Age Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies for Employers

In this episode of Looking Forward Our Way, Brett and Carol are joined by Dr. Jennifer Crittenden, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Maine and Associate Director for Research at the University of Maine Center on Aging. The focus is on the challenges and opportunities facing older adults as they transition into paid employment, and particularly on how volunteerism can act as a bridge to help them re-enter the workforce.

Dr. Crittenden began by sharing her background in gerontology and her early research in older adult volunteerism. She noticed a fascinating trend: some older volunteers were leaving their unpaid roles because they needed or wanted to return to paid employment. This observation set her on a research path to better understand how older adults juggle different responsibilities—such as caregiving, volunteering, and work—and whether skills gained in volunteer opportunities could support their move into paid roles.

Through a study funded by AmeriCorps, Dr. Crittenden discovered that many older adults indeed use volunteer experiences as a stepping stone back into employment—even if the volunteer programs themselves weren’t specifically designed for that purpose. This realization led her and other researchers to ponder whether volunteerism could actually become a structured pathway to employment for seniors. Furthermore, her research highlighted the “spillover effect”: skills acquired through both in-person and virtual volunteering frequently enhanced other aspects of life, such as caregiving or community engagement.

The partnership with AmeriCorps became more formalized when, in 2022, Dr. Crittenden’s center was approached to help study a new round of demonstration grants focusing on workforce development for older adults. This new initiative required participants to integrate volunteerism into their program design, with the ultimate goal of aiding older adults in securing sustainable employment. Seven different pilot programs across the country were set up, each distinct in its local approach but unified in combining volunteer experience, community service, training, mentorship, and employment support.

What makes this research so groundbreaking is its focus on identifying the “secret recipe”—the common elements across all seven pilot programs that effectively support older adults’ transition to sustainable employment. The data, collected from over 150 participants in the first round, helps the researchers understand what motivates seniors, what keeps them engaged, and what drives successful placement into jobs.

Looking at the demographics, the majority of participants were women (about 72%), which reflects broader trends in volunteerism. Most were between the ages of 60 and 70—prime years for retirement or semi-retirement—but the programs included participants up to 85. A striking finding was that many lived alone and were single, divorced, or widowed, implying a significant financial need to supplement single-income households.

In terms of the nature of work, the positions targeted by these programs were generally paraprofessional roles—such as paralegals or early childhood educators—that often required participants to complete some form of certification or additional training. This requirement, while presenting barriers for some, helped others gain clear pathways into employment that matched their interests and skillsets.

Motivation to participate in these programs was largely financial, but the data showed that earning new skills, having a sense of purpose, giving back to the community, and building social connections were also major drivers. This mirrors what we see among younger job seekers, emphasizing that these needs and aspirations are consistent across age groups.

Success, however, depended on the alignment between volunteer experience and employment placement. When the volunteer roles were closely matched to the intended jobs, like volunteering in a classroom before being hired as an early childhood educator, participants felt more confident and better prepared. Where this connection was lacking, the transition was less smooth and perceived as less meaningful.

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What organizations can do to better include and engage older workers? Dr. Crittenden emphasizes that successful employers, regardless of industry, are those who think creatively about work arrangements—offering flexible hours, job sharing, accessible workplaces, and continuous training. Organizations that foster a genuinely inclusive culture and avoid ageist language in recruiting tend to be more successful at attracting and retaining older employees.

From the employee perspective, flexibility is key: the ability to work part-time, receive supplemental benefits like health or dental coverage, and access transportation support can all make a difference. Additionally, opportunities for mentorship and intergenerational connection within organizations can enhance a sense of purpose and community.

Looking ahead, Dr. Crittenden’s research is moving into its third year. The focus now is on retention: understanding not just what attracts older adults to these programs, but what keeps them in employment. She also highlighted that only about a third of partner organizations offer any training on age diversity, suggesting this is a crucial area for improvement.

Key Moments

00:00 Volunteering: A Path to Employment

04:31 Volunteering's Value in Job Seeking

09:41 Increasing Male Participation in Programs

13:34 Paraprofessional Pilot Programs for Adults

16:33 Motivations for Workforce Reentry

19:52 Aligning Volunteer Roles with Career Goals

23:00 Leadership's Role in Age Inclusivity

26:44 Flexible Work for Caregivers

29:22 Flexible Work and Benefits Prioritization

32:10 Part-Time Flexibility for Workforce Gaps

34:39 Motivation and Workforce Insights

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Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants.

Copyright 2026 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson

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The views and opinions expressed by the experts interviewed on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcast hosts or any affiliated organizations. The information provided in these interviews is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals for specific advice or information related to their individual circumstances. The podcast host and producers do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information provided by the experts interviewed. Listener discretion is advised.

We are looking forward our way. Hi, this is Brett. Our workforce is facing many challenges, including the reduction in skilled qualified candidates. Today we're going to explore current research focusing on the issues and challenges of older adults in the transitioning into paid employment. Our guest expert is Dr. Jennifer Crittenden. She's the assistant professor of Social work at the University of Maine. Dr.

Crittenden is leading the project titled Building a Workforce Readiness Model for Older Adults in conjunction with AmeriCorps Seniors. Thanks for joining us.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to the conversation.

It's wonderful to actually meet with you, even though we're doing this online virtually. But Jennifer and I have had several conversations on email and phone and we've been talking about this for a while. So I'm so glad that we finally have an opportunity to get together and really flesh out these topics. So, you know, we're grateful to you for sharing your expertise on this topic of older adult workforce and in particular, looking at the information for our local employers in their recruitment efforts. Jennifer. But before we actually move into the study, we want to share your background with our listeners and, and how you began your research targeting the needs of older adults.

Of course. Yeah. So just a little bit about my background. I am an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Maine. I'm also the associate director for research at the University of Maine center on Aging. And so my background is in gerontology. So I'm very interested in issues surrounding aging. And about seven, almost eight years ago, I began researching older adult volunteerism.

I had developed and run some programs directly for older adult volunteers and had started to work closely with some of our programs at the center that recruited and worked with older volunteers. And what I noticed was something really interesting. At the time, we were losing volunteers because people were leaving volunteerism to go back to work. And I was really interested in why that was. And so at that point I started doing some research around how older adults juggle their time, juggle their various commitments, between caregiving, between volunteering and paid work. And so I had a study that was funded by AmeriCorps. This is a national entity that funds programs and research around older adult civic engagement and various forms of civic engagement. And so that study really looked at how do older adults kind of manage and juggle those responsibilities and at what point do they stop volunteering because these other their draws on their time.

And what I found was when I surveyed current volunteers across the country who were age 55 and older I found this really interesting group of people who used volunteer work to transition into the workforce. Now, these were volunteer programs that were never designed to help people transition to the workforce, but these were programs that people were using the skills, the knowledge that they gained in that venue to gain employment. And so this was just sort of an interesting finding. It was sort of a happy coincidence. And it got me thinking about, you know, could volunteerism be a tool that could be a pathway into employment? And, of course, we had also heard, you know, some other ways that volunteering was helping these folks. So for folks who were caregiving, they were learning skills that they were bringing into their caregiving work, they were bringing the things that they were learning and volunteering into these other spaces in their lives. And so since then, I've also done some other research on things like virtual volunteering. So what we've learned there is that when we learn how to use technology in our volunteer work, we then take that into other spaces in our lives, kind of this spillover effect.

So that work kind of started about seven or eight years ago, and it kind of led into this really interesting connection with workforce.

I love that. This topic of older adults working came from the notion of volunteering for a couple of reasons. When I took over at Employment for Seniors, I would often find our participants who were 50 and over had been den mothers, had been directors of pta, had been coaches on softball teams and things like that. And these individuals would come to us and say, well, you know, the only job I ever had was this one. I had it for 30 years, and now I got laid off. And, you know, I don't know how to do anything else.

And.

