Blog Post: Arizona Mature Workers - The Inherent Value of the Mature Worker

Barry K. Spiker, PhD, Chair of the Mature Workforce Committee of the Governor's Advisory Council on Aging, and resident of Fountain Hills, Arizona

The Inherent Value of the Mature Worker, by Dr. Barry K. Spiker

Today there is a demographic “shift” taking place in organizations all over the world—the workforce is getting older, and we are all living longer and in better health. That is the good news. The bad news is that organizations again, all over the world, are in danger of losing their most valuable assets—their people who represent the over 50 workforce, their mature workers. A lifetime of “wisdom” and knowledge, some call it the “voice of the organization”, could possibly be “retired” when the people who have that information walk out the door. Conversely, there are millions of women and minorities that also want to enter through the doors of an organization so that they can do “well” and do “good”, in short, to give something back after a lifetime of work. However, as is often the case, some organizations are doing little to mitigate the possible loss of human capital or leverage the gain of returning human capital—the marketplace is terribly inefficient on both the supply side as well as the demand side.

One of the purposes of a blog is to share opinions and information regarding issues that are relevant to a particular cohort of individuals—in this case, to the mature worker or recently retired worker.

As I blog from time to time, I will be sharing with you results of nearly ten years of research and observation of the value of the mature worker across several organizational settings.  I hope to share with you my thoughts, with the intention of helping extinguish one of the most glaring and forgotten “isms” around the world—ageism.

We invite you to visit the Arizona Mature Worker Website, hosted by Jobing.com, at www.azmatureworkers.com      Check it out today!