Website seeks to net wise old business heads

WITH the minimum superannuation age rising to 67, it’s a given that most of us will be working longer.

The Retirement Commission estimates the 650,000 or so Kiwis currently over the age of 65, will almost double by the middle of the century, and many of them will be working.

It’s a mind shift for workers, and a reality our employers are coming to grips with as well.

Kate Ross, who owns recruitment agency Kinetic and has been in the industry for 20 years, says in the current skills shortage, she is already seeing more openness from employers towards older workers, sometimes creating part-time roles for them.

With such big proportion of the future workforce headed for the ‘‘mature’’ category, she expects that to become increasingly common.

A few weeks ago, Ross created a website specifically for people who are 55 years or over called Wise Ones.

She says hundreds of candidates had already signed up, and the reaction from the employers had been positive too.

‘‘Large multi-national businesses are contacting me saying ‘Look, this is brilliant because previously we couldn’t advertise’ because obviously it’s illegal to advertise for the more mature age bracket.’’

She said older experienced candidates feared discrimination due to their age.

‘‘And I used to get shocked... I thought, my God, you’ve got a great CV, a great history, good skills, you come across well - why wouldn’t you be?

‘‘I mean 55 is still so young, that’s just crazy. We’re all working and living longer. They’ve got a good 20 years ahead of them.’’

Ross says older workers have great qualities such as ‘‘flexibility, the ability to kind of reflect and see both sides, offer good advice’’.

‘‘If you think about it Helen Clark was the Prime Minister and then the head of a huge organisation. Why would you waste that experience by retiring.’’

King points out what’s considered as old is all about perception. ‘‘People need to realise people in their 60s and 70s don’t consider themselves as old.’’