He says the government should urgently enact policies to encourage small businesses to employ older people, and says that such a move would pay for itself very quickly through increased tax revenues and lower costs in terms of the aged pension and healthcare bills.

He says that companies – especially those run by relatively young managers – would benefit from “more grey hairs” in the firm, particularly during tough times like today.

“Older workers bring with them contacts, relationships, credibility (in more senior roles) and of course experience” says Salt.

“They can be a steady hand on the tiller in difficult times and can help prevent younger managers from being caught up in what I call the “chauvinism of now.””

Salt says that those managers or business owners that did not work through the recession of the early 1990s or 1980s have no contextual experience to gauge today’s difficult times against.

“Everybody was saying that the GFC was the worst recession since the great depression” says Salt.

“But that’s rubbish, at least in Australia’s case. In 1990 unemploment hit 11 per cent, but in the GFC it barely touched 6 per cent. Older workers can bring this kind of context and help calm an otherwise panicking management. They will also quite possibly remember how to cope with these difficult situations and have very positive ideas about how to get through without unnecessary stress.”

Salt says that while “diversity” has been the buzzword of the past decade, with employers encouraged to include more women, ethnic groups and religions, older people have been left out.

“Diversity is great, I fully support it. But why draw the line at older workers? The value they can add in a workplace can be so much more than the job they are employed to perform. A lifetime of experience, sound advice, and good ideas for coping with common sense issues are just some benefits.”

“But on a broader scale, the benefit to society would be huge, because they would be paying taxes not drawing down on so much of the aged pension, and would be healthier because of their activities, inclusion in society, and less prone to go to hospital at the first sign of ill health because they are at home obsessing about it.”

“An active older person is a healthier one, and is less of a financial burden on society at the same time

Source: Yahoo Finance