And they had all of these skills, leadership qualities, being able to analyze issues, whatever it could be, that they could provide an employer a value that they could give an employer as a job applicant. The other part of that that I thought was really interesting, that people didn't recognize how volunteering was valuable in being a prepared job seeker, was for 30 years, while I was working at Ohio State as a career advisor, what did students do but volunteer or do an internship or whatever it was called? And we had told them, this is the way to get a job. This is because you're not only building skills, you're building your network, talking to people, finding out what jobs are out there. Same thing. Didn't matter. The age of the population, it was the same thing. And now to see you actually doing this research to quantify all of these bits and pieces of kind of knowledge that we had in Helping job seekers. This is phenomenal.

So thank you so much for that.

The AmeriCorps seniors program provides opportunities for older adults to contribute to their community through volunteer activities. It seems that the AmeriCorps leaders realize older adults may want or need to gain paid employment. How did your department at the University of Maine begin this partnership with AmeriCorps, and what is the overarching goal of the study?

Yeah, so I talked about this initial study that I had begun in 2017, and so I'd had this partnership with AmeriCorps, and then in 2022, I had another research grant looking at this virtual volunteerism. And so I had this new partnership with AmeriCorps, and at the time, they actually had funded a new round, what they're calling sort of demonstration grants. And they had funded initially two programs around workforce development. And so they approached me and they said, we're doing this new initiative around workforce development, and part of this initiative involves volunteerism. So all of the participants need to participate in some form of volunteerism as part of their program design, part of the program designs of these pilots. And. And ultimately, these pilots need to help older adults to connect with employment. And so they were aware of some of the work that I had done around the connections between volunteering and employment.

And at the same time, our center had been developing a new partnership called the Consortium for Aging Policy Research and Analysis. And one of the co directors, Mary Lucialfi, who's a colleague of mine, has headed up some work around workforce here in Maine. And so that the timing worked really well for our center. We were doing some similar research here in the state to look at, you know, some of the workforce issues that we were facing as the oldest state in the nation. You know, we're facing some of the aging challenges that other states are facing, you know, or just about to face. And so at a state level, we were already thinking about these issues. And then AmeriCorps was starting to invest in programs that were looking at that linkage between volunteering and employment. And so in addition to those two pilots, ultimately they funded seven programs across the country that the programs all had.

They have the ability to locally customize what their program model was, but everybody had to include some volunteerism component, some kind of community service piece, training, mentorship, some supports to get people toward that employment placement. And the goal was that it would be sustainable employment, so employment that older adults could be in for at least six months or longer.

So.

So those were the common elements. But basically what ended up happening is they funded sort of seven different programs. And so the big research question is, what are the common elements, if we look across these programs, that lead to successful employment for older adults? Given that we now have seven different flavors of what these programs could look like, at the end of the day, we really have this immense opportunity to understand what could this. I mean, it's a very innovative program. There's no program like it anywhere else in. In the country that really marries that volunteerism piece, the training, and then bringing that pathway to employment. And so that the research question is, if we were to scale one model or several models, what are the things that we would replicate that seem to be across the board, the sort of like this. What's the secret recipe across those seven programs? So that's the big research question.

And we've been working with those sites and hundreds of older adult participants at this point to understand what are the motivations that attract them, what keeps them, and what ultimately leads to successful transition into employment.

You had mentioned that they are 55 and over. And tell us a little bit more about the makeup of the older adults who are in the program, male to female, Are they more. Where's the educational level? Are health issues out there? And does this differ based on the geographic location of the seven sites?

Yeah. So we just completed, in our first year of the. Of the research, we surveyed all of the participants across the programs, and so we heard from 156 participants. We are gearing up now in the next couple months to repeat that survey, so we'll have a chance to have a sense of any new participants who have come in. And so we know that the majority of the participants are female, about 72% and 28% are male. And that tracks with what we also know about volunteerism programming. It's also sort of a question mark for us of how do we better engage males in this type of programming. And I think it's probably a challenge to those out there maybe to say, how can you reach this audience, maybe in a more concerted way? So I think that is definitely a recommendation or perhaps just an interesting finding for us to dig into further is how do we recruit more older men for these types of programs? And we do know that just statistically speaking, they're just by the numbers.

