FOR 65-year-old retiree Balan, who had spent more than 30 years working in the aviation industry, staying at home without a job was a dreadful experience.

“I felt like I had no purpose, having been working in a fast-paced environment all these years. I did not feel I was getting older, but once I started staying at home, I felt old for the first time, and I did not like it.

“I recently got a job on a one-year contract with a property development firm to manage their security services. My employers told me they prefer hiring a senior person as they feel seniors are more dedicated to their jobs, [and] things like punctuality and such. I was happy to hear this as I want to work as long as I am able to, but there is always a nagging doubt that I could be easily replaced by a younger person once my contract is up for renewal,” he says.

Many Malaysians aged 60 and above are probably familiar with Balan’s situation.

By 2020, around 11.1% or one in 10 Malaysians will be 60 and above. This percentage will rise to 15.3% by 2030, according to a recent study by the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA).

Last month, Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran urged employers to hire those over 60 as their talents and experience should not go to waste because they still have much to contribute.

n order to do this, Socio-Economic Research Centre executive director Lee Heng Guie says there needs to be a radical change in the way institutions and organisations handle the ageing workforce.

“This means a rethinking of public policies and business practices to develop an age-friendly human resource (HR) system to facilitate the participation of older workers.

“Older persons have knowledge, experience and insights that are valuable to the organisation in terms of reliability, institutional know-how, and commitment. Not only are they thinkers and problem-solvers, but they also serve as mentors and role models to the younger generation, bringing synergy to the diverse age groups in the organisation,” he says.

Will hiring the elderly aggravate youth unemployment?

It is arguable that retaining older workers might deprive the younger generation of job opportunities despite inconclusive facts. The basis for that argument more than likely reflects the perceived high level of youth unemployment in the country.

In 2017, the youth unemployment rate was 10.8%, which is three times the national average of 3.4%. However, ILMIA adviser Lee Chee Sung pointed out that this is beyond an anomaly.

“There is always the statement that youth unemployment is high, but youth unemployment has been three times the national average for the past 15 years, and this is in line with most countries. This is because youths lack the experience, some of them are picky in jobs and some of them probably do not have the right qualifications.

“What is more worrying is [the percentage] of youth that have been unemployed for a long time — long-term youth unemployment, that is what we need to worry about. But based on the statistics we have seen, the long-term unemployment rate is at a manageable level.

“So, if you ask me, if hiring older workers would pose a problem for youths to secure jobs, I would say no because it [what we are currently seeing] is the natural rate of youth unemployment,” he explains.

Sunway University Business School professor of economics Dr Yeah Kim Leng raises the substitute or complementary effect.

“The substitute effect comes into play when older workers possess the same skills as their younger counterparts but are demanding higher pay. Staff costs for an organisation would rise.

“On the flip side, the results are complementary in an organisation, which is in the midst of an expansion. Retaining older workers in the managerial level creates more employment opportunities at the entry level for youth” he says.

Meanwhile, the dearth of qualified and experienced middle-aged personnel to fill top as well as highly technical positions — a phenomenon akin to a “hollow middle” commonly found in the organisation structure of many high-growth firms — is a key factor for retaining talents that have reached retirement age, he adds.

Should the retirement age be increased?

Reuters reported last week that Singapore, the world’s second fastest ageing society after South Korea, is looking to increase its retirement age. Singapore’s retirement age is 62 years old while companies are required by law to offer eligible employees the option of continuing to work until they reach the age of 67.

Malaysia’s retirement age is at 60, but some quarters have called for it to be raised to 65.

Lee says there are merits to raising the retirement age, such as helping senior citizens to build up their savings — according to the central bank, only 4 in 10 Malaysians are financially ready for retirement — so that they can retire comfortably.

That said, a huge concern also revolves around Malaysia’s 1.6 million civil servants whose ever rising wage and pension payments are an albatross around the government’s neck. Putrajaya has yet to find a solution to managing the extreme bloat and the fiscal consequences are increasingly coming at the expense of the country’s development.

“We need to conduct a careful study on the implications of raising the retirement age in the public sector given the current fiscal concerns and high emoluments and pension bills. In Budget 2019, emoluments will amount to RM82 billion, or 31.6% of total operating expenditure, while pension payments will rise to RM26.6 billion in 2019, or 10.2% of total operating expenditure, from RM25.8 billion in 2018.”

However, before even thinking of raising the retirement age, the public sector wage bill has to be contained, Lee observed. “The government can consider right-sizing the public sector through a rationalisation of the processes and systems via ICT applications to create lean and user-centric public delivery services.

