They want to know where they fit into the organization and
how they can make a contribution. “None of that disappears beyond
the age of 60,” she said.
Cousineau encourages organizations to ask, “Am I still investing
in these people with learning and development programs?”
Investment leads to productivity and growth, he says. “You can
teach people new perspectives and new ways to approach a job.
Something like process mapping, for example, wasn’t used extensively
20 or 30 years ago and now it’s a matter of course in most
organizations.”
FAIR TREATMENT
As with 72-year-old Carol applying for the senior position in your
organization, boomer employees want to be given fair treatment
and consideration for opportunities to learn and advance. What’s
more, they’re legally entitled to it.
When it comes to human rights law and the issue of age discrimination,
“I like the analogy of comparing it to a beach,” said
Christine Thomlinson, an employment lawyer with Rubin Thomlinson
LLP. “So even if one grain of sand on the beach is part of
the decision-making process, that’s enough to trigger some human
rights liability.” That doesn’t mean special treatment needs to be
awarded to older workers, just equal treatment. “If you’re going to
be thinking about whether the people you currently employ can
really carry your company forward, you can do that, but you can’t
do it based on their age.”
FLEXIBILITY
Once you’ve identified the older workers integral to the organization,
keep an open mind about how they’d like to structure their
worklife.
“We know that flexibility is the number one area that older or
high-experience workers are interested in,” said Jaworski. This
might mean, for example, flexible hours or job sharing. Or it might
mean the opportunity to work remotely, either because it’s a preference
or because getting around first thing in the morning is a
little tougher for a particular older worker.
“It may be easier to get out of bed and be productive in a home
office at 8:30 a.m., especially if a job mainly involves time spent on
the phone or working on a computer,” said Cousineau.
“Just because these changes may not be absolutely required, it
doesn’t mean flexible working arrangements can’t be offered and
made available,” said Thomlinson. “If we’re looking, as a society, at
a labour shortage, at potentially a whole lot of people who need to
work because they can’t afford to retire and companies who need
those workers, there are creative solutions that can be canvassed.”
Employers might also find an increasing number of boomer
employees requesting a move to independent contractor status. In
those cases, Thomlinson encourages caution.
“That’s a path that can be fraught with legal complications,” she
said. “I think companies need to be really cautious before they get
seduced into those relationships.”
ACCOMMODATION
When flexible work arrangements shift from something an employee
desires to something he needs, it becomes an accommodation.
Legally, an employer has a duty to accommodate an employee
up to the point of undue hardship.
This might mean if you’re a nurse with back issues, the hospital
brings in more equipment to help with heavy lifting or assigns an
orderly to help during patient transfers. Or, suggested Jaworski,
“For for the construction worker with arthritis, it might mean having
a heated cab to use in the wintertime and a joystick to help
lighten the load.”
For HR professionals fearing an onslaught of age-related accommodation
requests, Thomlinson says she hasn’t seen a big
uptick in clients dealing with these issues – yet. Requests for accommodation
due to disability or changes in family status may
indeed be related to age, but they’re not necessarily presenting that
way. However, Thomlinson agrees HR pros should be prepared
for a surge of accommodation requests from aging boomers in the
coming years.
“What will be important for HR professionals to realize is that
nothing should change,” said Thomlinson. The analysis in dealing
with accommodation requests will be the same. “Don’t jump
to conclusions and ideally, don’t say no the moment you’re asked
something,” she said. “Hear the request, ask questions if you need
to better understand it, then take it away and really analyze it.”
Consider whether the request is something the employee genuinely
needs.
“We recognize that what triggers the duty to accommodate is
an actual need for accommodation rather than a choice or a preference,”
said Thomlinson. “I think with age-related requests, this is
going to become really important.” The onus will be on employers
to ask the necessary questions and satisfy themselves as to whether
a need exists.
VACATION AND BENEFITS
Another area of preference, rather than need, is vacation time.
Some comparatively painless tweaks for many organizations –
and one that’s likely to satisfy at least one bullet point on an older
workers’ wish list – is to offer the chance to take unpaid time off
from work.
“The clock is ticking for an older employee,” said Cousineau. “If
he wants to take an extra month off in lieu of salary, why wouldn’t
you let him? As long as the time away fits within the business cycle,
it’s a win for both.”
Benefits, too, can be shaped to better fit an older worker’s needs.
Cousineau suggests a move to a program where employees have
more choice about where to put their benefits dollars.
“Suppose I have osteoarthritis,” he said. “$500 a year won’t cover
the physiotherapy I need.” A flexible benefits plan would allow the
employee to take funds away from another benefit area such as
naturopathy or acupuncture and move it sideways to allow for a
bigger physio budget. “If I can have greater access to my physiotherapist,
I can have greater mobility at work.”
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32 ❚ FEBRUARY 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL