If you've spent any time in retailing, you've discovered the special advantages of hiring employees who are over 65 years old. Often, they bring with them decades of knowledge and a patient acceptance of the customer rudeness and staff politics which frustrate younger workers. Empty nesters appreciate the chance to get out of the house to be with other people on a regular schedule. Much retail employment is part-time, and for those seniors whose retirement benefits haven't disappeared in the current economic implosion, part-time work is fine. They aren't dependent on your business for high pay or comprehensive health coverage.
But older employees do have their senior moments. With advanced age comes trouble remembering details. Instructions get confused. Names of customers and customer preferences are forgotten.
What's a boss to do? Well often, when a senior citizen employee starts showing signs of forgetting, the supervisor cuts back on the physical demands. No more climbing ladders, less walking up and down stairs, fewer requests to go to the receiving dock to fetch restock merchandise.
The trouble, though, is this makes things worse. A research review by psychologists at the Beckman Institute in Illinois says energetic physical activity is one of the best remedies when memory abilities start to fade in older adults. Be overprotective and the abilities of your older employees will deteriorate even more. It also makes other employees angry at the older employees for not pulling their own weight and angry at you for letting it happen.
Do you let your senior citizen employees fully use their abilities to help you achieve maximum profitability? When you think it best to protect employees and customers by limiting the duties of an older employee, do you discuss it with the older employee to get their ideas first?
No comments:
Post a Comment