There are just more older women. But we want to dig into that finding a little bit more. So we know there are some gender differences in terms of age range. The participants range in age from 55 to 85, but most of them are ages 60 to 70. So around the kind of early retirement to traditional retirement age. So as we think about things like when you might be eligible for Social Security or Medicare, you're seeing folks roughly around that age range, but some folks who would be sort of early retirement too. So that I think has some implications for policy and thinking about when people might be looking at these types of transitions, also thinking about when folks enter retirement, sometimes it's about retiring from one career and then thinking about, okay, if I'm retired, maybe I want to try something part time, maybe now's the time to try something new, a new phase of my life too. So that maybe that we look at these programs as a way for people to pursue something that is new and different and exciting for them.

I don't know. But we're going to be digging into that a little bit more too. So I think what's also really interesting as we look at the demographic makeup, the majority of the folks in this program live alone in some capacity. They're divorced, never married, widowed, separated. And that's probably not surprising when you think about the financial need. Right. So if you're living alone, you're really relying on one income in that household to pay the bills. And so it's possible that you're really needing that extra income from employment to sustain that household.

So it seems that the program is really attracting folks who are not partnered or currently married, at least based on the current survey findings.

That brings up an issue in that when we're doing these studies, what does the general economy look like? So when I was starting at employment for seniors and the 2008 recession was going gangbusters, half of our population was 50 to 60 and the other half was 60 to 80 or older. And as the economy got better, that percentage of 50 to 60 dropped. So it. Because it was easier for them to find a job. And it was still difficult for somebody over 60, over 70 to find work, but the 50 to 60 were still able to get that. So that, that's. And you've been doing this study at a time in which the economy was fairly steady. So you probably have a much better feel for the sort of normal needs of older adults in workforce than what I was looking at during the recession.

Yes, yes. I will also add the one thing that is unique about these pilots is that the employment that they're focused on is paraprofessional work. And so most of the participants have at least some level of college. They at least have a high school diploma and, and some have some college courses or a college degree. And so the jobs that these programs are looking to place them in would be things like paralegal jobs or early childhood education, for example. So that makes it also somewhat unique and potentially challenging as well because it does mean that the jobs that they're placing them in, so some of these programs actually do offer or partner with say, a community college where that person, that older adult participant, is running through a certification program where they're earning a certification. And so it's a little more of a commitment than just coming for some workshops to retool. I mean, it is a commitment to come and really earn that certification and commit to that particular career path, but also a tremendous opportunity for success because you come out of the program with a credential and a very clear path into a, a role.

So, so we do see that in the demographics that the majority of our participants do have some, they're slightly more educated than probably the general population.

And did you, do you see that in all of the seven sites or are the sites themselves different?

So we haven't analyzed them site by site, but I would suspect there is also some site by site variation. I will say that the majority of the responses, most of them came from our New York City site because it's the largest site in the sample. They hundreds of participants. And some of our more rural sites have a smaller number. So as I give you some of these, some of these stats know that they're probably also over representing the New York City site. Their program is called Silvercore and they recruit, of course, across New York City and they are placing folks in a wide variety of jobs. So that program is probably the most interesting out of them all because it doesn't have one clear path of okay, everybody that comes into this program is going into early childhood education. It's everybody that comes in.

We're going to assess what your career path could be and then we're going to find a job, we're going to find a volunteer placement for you. So it's a little more of a general type of model. So the participants are very diverse and the pathways that they follow are very diverse. And likewise, they also kind of skew our data a little bit more because most of the folks in the data set are from that particular program.

Okay, thank you.

So the research includes a three year study of participants from seven AmeriCorps training sites, as we mentioned. Now, can you give us an overview of the data you've collected from the participants? Like, what did the findings say about motivations for older adults to Find paid employment.

Yeah. So we're very interested in why folks are gravitating toward these programs and why they come back into the workforce. And not surprisingly, one of the number one motivators is earning income earnings. If it's a stipend for the volunteer work, I should say the volunteer work, that phase of it, folks do earn a stipend. In most cases it's probably more like minimum wage or maybe less than that, but it's just meant to help them stay afloat during that volunteer portion or to earn that wage, that wage when they're actually in the employment placement. That money piece is a big motivator for many folks gaining access to employment, which goes hand in hand with the payment piece. But also just as important, about half of the folks that we surveyed say they want to learn new skills or new information. And about a third say that they're motivated to give back to their community.

