Older job seekers have a tougher time landing in the workforce than their younger counterparts, according to Maria Heidkamp, director, program development and senior researcher, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.
WorkingNation sat down with Heidkamp at SXSW EDU in Austin.
“When older workers are out of the labor force, they have a much harder time than younger and midcareer workers trying to get reemployed. They’re more likely to fall into the trap of being out of work six months or more,” says Heidkamp.
“When that happens, they’ve got this gap on their resume. That makes it really hard for employers to consider them. They also face age discrimination.”
Heidkamp says there is confusion in workforce development around the older worker. It’s not a given that leaving a job means intended retirement, according to Heidkamp.
“I think it’s a good time for employers to be rethinking how they hire. Whether that’s changing the algorithms that dictate who gets passed an automated hiring tool,” says Heidkamp.
“Age discrimination is rampant. We need, as a culture, to figure out how to get past that. They have to be considering older job applicants the same way they would consider other job applicants based on their skills and knowledge.”
Learn more about Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.