolish mandatory retirement next year.

Why would boomers want to keep working?

In some cases, they have little choice — a nest egg is not what it once was.

“My parents generation were all getting a 20 per cent return on their investment money”, says Barb Schimnowsky, a partner at Abbotsford-based Westview Executive Search Ltd.

“It was a lot easier for them to retire”.

“If you look at return rates on people’s investments now”, she adds, “many people can’t afford it.”

Today’s older workers also tend to be better educated; only five per cent had university degrees in 1976 compared to 19 per cent in 2006, according to Statistics Canada.

“Higher education leads to higher quality and higher earning jobs”, says Marshall. “The opportunity to stay at a better paying job might be more enticing”.

Some seniors look to work as a way to remain active and engaged.

“From talking to other people who have taken early retirement, I know that within two or three years it’ss not about playing golf everyday or traveling, and all those fun things”, says Simon Evans, CEO of the B.C. Human Resource Management Association (BCHRMA).

“There’s a need for mental stimulation”.

Consider George Miller, for example.

Before moving to B.C. 16 years ago, Miller, manager of Langley Regional Airport, had a distinguished career in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Miller, 71, was a Cold War fighter pilot who had served for four decades and retired as a colonel in the late ‘80s.

When he left the military, though, the last thing on Miller’s mind was packing it in. Instead, he channeled his enthusiasm for aviation into a second career in Langley, where he’s turned the local airport into one of Canada’s pre-eminent hubs for helicopter companies.

“I enjoy getting up in the morning knowing I’m going to be challenged with this job”, says Miller. “I’ve never considered age a factor. I feel energetic and healthy”.

In most cases, managers, whether they’re in retail, health care, construction or food services and hospitality, see great value in having their older staff stick around.

“There’s definitely a trend among employers to keep senior level workers”, says Steve Lamontagne, director of Surrey-based Pacific Search Group.

“Boomers are worth their weight in gold”.

Particularly in the midst of a skilled labour shortage in B.C.

Whereas once retirement-age workers might have seemed expendable or ripe for downsizing, today, boomers are buoying many industries through the tight times.

And it’s not unheard of nowadays for retirees to re-enter the workforce for another round (often implored by desperate employers.)

These older employees bring much to the table.

For one, they can be valuable resources when it comes to mentoring and imparting wisdom upon younger staff, particularly managers.

“They have experience dealing with historical problems”, says Clint Mahlman, senior vice president of Richmond-based London Drugs.

“They’ve seen a business cycle come and go in the past, and have evaluated techniques that help manage that cycle”.

“That’s really helpful to pass on to newer people in management positions”.

And older workers tend to have more maturity, Mahlman notes, “so they can be exceptional at certain customer service positions”.

At London Drugs, senior-aged staff can also provide comfort for older customers. "They like to see someone their age reflected in the workforce”, Mahlman says.

“It’s about seeing that same familiar face they’ve seen in the store for 10 years. It helps with customer loyalty”.

At Vancouver-based Purdy’s Chocolates, it’s not uncommon to find staff as old as 70. “We have longevity employees, those that have been with us 25 or 35 years”, says David Hannigan, Purdy’s human resources manager. "They hold a lot of our traditions; the way we do things is ingrained in them”.

Even when staff do retire, Hannigan adds, they often return as casual employees during seasonal rushes. “Our store managers are usually the ones who come back and work for us at Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter”, he says.

When it comes to mitigating the labour shortage, though, retaining older workers is only a stop gap measure.

The number of people over 65 is estimated to double in the next 25 years.

Statistics Canada expects the proportion of the labour force aged 55 years and older will reach between 18 per cent and 20 per cent in 2021, double that observed in the mid-1990s.

The province estimates there will be a million job openings in B.C. in the coming decade, and only 650,000 new workers to fill the void.

“About 20,000 people are set to retire from our industry”, says Manley McLachlan, president of the B.C. Construction Association.