So the, you know, that idea that there's, there's volunteerism built into the model is attractive to some of the participants that they're giving back to the community. Also the fact, I think that there's some sense of purpose in some of the jobs and some of the pathways that, that are built into these programs. And so it isn't just about pay. And for many people it can just, it can be pay and a sense of purpose. Right. We can have multiple things that bring us into the workforce. And so we definitely see that reflected in the data that people, in addition to earning income, also want some sense of purpose or giving back to the community. And close to about one in five say they also want to make social connections, make new friends.

So I mean, there's a wide variety there. And I would say that for any employers listening too, I mean, these are all the reasons that people want to come to work. Right. We want to earn money, but we also want to have a sense of purpose. We want to meet people, we want to use our skills, we want to make new skills. So those are the same reasons that participants gravitate toward this program.

Yeah, I was going to say it'd be interesting to see over time. Let's say you're able to do this for 20 years of that five year increment of that Generation X getting more and older because I'm an old Gen Xer. So you're at the cusp of a different generation walking into this, right? Yeah.

And those particular issues, more money, new skills, making connections, having a purpose, that's not any different for an older adult as it is for a young person. And that's one of the things too that we saw over time that the issues that we faced with older adults were the same issues that a young person just going into their career path were facing the same thing. So it's in some ways that's sort of, it's a good feeling. In other ways it's like, didn't we fix that by now? You know what's going on.

Exactly.

So, you know, being a volunteer and getting experience as a volunteer, there's no guarantee that that's going to be to your advantage and you're going to get a job because of it probably is going to help, but it's not a guarantee. Are there other particular worker characteristics that contribute to an adult successfully reentering the workforce? Did you see anything else going on other than just this volunteerism?

Yeah, you know, and I think we're still teasing that out from the data, but I would say it's not so much a work worker characteristic as much as when we look at that volunteer experience, There needs to be a good fit between the volunteer experience and the employment piece. And what we definitely have heard from the volunteers is if that fit isn't there, they notice that and they definitely articulate that. So if your ultimate path is going to be going into, say, community health work and doing something health related, you know, having people pack boxes at say, you know, food distribution center, there's not that direct link back to the skills that I'm going to need for that for that workplace. And so that also can be a challenge because the types of things that are available, the types of roles that we have available in the volunteer space don't always readily translate to workplace skills. So I think that the onus is really on programs like this to think about how can we build opportunities for volunteers that build skills and make those skills apparent to everybody? Okay, this is why we're configuring this volunteer opportunity. Here are the skills you're going to learn and ultimately here's how you're going to use them. One of the best examples I give is the program in Porter Leaf, and Porter Leaf is the early childhood program. And those folks volunteer in the very classrooms where they ultimately are hired and they work.

And so that translation of the skills, skill that they learn in that volunteer space readily translates once they get hired. It's a little more of a leap when the volunteer work isn't in that same setting. So I think it's harder for that participant to make those connections if the volunteer assignment isn't as aligned with ultimately that path. So if you are somebody, if you're a job seeker who is not part of a program and you're just trying to think about how do I connect with, with volunteer work that's ultimately going to help me get a job. I think be very clear about ultimately what kind of a job you want, what kind of skills you might need to build, finding volunteer work that's either going to help you build those skills or don't forget about the importance of connections too. Networking those networking connections that can help you find those jobs too. So I would say we haven't quite figured out if there are, I think, personal kinds of aspects to that worker other than things like curiosity, that interest in learning that we saw in the motivation piece, being open to new experiences, I think those are important. Those are.

Regardless of age, I don't think there's any age related connection there at all. But I think part of this is back on the programs to really think about how do you create that good fit between the volunteer work and ultimately where people hope to go with those skills that they're learning.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Yeah. Which employers and organizations are most able to utilize the skills of an older job applicant? Is it dependent on the type of industry or is it connected to the recruitment programs and the leadership of an organization?