As for the private sector, he said employers would want flexibility in the HR management of older workers while taking into consideration staff costs, EPF contributions, and medical expenses.

“Some companies and organisations have extended their experienced staff on a contract basis post the mandatory retirement age of 60. Instead of retiring at say 63 or 65, one can consider continued employment beyond 60 on a voluntary basis,” he says.

For Malaysians, given the rise in life expectancy, coupled with inadequate savings, Yeah believes it is timely for the government to consider providing more incentives to help private sector employers to lower the cost of re-hiring workers who wish to work past the mandatory retirement age. Besides lower EPF contributions for those aged 60 and above, these incentives can include double deduction tax incentives on salaries, and other benefits such as medical, he says.

Are there jobs for seniors?

Former employees of Accenture, Sharmila Sinnathurai and Jasmin Amirul Ghani, who set up Hire.Seniors, a social enterprise that specialises in helping seniors to find employment believe there are abundant job opportunities.

“Looking at our own parents and relatives, we realised the importance of ensuring senior minds are kept active. Hence, we explored ideas to best do this, and employment came up as one of the ideas we thought could be achievable,” says Sharmila.

Operating for 1½ years, Hire.Seniors charges employers a small fee to post jobs specifically for seniors. The jobs are then shared via direct channels as well as partners, but seniors can register their details with Hire. Seniors at no charge.

“The jobs that appear rather often from employers tend to include roles for administrative and clerical, customer service, payroll, finance, accounting, tutors, and part time drivers for children.

“From our experience, many seniors tend to prefer part-time jobs with flexible hours that are located closer to home or offer the ability to work from home. However, we have also seen recently, many seniors who are willing to apply for jobs that are full time and some are even willing to relocate to other states in order to gain employment,” says Jasmin.

Employers have shared that their initial apprehension in hiring seniors boiled down to IT savviness.

“However, they have also said that with patience and dedication, the seniors have been able to learn new skills and contribute effectively to the organisation,” says Sharmila.

“Some employers shared that they ended up learning from the seniors that they hired due to their depth of knowledge and experience. The seniors ended up coaching the younger team.”

Sharmila and Jasmin believe the government’s push to hire workers above the age of 60 is timely given that seniors today are living longer, healthier lives thanks to more advanced healthcare.

“We also believe in having choices, and that seniors should be given the option to continue working beyond retirement if they are willing and have the mental or physical capacity to continue. Age is just a number, as proven by our 94-year-old prime minister.”

Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/state-nation-leveraging-malaysias-grey-power-workplace

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When Noorhayati Abdul Rahman retired a few years ago, her friends assured her that retirement would give them all more time to “catch up” over teh tarik and roti canai. But retirees also have really busy schedules; between caring for grandchildren and seeing to their own daily tasks, the catch-up sessions were few and far between.

And although Noorhayati enjoys watching television, she wasn’t about to spend all her time at home and in front of her TV.

Instead, she printed copies of her curriculum vitae and pounded the pavementd looking for a job.

“The response was the same, ‘But you are 64…’. I urged the employers I approached to check my references. I assured them that I was a hard worker who hardly had any sick days but they said all that was irrelevant,” recalls Noorhayati, who worked in administration and human resources for over 30 years.

Thankfully, a friend steered her to Hire.Seniors, a service that finds job opportunities for retirees.

“I contacted them and within a day, I was offered a job,” says Noorhayati who does administrative work for Value Tree Sdn Bhd, a company offering sustainable living solutions in the agriculture industry.

As if one job isn’t enough, Noorhayati took on a second job on weekends, as a Grab driver.

“My first job allows me the flexibility of working from home which was something that I was looking for. But I soon realised that working at home means that I don’t get to engage with people much anymore. So, I registered with Grab and after passing their assessment, I started driving earlier this year. It’s been great,” she says.

Hire.Seniors, which specialises in finding career opportunities for retirees, is a start-up set up a year ago by friends and former colleagues Sharmila Sinnathurai and Jasmin Amirul Ghani who, after years of working in consulting, were looking to do “something new”.

Noticing a gap in opportunities for retirees to find work and remain engaged and active post retirement, the two decided to do something about it.

“I really look up to my parents who started their own business after retirement to keep their minds active.

“But we also have relatives whom, upon retirement, stayed at home all day and slowly, they lose their edge because they are not mentally engaged anymore.

“We wanted to create opportunities for all seniors and we asked ourselves what we could do, and the first thing that came to mind was employment,” explains Jasmin.