“It’s a significant concern. We’re going to lose a big chunk of the capacity to train younger workers”.

Skills and experience aren’t all the employers fear they’ll be losing. To hear most recruitment experts tell it, the generations differ greatly when it comes to how they approach work.

“Generation Y — the 20-somethings — have a lot to learn”, says Montagne at Pacific Search Group. “They think that everything is a mouse click away. Their people skills are lacking”.

For the so-called “Me Generation”, company loyalty isn’t what it used to be either, human resource managers say.

Where once workers remained with one employer throughout their career, newer generations are more prone to jump from job to job.

“The older guys worked for a company for 30 to 40 years”, says Evans at BCHRMA. “In today’s world, that’s too long a time at any one place”. “Some of the newer employees are changing every 18 months”.

They also tend to demand more flexibility in order to achieve a better work-life balance. "A lot of kids nowadays went through the “Big 80s”,” says Schimnowsky at Westview. “They sat at the kitchen table and watched their parents come home and say “I’ve just lost my job - That had a major impact on them. They realized: “It’s about me — it’s not about the company. I’m going to look out for No. 1 and if the company doesn’t want to give me something, the company down the road will”.

Despite their value, older workers do present some challenges for employers.

The Statistics Canada study notes that senior-aged staff tend to be more absent from their job than younger workers due to illness or disability.

In some labour intensive industries like construction, age might also affect efficiency.

“For trades people, the nature of the work is that it’s tough”, says McLachlan. "A lot of trades people are not able to work as productively, or work into their sixties or beyond 65”.

In the retail sector, where perceived lifestyle plays a large role in the marketing and sale of merchandise, older workers might be out of place.

“Generally speaking, the retailer wants to hire people who relate to their customer base”, says Mark Startup, president and CEO of Retail B.C. "It’s more than likely you’d see a retirement age man or woman serving you a Big Mac than you would see that person selling a 14-year-old kid a pair of $300 jeans on Robson Street”.

In most cases, though, older employees are looking better than ever. And in order to take full advantage, many companies are adopting policies to make their workplace “boomer friendly”.

Often this means striking new arrangements that involve job sharing, flexible work schedules and a variety of benefits and incentives, from health plans to additional skills training. In all cases, the experts say, flexibility is essential.

“Many people who are reaching their sixties would love to continue working if the conditions were flexible, says Dr. Patricia Baird, a genetics professor at the University of British Columbia. "They don’t want to quit cold turkey. They want to phase into retirement”.

Baird recently chaired the Premier’ss Council on Aging and Senior’s Issues. In its final report, delivered to the province last November, the council recommended the abolition of mandatory retirement at 65. In response, B.C.’s Attorney General Wally Opal in April tabled legislation to end forced retirement, expected to come into effect by January 2008.

At the time, Opal dismissed retirement age as “an arbitrary date set many many years ago... not really relevant anymore, particularly when we need people to work”.

The premier’s council also urged the transformation of the workplace to “welcome” older workers and temporarily ease the pain of a mass boomer retirement.

Equally as essential, Baird says, is that underemployed segments of the population, particularly First Nations and recent immigrants, receive equal opportunity to participate in the labour market.

“Provided employers recognize the value of making the workplace attractive to as many people as possible, and accommodating different people, I think we’re going to be able to cope”, she says.

It certainly seems to be an approach that’s working for Rachel Cuyler and Anne Carroll at Logotex Manufacturing. By staying on the job, but doing things largely on her terms, Cuyler has the life-work balance she’s always sought. And Logotex gets a bulldog of a salesperson, whose years of experience have made her a precious commodity at the firm. “I’ve never experienced anyone like her”, says Carroll of her new employee. “She loves picking up the phone, where younger people love picking up e-mail” not necessarily the best way to develop relationships. “Rachel is a little bit old fashioned in that respect”, Carroll adds.

“And it’s getting a lot better response than what we were getting before”.

As featured in Business Examiner, Fraser Valley Edition - Oct 15, 2007