Yeah, you know, I think we've come at this from the research angle, assuming that part of this is about the leadership of the organization and so we actually do interview as part of our research work, leadership at these organizations to understand to what extent has leadership invested in age inclusivity? Are they providing trainings to their staff? Are they thinking about age inclusive policies, you know, those kinds of things, you know, are they thinking about the culture and climate of their organizations? The good news is that because all seven of these pilots are targeting very different industries. We've got healthcare, early childhood, financial industries. I mean, it really cuts across so many different industries that there are literally employers, you know, across that just from a range of backgrounds that are doing this work and doing it well. So I don't think that there are any specific industries that we can say these industries do it well and these don't. I think there's potential across the board. I'd say that those that do it well are organizations that are open to flexibility, flexible arrangements, so flexible hours. Thinking about ways that we might reconfigure jobs, you know, job sharing, can we split say a full time job into two part time jobs, things like that, you know, kind of thinking Innovatively about how we configure the work. I'd say also a commitment to accessibility.

And the key, the thing about accessibility, and I think we've already sort of brought this up, is that it's not just about age related accessibility, because these are things that if you're thinking about accessibility across the board, you're benefiting all of your employees, not just older adults, but just thinking about, do you have an accessible workplace? And I think also organizations that invest in training across the board for people of all ages, whether that's technology training, helping people to really stay up on their skills across age lines, because that's going to help people and help their employees, kind of, it levels the playing field for everybody. So I do think there are certain characteristics, but the good news is I think that every industry has that ability to, I think, be successful here. And we definitely see that among the partners for this program.

So, Jennifer, I was really excited to see a list of strategies that your team created for employers in their recruiting and retaining of older adults. This is information that I really think is so important because so often an employer has no clue and, and they're not interested in working with older adults because they have assumptions that aren't really true. How can the culture of an organization promote inclusivity, creating this solid multi generational workforce that we now have?

Yeah, so we have some tip sheets up on our website for folks who are interested in sort of digging into what we've learned. And then we've started to translate some of the things that we've been learning into some very concrete strategies that employers can, can use and older workers can use and just folks across the board. And so we do have a tip sheet on strategies for recruiting and retaining. And some of those strategies I think help to build an age inclusive workforce. So as we talked about, I think purposeful roles are really important across the board, not just for older adults, but people of all ages. Right. So thinking about how do we configure work in a way that's meaningful or at least making that obvious to people, I think flexible schedules are so important. And as we think about even things like caregiving, again, I think that crosses age related boundaries.

But caregiving is something that is growing in our country. We have millions of caregivers in our country and we definitely have heard that the older participants in our program need that flexibility sometimes because they have caregiving responsibilities, whether that is for another older family member or sometimes even for children in their family. So, you know, thinking about how can you create flexible Schedules so that people can be present for caregiving if they need that. We've talked about things like, you know, how do we build an accessible environment for workers? I think also, you know, some very basic things that you could think about are, you know, when you're doing hiring, keeping the, keeping your hiring practices really anchored in the skills that are needed for a job versus thinking about the fit for the culture of the organization. You know, really standardizing that, looking at skills, looking at the things that are aligned with that job description. Avoiding ageist language in our, in our job recruiting ads. Things like, you know, looking for someone with a fresh perspective, someone who's energetic or, or this job would be great for a new grad. I mean, avoiding language that might signal to people that we're looking for a certain type of worker.

Right. So some of those things may be very subtle if we don't have the kind of proper training in ageism or thinking about these sorts of things. So I think even just training is a very basic step that folks can take to just be aware of how ageism might show up in your organization. But I think at the end of the day, having teams that cross generations, having a multi generational workforce is ultimately going to benefit everybody, workers of all ages.

One of the things that I always used to sort of complain to employers is, you know, if you are truly interested in older adults on your team, then put a picture of somebody on your website that looks older than 18. You know, there are little tiny things that they don't think about and realize that those can create barriers for somebody being interested in their organization.

Yeah, exactly.

