Tool Box

Issue No. 39 - February/March 2008

How to understand and retain mature staff

by Peter Nicholls

The first, best and most cost-effective way of tackling the looming staff skills shortage in business is to hang on to the skills of existing staff as long as possible.

The smart manager has learned to treat the fact of an ageing workforce as a positive.

A person in their 50s and 60s has a depth of experience, wisdom, insight, intellectual property, stability and commitment that can significantly help the firm stay ahead of the competition.

Getting mature staff to agree to stay on into later years is another matter, though.

If you think they will beg to keep their job, think again.

The sort of mature people a thoughtful employer wants are increasingly searching for a second adulthood – one that lets them express their deepest passions and builds on the best parts of their life so far.

These people still have fire in the belly; the difference is that their perception of success is likely to have changed.

The good news is they generall...

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