New At 60 Again

Many seniors do not want to hang up their boots post retirement. We explore the windows of opportunity they have and the challenges on
the way

Who says 60 is the age to hang up your boots and do nothing thereafter? Thanks to a healthy lifestyle and rising life expectancy, many seniors are now looking for options to work even after retiring from their regular jobs. The reasons range from their inability to sit at home after an active work life of 30-40 years and wanting to be actively engaged, to the need to remain socially connected, to ensuring financial security in the absence of an adequate retirement corpus, as well as fighting loneliness, especially those who stay alone or only with their spouse.

Neeraj Sagar, founder and CEO of WisdomCircle, a platform that helps retirees search for jobs, says: “I’ve observed that the motivations for rejoining the workforce are multifaceted. The primary reason is a profound desire to remain actively engaged and seek mental stimulation through purposeful pursuits in their second innings. Moreover, what truly resonates with senior professionals is the sense of fulfilment derived from sharing their invaluable knowledge and experience with the next generation.”

In fact, remaining active, mentally and physically, can be highly beneficial for seniors. According to the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Aging Well In Asia: Asian Development Policy Report, released in May 2024, four things that are critical for the well-being of older people are: health (physical and mental), productive work, economic security, and social engagement. These are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. “We see a growing trend of seniors keen to re-enter the workforce. While the numbers vary, the success rate of retirees securing jobs often hinges on a combination of their unique expertise, the relevance of their skills to the roles available, and the willingness of companies to embrace age diversity,” Sagar adds.

The corporate windows for seniors, however, remains small, and only certain skills remain in demand in old age. However, there seems to be a policy push. Niti Aayog’s position paper Senior Care Reforms in India, in February 2024, suggests leveraging the knowledge and expertise of retired people and keeping them relevant in society by re-skilling them, while creating alternate employment opportunities for them.

Let’s look at what is available for seniors, and the challenges they may face while looking for a job.

What Makes Them Valuable

Retirees bring years of invaluable experience to the organisation. Once they are settled, they remain loyal to the company and don’t switch jobs easily. In most cases, they even work for less than what they used to earn just to utilise their time and skills. So, they are a more dependable workforce.

S. Premkumar Raja, co-founder and secretary, Nightingales Medical Trust, a non-government organisation (NGO) in Bengaluru, has been conducting a ‘Job 60 +’ program and a job fair for senior citizens for 13 years now. He shares an example from his organisation: “I have a retired person in the finance department who brought in a lot of systems. Earlier, his experience was going waste. We have quite a few senior citizens in our NGO, and as an employer, I’m satisfied because they don’t look for other jobs. They are satisfied with the morning-to-evening jobs, timely salaries, and no stress.”

Windows Of Opportunity

Though the numbers of working seniors are still not enough, some of the corporates are now realising the value that seniors can bring to the table.

Says Cynthia Gokhale, director of marketing, corporate communication, and customer service, ManpowerGroup, a workforce management solutions company, “There is a rising trend across sectors and geographies to hire senior citizens. They bring more stability and unmatched experience to the organisation. With the opening up of the gig economy, the sky is the limit for people having expertise in cybersecurity and other technical fields, manufacturing and production, and creative and academics field, among others.”

Gokhale lists out some other roles that seniors, typically, take up. There’s demand for ex-servicemen as invigilators in competitive exams, while banks and other financial institutions prefer retired personnel for security, both as consultants as well as guards, depending on their ranks and experience, she says.

For top or senior positions, companies seem to be open to people above 60 years of age. For instance, there are 15,112 individuals on the board of the National Stock Exchange (NSE)-listed 2,375 companies as on July 9, 2024, according to data from PRIME Database, a database aggregator. Around 39 per cent of these are 60 years and older, 50 per cent are less than 60 years, and the remaining 11 per cent’s age data is not available.

However, these positions are limited, and are generally only available to highly qualified and well-experienced individuals. Data from PRIME shows that around 28 per cent of people in directorship positions are management graduates, 11 per cent are chartered accountants, 9 per cent are lawyers, and 21 per cent are engineers.

The Challenges

Having the intention to find a job suitable to one’s age, stamina, and skill set, and actually getting the opportunity to work are two different things.

Says Raja, “Age discrimination, physical limitations, adapting to new work environment, and technological adaptation are the primary challenges that seniors face in their second innings. While small businesses are more open to hiring senior citizens, corporates are still biased toward a younger workforce. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and industries have started hiring senior citizens in supervisory roles.” Age-related ailments may become an obstacle in the hiring process, adds Gokhale.

According to the survey report Beyond Numbers: Intergenerational Insights on Ageism released in June 2024 by Randstad, a talent solution company, people in the 55 years and above age group face issues such as lack of new job opportunities, difficulties in getting hired or being retained, despite their knowledge and experience, and are often left out due to preference for younger people. Sometimes, there’s also under-utilisation of their abilities.

However, few companies are cognisant of the value these retired professionals bring, and have begun employing them to leverage their experience and expertise. Some of these companies are Blue Star, Suzlon Energy, Hitachi Energy, and Elgi Equipments, the report says.

Security And Purpose

Seniors prefer to work after retirement either because they need financial security, in the face of shortage of funds, or, when they are looking for a purpose during their retirement years.

Financial security plays a large role in seniors choosing to work after retirement. The ADB report cited earlier says that pension or economic security can affect a person’s willingness to work.

Another study, titled, Employment After Retirement In India – An Empirical Study, published in the International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJRCT) in 2021, highlights the same. It says that people who receive pension are less interested in working in old age than those who do not have pension income.

According to data shared by Naukri.com with Outlook Money, the job search portal received only 0.18 per cent of the total applications from people aged 60 years and above in the last one year. In May 2024, the figure was around 6,500, accounting for only 0.15 per cent of the total applicants.

But it would be wrong to consider that seniors look for work only because they are looking for a regular stream of income.

According to Raja, picking up work after retirement can bring purpose to seniors’ lives and improve their self-esteem. “They meet people, and socialisation indirectly helps in improving the quality of life,” he says.

Harsh Roongta, founder of Fee-Only Investment Advisers LLP, a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered investment advisory firm, believes that if earning money is no longer a purpose, one should have or plan another purpose to lead one’s retired life. “You need to start planning what you are going to do. So, if you are planning to do something completely different and it’s a great opportunity for you to do so, then you ought to have cultivated those things. Suppose, you have a hobby that you want to convert into part-time work, you ought to have cultivated that in your working years so that you can take that forward in your second innings,” he says.

Despite the challenges of fewer jobs, age-related issues, social taboo, among others, many seniors seem to have found a way to stay active and take up work after retirement.