So let's flip this. Are there specific benefits that are valued by older job applicants when evaluating employers? Things like I'm assuming some flexible scheduling, PTO or possible training. And some things you probably mentioned on the reverse side with the employers looking at it. But I'm sure there's maybe some things that need to be noted as well too, as an employee, a job applicant.

Absolutely. Yeah. So flexible scheduling is important. We've definitely heard that as we've done focus groups and we've collected data from participants, the ability to work part time is also important. We did a focus group with folks and I remember hearing people say, clearly, you know, I'm not a 40 hour a week person right now. I don't have the energy for that, or I have other commitments right now in my life and I just don't want to commit to 40 hours. So I think offering different levels of commitment for people, whether that's 20 hours a week, 30 hours a week, but having jobs that maybe aren't necessarily 40 hours a week for folks. So thinking about that, and then in terms of benefits, I will mention that one of the sites offers as a benefit when folks are in their volunteer, the volunteer portion of their training is supplemental health insurance that supplements Medicare, so it lowers their, their health insurance costs.

And also they offer dental insurance. And the participants have raved about that. And that's been a really a key aspect of their satisfaction with participating in that program. So even things like that have really made the difference. I would also say that program offers, I think it's bus passes and to supplement some of the transportation costs. And because it's in a more urban area, that's really important too, any time to keep those costs down for folks. And so I'd say benefits like that are always, always welcome. But things, you know, flexibility, anytime we can lower costs for folks, you know, and I think there might even be some intangible kind of benefits too around we haven't talked about.

Are there ways that older workers can share what they know, what their skills and knowledge, what they bring to the workforce, with other workers as well? So are there ways that mentorship opportunities, for example, that's not necessarily a distinct benefit that we're offering employees, but are there kind of informal ways that people can be connecting in the workplace, again, bringing that sense of purpose or bringing those social connections into the workplace can offer those benefits back to people too.

As having been someone who's retired twice, I love that notion of flexible scheduling. And that's one of the things that we talked with employers a lot of before COVID that notion of job sharing or taking a position and breaking it up into two positions. Before COVID employers were not interested. To them it meant more work. Have you seen since COVID employers realizing they need to be more flexible with their notion of creating positions, have you seen that as more readily available to older workers?

You know, I think so. I think partly driven by some of the workforce shortages that we're seeing, you know, especially in our state, people need to think creatively to get some of these positions filled. I think ultimately if it comes down to, you know, two part time positions versus a full time position, and you've got an older worker or maybe even two older workers who will say, I'll stay, we'll both stay in part time positions versus a full time where it's not going to work for anybody. I would go with two part time positions. You know, that would be my advice. So I think that we're going to see more of that, quite honestly, as they look at, you know, what are the options that are going to attract people. I do hope that across the board there are going to be options. I'm not saying we should, we should replace all of our full time, you know, opportunities with part time, but there does need to be more options for folks who, for whom, you know, a full time opportunity is just not going to work.

Right. I can remember when there was a huge nursing shortage and employers at hospitals particularly were really looking at ways to get a nurse in. So they went to those 12 hour shifts and possibly like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 12 hour shifts, and then they had the rest of the week off to be with their kids. There are a lot of things that when an employer hits sort of that burning platform position, they start being creative. And as you said, all of the states, we're all looking at a shortage of skilled workers. And so employers do have to really kind of step up to the plate and think outside the box when they're putting those position descriptions together. So thank you so much for that. So when we're looking at your research, I think you've completed two years, you're going into your third year.

What are the next steps on the research path and are there particular topics that you want to make sure you include in the next phase?

Yeah, so we are just about to do our second round of participant data collection. And so this is about following folks over time. And so the next question is for those who transitioned to employment, did they maintain their employment? Why or why not? And so this is sort of the next big question. And if they're. So I think it's one thing to help people transition to employment and it's another thing to retain. And so we might actually learn some things about that retention question that may be very different from helping people get jobs. So I think that might be the next phase of our learning is we know what motivates people. Right.