The duo needed to find out if their idea was viable: do retirees want to go back to work? Would companies be open to hiring seniors?

They got in touch with Seniors Aloud, an online community of about 500 retirees who advocate active living for seniors to get feedback on the idea of going back to work.

“The seniors were all very keen on the idea. They all told us the same thing: they wanted to return to work but didn’t know how to go about it or who would hire them,” shares Jasmin.

The seniors, explains Sharmila, were initially skeptical if they would be able to find them work.

“They kept asking us if they were ‘too old’ but we reassure them that they’re still so young. That’s kind of our tagline, actually. And they are really so appreciative to have this platform to help them find work,” shares Sharmila.

The duo reached out to their corporate contacts and human resource managers to gauge the response from employers.

While many thought it was a “good idea”, companies were not too keen on changing their employment structures which catered for full-time employment.

About 70% of seniors who’d signed on with Hire.Seniors were, however, looking for part-time work.

“Not all retirees are looking to go back to full time employment, five days a week. Most companies however don’t have mechanisms in place to hire part-time employees.

“What we’re trying to do is bridge that gap. It’s a slow process to try and change the mindsets of employers but I believe we will get there,” explains Jasmin.

Time for change

If the 2019 budget is anything to go by, things may be looking up for seniors who want to rejoin the workforce. Among the measures announced at the tabling of the budget last month were tax exemptions for companies that hire senior citizens (with a salary limit of RM4,000 a month).

“Things are looking good,” says Sharmila. “I guess it pays to have a prime minister who is a senior.”

Globally, increased life-expectancy and a growing above-60 population have resulted in a growing trend of older workers continuing to work post-retirement.

According to a study published in BMC public health last year – “Why older workers work beyond retirement: a qualitative study” – labour force participation of adults aged 65 and above in the United States went up by 4% in the last decade. In the Netherlands, the labour participation of those aged between 65 and 75 more than doubled from 5.5% in 2003 to 11% in 2014.

In Malaysia too, where the average life expectancy has gone up by about 15 years (from an average of 59.42 years in the 1960s to 74.26 in 2016), seniors are keen on staying in the workforce, either because they cannot afford to retire, want to continue to contribute to the economy or simply because they want a purpose.

A survey conducted by Universiti Malaya’s Social Security Research Centre (SSRC) last year revealed that out of the 518 Malaysian seniors polled, 70% said that they would continue working as long as their mental and physical capablities permitted.

SSRC director Prof Datuk Norma Mansor said that many of those surveyed were not self-assured financially about their capacity to live comfortably post-retirement. Many felt that there should not be mandatory retirement as they would still need to finance their lives as they age.

In fact, keeping retirees in the workforce could boost the country’s gross domestic product by as much as 5% in the long run, according to SSRC’s Old Age Financial Protection chairholder Prof Naohiro Ogawa at a conference late last year.

“In other words, the country can depend on the elderly,” he was reported as saying.

Seniors aged 60 and above make up about 9.5% of the population but are expected to hit 15% by 2030.

The benefits of hiring retirees are numerous, points out Sharmila. Apart from their strong work ethic and reliability, seniors often record lower absenteeism, more job loyalty, eagerness to learn new skills and very strong customer service skills.

“They are also not looking interested in career development and don’t require training, except maybe skills in using new technology or IT.

“But they bring with them years of experience often in varied fields which will not only benefit the company but also younger co-workers.

“In many cases, employers are getting more ‘value-for-money’ when they hire seniors,” she says, adding that unlike many youngsters, seniors aren’t too picky when it comes to jobs, although they may prefer a job closer to home or something that doesn’t require them to be on their feet for hours.

Attesting to this is Fazul Ikmar Mohd Som, advisor at Value Tree Sdn Bhd, who hired Noorhayati without a moment’s hesitation.

“I fully support hiring retirees because of what they can bring into any organisation. Noorhayati is the second senior I have hired; the other is our creative director.

“They have a lot of confidence because of their years of experience and they get things done.

They also have better public relations skills than the younger generation.

“More than anything, they have a lot to teach the younger staff, even me. I’ve learnt to be patient, because I need to be respectful when dealing with them, which is really an important thing to be.

“Sure, they may be forgetful at times and may need a little coaching with technology, but the benefits not just to the company but to society will be great if more seniors join the workforce.

“After all, just because a person turns 60 it doesn’t mean they can’t add value or contribute to society. In fact, I aim to be like them,” says Fazul.

Source: https://www.star2.com/family/2018/12/28/paving-the-way-back-to-work/

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