8
HR
West
®
In one unusual effort to encourage older workers to
stay, CVS Caremark offers a “snowbird” program
in which several hundred pharmacists and other
employees from Northern states are transferred each
winter to pharmacies in Florida and other warmer
states. Suzanne Fontaine, 66, a certified pharmacy
technician at a CVS in Richmond, R.I., said she would
have retired years ago if the company had not let her
work the winter months at a CVS in Naples, Florida
where she and her husband have a second home.
“It’s a godsend for me,” Ms. Fontaine said. “It’s great
for the company and for individuals like me who want
to stay warm in the winter.”
Ms. Fontaine helps her CVS in Naples keep up
with the surge in business it experiences during
the colder months, and she helps train and mentor
newer employees. She works three days a week,
often on days when her husband, a retired tool-and-
die maker, goes golfing. “We live in a golf community
down here. I love it, but I need to do something else,”
she said. “I like the job. I like the customers, and it’s
an opportunity to earn some money to help pay for
our two homes.”
CVS, which does not pay for the snowbirds’ lodging
or flights, said the program helped employees
and customers. “A good number of our pharmacy
customers are going to be mature customers, and as
part of our focus on diversity, we want a work force
that reflects our customer base,” said David Casey,
CVS’s vice president for work force strategies. “So
it was a no-brainer for us to have a lot of mature
workers as part of our overall work force.”
In another program aimed at retaining older workers,
Michelin, the tire maker, lets experienced white-collar
workers stretch out their careers by transitioning
them from often-stressful 50- and 60-hour-a-
week jobs to less demanding part-time jobs. And
the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency,
offers emergency care for employees’ parents, a
step beyond the emergency child care offered by
many employers. It helps retain scientists and other
workers who may be tempted to quit to care for
parents with recurring health crises.
Other employers focus on keeping employees
healthy and well trained throughout their careers,
with retaining experienced workers as an important
goal. Pitney Bowes, a producer of mailing equipment
and software, has programs to help workers
continually upgrade their skills, and offers a six-
hour course, “How to Save Your Back.” Fidelity
Investments has established health and wellness
centers at its operations around the country, offering
programs on losing weight, reducing stress and
smoking cessation, among others.
“Today’s older workers are healthier and a lot more
technologically savvy than older workers of previous
generations,” said Deborah Banda, AARP’s acting
vice president for financial security. “They bring a
lot to the workplace — many employers are seeing
that. They know that recruiting and retaining older
workers is good for their business. If they weren’t
good for their business, these employers wouldn’t
be doing this.”
“We hear from many employers,” Ms. Banda
continued, “that older workers are very dependable,
they have a commitment to their job, they bring some
wisdom to the job. All those traits are very valuable
to employers.”
These efforts to retain older workers coincide with
two important trends. First, the nation’s over-65
population is growing strongly, meaning, among
other things, that many companies will, like CVS,
want mature workers to serve their customers.
Second, more Americans are working later in life,
either by necessity, because they cannot afford to
retire, or by choice, because many stay healthier
longer and like their jobs.
A Gallup poll taken last month found that the average
retirement age has jumped in just a few years — to
62, a surprisingly rapid increase from 59 in 2010
— a trend spurred by the recent recession, when
retirement savings suffered losses.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 32.2
percent of Americans age 65 to 69 are in the labor
force, meaning they are working or looking for
work, up from 21.3 percent two decades ago. The
percentage of older workers in the labor force has
climbed, even as the percentage of younger workers
has fallen.
Vita Needle, a manufacturing company in Needham,
Mass., is famous for employing older workers
— the median age of its work force is 72, and its
oldest employee is 94. Frederick Hartman 2nd, the
company’s marketing director, explained why Vita
Needle employed so many older workers: “They’ve
got a tremendous work ethic that is sometimes
harder to find with some of the younger generation.
That’s not to say we don’t have some folks in their
20s who do a great job.”
While many people applaud the company, Mr.
Hartman said, “We’ve had a few complaints that
you’re stealing jobs from younger people.”
Larry Minnix, president of LeadingAge, an association
of nonprofits that serve the elderly, said many older
Americans were eager to continue working, but
perhaps not at the same stressful pace.
“There comes a time when you’re not going to
continue hitting cleanup for the New York Yankees,
but they’ll keep you in their coaching system,” he
said. “Older workers might not want to work full
time, and many companies are being flexible with
them. These workers often play a mentoring role, a
leavening role in the organization. They contribute
toward a healthy culture in the organization.”
Some experts on aging say the baby boom generation
has changed the definition of retirement. “There’s a
joke going around,” said Ms. Banda of AARP, “that
the new word for retirement is ‘work.’ People are
living longer and healthier lives — they want to stay
active and engaged. For a lot of boomers, their
definition of retirement is cutting down to part time or
doing something on a project basis.”
HR
Steven Greenhouse is the labor and workplace
reporter for The New York Times, having held that
beat since October 1995. From The New York
Times May 14, 2015. All rights reserved. Used
by permission and protected by the Copyright
Laws of the United States.
Feature
> “WE HEAR FROM MANY
EMPLOYERS, THAT OLDER
WORKERS ARE VERY
DEPENDABLE, THEY HAVE
A COMMITMENT TO THEIR
JOB, THEY BRING SOME
WISDOM TO THE JOB. ALL
THOSE TRAITS ARE VERY
VALUABLE TO EMPLOYERS.”