We've talked about what motivates people to get through the door, but what motivates people to stay. Is it still that sense of purpose, learning new skills? Is it something different? So I think we might have some new learning there. And we're also learning a lot from the programs about what it's like to run these types of efforts too. So I think we're going to have some deeper learning on both of those fronts. So we will be repeating our data collection in the next couple of months with both the participants and the programs and hope to learn something new and exciting there. And of course, as you mentioned, Carol, we are going into a new kind of economic outlook, too. And so will that affect how these participants are engaging with work and how satisfied they are or not with the workforce? So I think that that context is going to bring some real new insights for us.

Jennifer, as an additional question on this research, you've done a lot of participants surveying. How about the employers? What are you hearing from them?

Yeah, so we did do an annual survey of the partners for this program. So the partners include employers, training sites and volunteer sites. And so in our first round, we asked questions such as, you know, have you had any training in age diversity in your workplace? Do you offer that training to your employees? So we definitely see some gaps there. Only about a third of organizations that partner on this program offer any type of employee training that touches on age diversity in the workplace. And so we definitely see an area for growth. And, and I recognize that I think some of these trainings just aren't widely available either. And so that is certainly a gap that I think could be addressed. So that will also be interesting to see over time.

You know, do any of those numbers change, especially as they've been involved in this initiative, are they also growing in their awareness around things like age diversity? Might they might those numbers grow as that awareness increases? So we may, as we follow those partners over time, also see some of those numbers shift and change. Change.

Excellent. Thank you.

Well, before we finish, I'm asking a couple things. One, give us more details on the clinical geriatrics colloquium coming up in October. And we always ask our guests if they have any last words of wisdom that they want to share that you haven't touched upon already.

Sure. Yeah. So every year we do a clinical geriatrics colloquium. It is on, you know, we do a variety of topics. And this year, because we are so excited about the workforce development work that we are doing, we are focused on the topic of workforce, and not just workforce, but the role of health and work for older adults. And so this year our colloquium is virtual. It's going to be held on October 23rd. So for you listeners, save the date and we'll have more details available on our website.

That's maincenteronaging.org M A I N E like the state maincenteronaging.org we're going to have experts from aging, workforce development and programming talking about how health and work intersect. So working can make us healthier. And also if we have good health, we can work. So there's that kind of two way flow, but also everything in between. So it's going to be a great program. We hope folks can join us. So more to come there. And then in terms of last words of wisdom, I think we've spent so much time talking about older workers and I just want to go back and reiterate something that we've touched on a little bit, which is we've talked about how to recruit them and some of the strategies to keep in mind to attract and retain them.

But really I think many of these strategies again apply across the age spectrum. So even if you start by focusing on older workers and you build a system and you build strategies that work for older workers, I think you're really going to attract and retain an age diverse workforce. And ultimately that is going to build innovation, that is going to build connections across your workforce that you know will pay dividends, no doubt. And so I just want to reiterate that I think we've had a great discussion, but keep in mind that an investment in older workers really can be an investment in workers of all ages.

And that's where we need organizations and companies doing testimonials to that effect. Just coming out and saying, yeah, this one program worked for all the ages. We had to tweak here a little bit because of certain situations. But we need to hear leadership step up and say this stuff works, right?

Absolutely. And our matriarch of aging services here in Columbus, her famous line is if it's good for an older worker or an older adult, it's good for a younger adult. That works no matter what the topic is, whether it's public transportation or employment, it works across the board. And I think an employer could see the value and benefit. And I like that idea of testimonials. So we'll have to think about that.

Yeah.

All right. So listeners, first, let me remind you that we are going to have a lot of resources in our show notes when we post this podcast and information and contact information for Dr. Crittenden so that if you have more information, more ideas, and we would love to have her do a site, one of the sites here in Columbus. We'll have to talk about how do we get AmeriCorps to do a site in Columbus. I think this would just be incredible opportunity for everyone. But just let's give our thanks to our expert guest, Dr. Jennifer Crittenden, Assistant professor of Social work at the University of Maine, for joining us today. Thank you so much.

And listeners, thank you. For joining us. You're going to find the contact information and resources as we discussed in our podcast show Notes on our website@lookingforwardourway.com and we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this and any of our podcast episodes.