Learning never stops, and
A new survey from career-aligned education platform InStride found that employees ages 50-69 — falling in the Gen X and baby boomer generations — are anything but passive about
"There's a misconception that older workers don't want to be retrained or aren't looking for tuition, [but] it's quite the opposite," says Michelle Westfort, chief strategy and solutions officer at InStride. "Regardless of [an] employee's age, companies should be offering ongoing training, upskilling and re-skilling — for instance, when a job is no longer going to look the same way in the future."
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Tapping into the career needs of older workers is more important than ever, as one in five employees are age 65 or older, according to Pew Research Center. Ensuring that all members of a workforce have the opportunity to expand their career knowledge should be a part of an organization's overall wellness plan, along with such areas as financial and wellness, Westfort says.
Employers with managers in the older age ranges should note their enthusiasm in particular, as a lack of education or skills could be holding them back from advancement. One in four managers surveyed said they had chosen not to go after a promotion because they felt they lacked the skill set for the role. Westfort notes that there is a major business advantage to keeping more mature, experienced employees feeling valued and engaged: knowledge retention and education of younger talent.
"At the more seasoned end of [employees'] career journey, there is a sentiment of wanting to give back, and that's a natural, humanistic feeling that employers can tap into," she says. "It's a matter of feeling as though you're continuing to contribute, rather than [just], 'I need to keep learning.' Therefore, the goal is to transfer knowledge they do have and continue to retool in the areas where there are gaps."
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The result is a great mix of perspectives, knowledge and skill within a workforce, Westfort explains.
"Your more seasoned professionals tend to bring some level of wisdom and stability," she says. "They tend to bring patience when it comes to decision making, and that can be balanced in a really lovely way when you have high-tech innovation [and] different kinds of thinkers in the room. What we hear corporations saying is that diversity, which has historically been around race and ethnicity, is equally as important to think about from an age perspective."
InStride works with employers to customize the career education options offered, assessing business goals and workforce dynamics. Westfort points out that when an employer is focused on retention, for example, offering tuition assistance for degree programs, which often take somewhere between two and five years, is a great way to keep employees with the company.
Eighty percent of employers who use InStride choose to expand their program within the first year due to its popularity within their workforce. Westfort suggests that businesses enhance this offering by providing tuition benefits for dependents as well, giving older employees even more incentive to stay.
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Ultimately, sponsoring continuing education is a strong demonstration of investment in employee professional well-being, and a vital part of holistic support, says Westfort.
"When companies take that approach, they're supporting their people," she says. "That's the meta point here: Take care of your employees, and you reap the benefits [in terms of] skill development, retention and everything else that comes from the positive impact and social impact of these programs."
