Council
Council for Older Adults www.growingolder.org
COMMUNICATOR Volume 22, Number 3
May/June 2014
A Real Gem on the Job
Older workers can provide plenty of value to employers
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Jeff Robinson, Editor Council Communicator Carol Ventresca calls older adults “the jewels of the job market.” And she ought to know. The executive director of Employment for Seniors, a central Ohio-based organization dedicated to helping older adults find a job or embark on a second career, said thousands of seniors have taken advantage of the various services offered by the organization since its founding in 1972. “We reach out to well over 5,000 or 6,000 (older adults) each year in terms of providing services,” Ventresca said. “And a lot of the
employers that we work with continue to come back to us to find workers.” The number of older adults returning to or remaining in the workforce continues to grow, as Americans are living longer and choosing to remain active. And while older adults may find it a challenge to get their foot in the door with a new employer, studies show that the myths that often surround hiring older adults rarely hold up once put to the test. According to an article on the AARP website, hiring managers “gave older employees high marks for loyalty, reliability, and productivity.” Peter Cappelli, co-author of Managing the Older Worker, states in the article, “Every aspect of job performance gets better as we age. I thought the picture might be more mixed, but it isn’t. The juxtaposition between the superior performance of older workers and the discrimination against them in the...
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We provide choices for older people so they can live safely in their own homes and stay healthy as they age.
The Dog-tor Is In
The benefits of pet therapy Regardless of whether older adults are thriving in the workforce in a longtime profession, returning to the workforce in a second career, or simply enjoying a well-deserved retirement, they all seem to have one thing in common – they enjoy being able to maintain their independence as they age. Being independent, to a large degree, means being healthy, and while diet and exercise are the obvious ways to take care of ourselves as we get older, doctors also tout the health benefits associated with owning a pet. Research continues to espouse the benefits – physical and psychological – of “pet therapy” for all ages, but particularly for older adults who are...
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