When employees at RBC Global Banking Service Centre in Toronto reach an age at which they may be considering retirement, manager David Sullivan broaches the subject of working part-time.

“We need to retain that intellectual knowledge,” he says. “Our clients are sophisticated individuals with complex accounts. We need seasoned, knowledgeable people to serve them.”

Unless retirement age is stipulated in a union contract, Canadian employers in provinces with mandatory retirement ages can choose whether to let an employee retire at age 65 or stay on. Sullivan has persuaded many of his mature employees to keep working and has attracted retiring employees from other areas of RBC Financial Group by letting them choose their working hours.

“A woman in loan administration spends summers here and the rest of the year in the Caribbean,” he says. “Another woman in audit services comes in two days a week. Some older workers are full of vim and vigour but want a shortened workweek so they can do other things, such as work with a local theatre group. They win; we win.”

Of the centre’s 200 employees across Canada, 10% are part-timers.

This positive approach toward older workers earned RBC Global Banking Service Centre an award from CARP, Canada’s association for the 50-plus, as one of the best 50-plus employers in 2004, the first year of the annual awards.

Toronto human resources consultant Barbara Jaworski came up with the idea of honouring companies that value mature workers. “My mission is to educate employers,” says Jaworski, who runs Return on Experience, a consultancy specializing in the mature workforce. “The best way is to show that their competitors are getting ahead [by employing] mature workers.”

The first thing she asks firms with which she works is their workforce demographics. “They’ll say they have an older workforce, as if it’s a problem,” Jaworski says. “They don’t appreciate the knowledge that’s about to walk out the door, and have no idea how to retain it.”

That leads to major problems, says Eric Vengroff, CARP’s vice president of marketing in Toronto. “Unless companies retain and recruit older workers, productivity will seriously erode as Canada’s nine million baby boomers retire. We’re losing knowledge, valuable skills and experience,” he says. “Companies are already finding out the hard way and spending millions of dollars figuring out how to fix it.”

Lost knowledge will affect the financial services industry, as well as other sectors, Vengroff says: “Who are the most productive employees in an investment firm? The older people. They have the biggest accounts because they’ve developed their networks over the years. A company looking to grow its business should be trying to retain older employees and be looking at older, experienced people downsized from other firms.”

As governments do away with mandatory retirement, advisors with older clients need to become attuned to the age issue, as well. Some older clients will need to keep working for financial reasons; others will want to work. “Your client’s RRSP may be worth $5 million, but he or she still may want to work,” Vengroff says. “For many, meaningful work is the key to longevity; without it, you eliminate many reasons to live. That’s why you hear of people retiring at 55 and dying at 57. After the trip around the world, they spend their days watching television.”

Retaining and recruiting older workers also makes good business sense, Jaworski says: “Businesses need to understand how mature workers can increase their business and help meet organizational goals.”

“Businesses need to figure out what key skills are getting ready to leave,” Vengroff adds, “and develop incentives for them to stay. This could take the form of raises, promotions or part-time arrangements. Employers need to show experienced workers they are appreciated — before the firm has to reinvent the wheel.

“And they need to ensure their supervisors are trained to avoid age stereotyping and [are] educated about ageism in the workplace,” he adds.

There’s no shortage of “McJobs,” he notes, but skilled, experienced people want meaningful work. Employment issues that matter to older workers include:

> Training. They want to keep up with the latest technology and developments in their specific job areas. They don’t want to be passed over for courses or conferences.

> Promotions. Older workers with the appropriate skills and experience want to be considered for advancement and challenges.

@page_break@> Compensation. They want the same raises, bonuses and benefits as other employees.

> Flexible hours. People over 50 are often caregivers for elderly relatives. And some want to devote more time to special interests — to participate in golf tournaments, display their work in art shows or publicize a book they’ve written. They will appreciate flexible or reduced working hours that will leave them time to do other things.

The winners of CARP’s best 50-plus employer awards work at making these things happen for their older workers. None of the 2005 stars are from the financial services industry, but the winners’ strategies can be incorporated into any business, large or small. Here are three of this year’s 11 winners:

> Direct energy. This Markham, Ont.-based supplier of energy and related services is making a concerted effort to attract and retain older workers. “Over the next three years, a number of people could be retiring,” says human resources manager Ben Lenton. “With the shortage of skilled workers, we could be in for a rough ride.”

The company’s 400 “home services” employees — sales reps and maintenance people — are home-based and make their own schedules. “This is attractive to the 50-plus group, who often have other things besides work to fit into their lives,” Lenton says.

Thirty-six per cent of the sales force is over 50, which matches the customer base. “Customers like dealing with people their age,” he adds.

Benefits, including pensions, health and dental care, and short- and long-term disability insurance, start on Day 1. “This is important to people starting second careers. They’re reluctant to wait a year to be eligible for benefits,” he says.

> Flexo products ltd. This Niagara Falls, Ont.-based firm supplies cleaning products to institutions, hotels and schools. After years of working with younger employees who turned over at a high rate, Flexo has found that mature workers provide stability.

“A few years ago, a guy over 55, whom we had been about to pass over, approached me,” says human resources manager Jim Brady, age 68. “He said, ‘Let me try the job for a month.’ I had nothing to lose, so I took him on. He was excellent.”

At that point, Brady says, Flexo’s production area was substandard. “The floor was sloppy and there was a lot of absenteeism. We hired two more older guys and, suddenly, the whole place changed. The older people had a positive work ethic. They were in every day, on time. They took their jobs seriously. The others started following their example, and there was a measurable increase in productivity and safety.”

Today, about 25 of Flexo’s 65 employees are 50-plus, and 20% of its sales force is over 60. The company is open to flexible working hours and has no mandatory retirement. “An advantage of having employees 65 and over,” Brady says, “is we don’t have to pay Canada Pension Plan benefits for them.”

> Excell services. About one-third of this Penticton, B.C.-based call centre’s employees are over 50, and the oldest is 69. “When we opened in 2001,” says Excell’s community relationship manager, Beth Kingzett, “we knew that, because Penticton is a big retirement community, older workers would be a big component of our staff.”

Older workers, she notes, come with skills valuable to a call centre: good communication and problem-solving skills, and time-management abilities. And because call centres operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, employees can select their working hours. “Some like to work between four and eight in the morning, and spend the rest of the day on the golf course,” Kingzett says. “Thirty per cent of our employees are part-timers.”

Promotions are open to everyone. “And we’re big on rewarding performance. Everyone likes to feel needed,” Kingzett says. IE