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Businesses need skilled professionals to fill vacant and newly created roles in the coming year, yet the flow of talent to fulfil this demand is simply not there. Not only has the number of skilled occupations experiencing labour shortages in Australia nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, but the total number of available roles promoted through job ads increased by 42%.

In fact, Robert Half research finds that nearly half (44%) of Australian business leaders consider finding talent with the right skills their greatest hiring challenge for the year to come, with seven in ten expecting a negative financial impact to their business as a result.

While some employers wait on a contingent workforce of skilled international talent to re-enter the market, others are looking to under-utilised pockets of Australia’s own talent pool by hiring skilled ex-retirees to plug gaps within their talent pipeline.

Why is now the right time to hire retired professionals?

Australia’s population is steadily ageing, with people aged 65 and over expected to make up 18% of the population by 2023. As Baby Boomers approach retirement age and scale back their workload, this threatens a knowledge and experience vacuum while also deepening the job vacancy rate.

Businesses that understand the value of retired or close-to-retiring employees and establish a strong recruitment strategy today will be able to carve a competitive point of difference from their peers in today’s skills short market and set themselves up with a strong talent pipeline for the future.

Related: Discover our top tips for how to navigate a skills short market

Though misconceptions of shorter tenure, out-of-date skills, and an incompatibility with a virtual workforce may have deterred more than four in ten employers from hiring retired professionals in the past, today’s challenging market is ushering in a new mindset. Robert Half survey data finds that 87% of Australian business leaders are considering hiring retired employees in the future.

What are the benefits of older workers in the workplace?

Andrew Brushfield, Director at Robert Half says ‘A great candidate – regardless of seniority - should offer a mix of art and science to their role: the technical ability to efficiently and effectively perform core job functions, and the professional ability to situate their skills within the wider organisational context through soft skills such as problem solving or stakeholder management. Retired professionals offer exactly this foundation of expertise.’

Australian business leaders consider the body of technical and professional skills a former retiree brings to the team as their greatest value add. This spans specialised expertise (60%) and the commercial capabilities that come with experience, including an ability to contribute quickly (57%) and strong business acumen (51%).

Here are four reasons why employers should hire more retired employees for their business:

1. Commercial acumen

Senior employees bring professional skills honed over a variety of industries, cultures, financial conditions and teams.

A retired employee has navigated economic slowdowns and periods of great growth, staff conflicts and great collaboration, and everything that comes in between.

This allows them to assess and respond to problems with an analytical, measured insight rather than leading with an emotional or instinctive perspective.

‘Alongside their tried and true technical capabilities, I often think an ex-retired professional's greatest value add is their commercial instinct. They are able to draw on years of experience across shifting industry trends and economic climates to approach a problem with a proven or lateral response,’ says Brushfield.

2. Technical expertise

Accumulated over a number of years, senior workers bring deep expertise in their craft.

As well as being able to execute their tasks to a high level based on familiarity with the subject matter, retired employees can apply an understanding of what has worked – or failed – in the past to optimise processes and procedures.

Whether returning to a familiar role or taking on a new remit, experienced employees are skilled at translating broad scopes of work into actionable priorities

3. Adaptability

Change is the only constant in the professional sector.

While some employers may fear that retired employees will be less responsive to digital transformation efforts than their ‘digital native’ counterparts, the reality is that older workers have embraced more technological and procedural advances than any other demographic in the workforce today.

They are adept at layering new technical advances into their work, using this to complement the core business fundamentals that can only be developed over time.

4. Diverse perspectives

With an ageing population, Australian businesses need to consider Baby Boomers and beyond as one of their dominant consumer groups.

Not only do they represent a majority of the population, but they often hold the most capital.

Given this, the perspective of retired employees is a valuable asset when it comes to strategy, planning, and problem solving processes.

More broadly, and importantly, ensuring adequate representation and diversity within a team is an important part of doing good business and making sound commercial decisions.

Related: How to make a meaningful diversity and inclusion strategy

How to hire (and retain) retired employees

Attracting a specific type of candidate – regardless of demographic – requires a tailored hiring strategy that considers the needs and motivations of the group.

Here are five ways to attract and retain recently retired professionals:

1. Targeting your audience: Use an omni-channel recruitment strategy to reach a diverse talent pool, including channels that target a passive audience such as industry organisations or recruitment services.
2. Looking beyond the job description: Take the time to understand what is motivating the retired employee to pursue the position as part of the hiring process, and craft or adapt components of the job description to support this goal. While career progression may not be top of mind, ensuring that the employee is engaged and supported will encourage greater satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Providing health care initiatives: Access to complementary health services such as annual flu vaccinations, and on-site ear, eye, or skin checks can be a valuable incentive for retired employees looking to rejoin the workforce. Moreover, it is an efficient way to avoid having employees take time off work due to illness.
4. Ensuring flexibility is an option: Offering flexible work hours and generous leave policies can help Baby Boomers – as all workers - maintain a healthy work-life balance. This in turn increases employee engagement. 
5. Encouraging knowledge sharing: Experienced workers bring a wealth of knowledge to the team, and are often seeking intellectual stimulation and team interaction as part of their return to the workforce. Finding opportunities to leverage their insights not only validates their importance to the team but keeps them engaged in turn. This could include:
   • Mentorship: Establish programs for more experienced workers to mentor junior team members across both career and skills development. This could extend to reverse-mentorship, in which younger employees are able to hone their own teaching skills by training senior employees on emerging digital skills;
   • Cross-generational brainstorming: Foster collaboration and tap into the diverse set of generational perspectives within your team through brainstorming sessions. This not only fosters closer collaboration, but opens the door for more creative or nuanced assessment that a less diverse cohort could miss.

Our experienced team of talent specialists are here to help. Contact us today.

The study is developed by Robert Half and was conducted online in November 2022 by an independent research company, surveying 300 hiring managers, including 100 CFOs and 100 CIOs, from companies across Australia. This survey is part of the international workplace survey, a questionnaire about job trends, talent management, and trends in the workplace.