Focus on "silver age group" returning to the workplace
Recently, 51job released the "2022 Research Report on Retirement and Reemployment of the Elderly Group" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The "Report" shows that 68% of the elderly group have a strong willingness to find employment after retirement. Among them, 46.7% of the elderly returned to the job market to seek personal and social value. 19% of job seekers hope to develop their skills and continue to pursue career development.
In fact, with the prolongation of the average life expectancy and the continuous improvement of the health status of the Chinese population, more and more elderly people who have reached the retirement age still have the energy and willingness to continue to participate in social activities. The topic of "re-employment of the 'silver age group'" has received close attention from the public.
However, the "silver age group" still faces many obstacles to return to the workplace: the relevant legal protection system is not perfect, it is easy to suffer from "age discrimination" when applying for a job, and there are few suitable jobs that can do it... How can the "silver age group" get a job again? to avoid detours? The reporter made an in-depth interview on this.
Voice of "Silver Age"——
Although dissatisfied with the old, but also helpless
The 55-year-old Ms. Zhao Baoxiu should have enjoyed her retirement life, but with the birth of her granddaughter last year, she came to Beijing non-stop from her hometown in Shandong to wash, cook, and take care of her baby. She is very busy every day.
Before retiring, Zhao Baoxiu was the principal of a local public kindergarten. Because of his serious and responsible work, he was well-known in the local area.
"To tell you the truth, I am young at heart and I like children. After retirement, I thought about opening a kindergarten by myself. I can find something to do and generate income. But considering that my daughter and son-in-law are usually very busy at work, the children Since the baby can't live without people, I'm here." She said.
Like Zhao Baoxiu, there are not a few elderly people who have to help their children with childcare after retirement.
According to the "Social Survey on Actively Responding to Population Aging" (hereinafter referred to as the "survey") conducted by the Population Research Institute of Fudan University in 2021, among the more than 1,700 elderly people who participated in the survey, about one-third of the elderly are responsible for their children and grandchildren. Two-generation family labor (mainly refers to the two typical family labor situations of the elderly, "helping the children with the children" and "helping the children with housework").
The survey results show that, on the one hand, the elderly can effectively help young families; on the other hand, the elderly’s physical and mental pressure increases sharply, their quality of life is dragged down by housework in their later years, their willingness to raise is reduced, and their ability to raise scientifically is insufficient. .
"It's hard work to take care of children. My daughter and son-in-law also mentioned that I can find a nanny to let me have a good rest, but I don't feel relieved." Zhao Baoxiu said.
Mr. Cai, 61, who lives in Taiyuan, Shanxi, also wants to return to the workplace, but he said frankly: "It is difficult to find jobs in the market that are suitable for us old people who used to have skills." As a professional technician, Mr. Cai, After retiring, I have been at home all the time. "In the past few years, I have also thought about finding jobs like security guards and cleaning, but I always feel that it is too embarrassing. When I apply for a job in some companies, people reject me because of my age. I can also understand that, after all, I am not a young person, and if something goes wrong one day, it will be troublesome."
"Some time ago, I read the news that a sanitation worker who was almost 80 years old had failed to ask for his salary for more than two years. The local labor inspection department said that because the old man exceeded the legal retirement age, his labor contract with the company was terminated, which is not a labor inspection. Scope of handling. Many old folks around me who are interested in re-employment are worried after reading it. If something similar happens, we don’t have so much energy to deal with it.” Mr. Cai said.
In fact, according to the current labor laws and regulations, the re-employment of the "silver age group" no longer forms a labor relationship with the employer. The employer only needs to pay remuneration and does not involve social insurance.
This means that the protection of labor rights and interests of the "silver age group" has actually been in a blank area.
Choosing labor-intensive industries such as security, cleaning, and urban sanitation workers is also a helpless move for many "silver-aged people".
Social Reality--
Lack of effective communication between enterprises and the elderly
On August 24 this year, the China Elderly Talents Network (hereinafter referred to as the "Elderly Talents Network") sponsored by the China Aging Association's Elderly Talent Information Center was launched, including multiple channels such as "Job Recruitment", "Career Selection Guidance", and "Dual Entrepreneurship Platform".
Only two days after the website was launched, it attracted more than 5,000 job seekers and more than 100 companies registered.
According to the person in charge of the Elderly Talent Information Center of the China Association on Aging, the Elderly Talent Network aims to build a platform for the re-employment of the elderly, broaden the channels for reemployment, create a think tank for the elderly, promote the development of human resources for the elderly, and serve the elderly talents, organizations related to the elderly, and the elderly across the country. Service agencies and employers provide professional, authoritative and practical information services.
Through the Elderly Talent Network, the reporter contacted a senior care service company located in Beijing. The company posted recruitment information for caregivers, nurses and other positions on the website, and most of them did not set an upper age limit.
According to the contact person of the company, compared with young people, the company welcomes the joining of "silver-aged people". "For the position of caregiver, the elderly can better understand and care for the elderly, and many elderly people suffer more. Work hard and provide better service."
A contact person from a magazine that recruits editors also said that the "silver age group" has accumulated rich work experience before retirement and has relatively strong logical thinking ability. "Taking text editors as an example, we have higher education requirements for recruits , which means that the recruits can not only make an objective and fair evaluation of the quality of the manuscript, but also independently process, revise and proofread it, and ensure that the quality of the final manuscript meets the requirements of the editorial specification.”
Ms. Dai, the person in charge of a human resources company, told reporters that in recent years, more and more "silver-aged people" have embarked on the road of job hunting, and hope to be able to engage in occupations related to their previous jobs.
Although these elderly people meet the requirements in terms of ability, enterprises still worry that the elderly cannot adapt to the high work intensity, so they dare not easily provide job opportunities.
"Moreover, some elderly people do things more casually, such as feeling dissatisfied after working for a period of time, or having something to do at home, and sometimes leave without saying hello. This has led to many companies now only providing temporary positions such as service guarantees for the elderly." Ms. Dai said .
Not long ago, McDonald’s posted a message on the Senior Talent Network, recruiting retired employees who are over 50 years old and men over 60 years old. They adopt a flexible working system, work 4 to 5 days a week, and work 4 to 8 hours a day. 1800 yuan to 3500 yuan.
The reporter learned from a McDonald's that the job content of the recruitment position mainly includes scanning codes to measure temperature, clearing dishes, and making food.
Many retirees feel that this job is not tiring and they can do it.
However, there are also retirees who feel that their salaries have not met their expectations and their willingness to work is not strong.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the Senior Talent Information Center of the China Association for the Aging said that a very important reason for the above phenomenon is the lack of effective communication between the elderly who are interested in job hunting and the companies that provide jobs.
For example, on many recruitment websites, there are relatively few recruitment positions for people aged 50 to 60, and there are almost zero recruitment positions for people over 60 years old.
"On the one hand, there are huge job gaps in domestic services, catering services, and community services, but many elderly people do not have access to relevant recruitment information; on the other hand, some professional and technical industries, such as doctors and teachers, can be described as ' The older they are, the more valuable they are. The professional knowledge and technical skills mastered by these people after retirement are actually still needed by the society. If the "wisdom bonus" of these elderly people is developed and utilized to help them achieve secondary employment, they will be able to benefit in their professional fields. If we continue to play a role, we will be able to achieve a win-win situation of both economic and social benefits," said the person in charge.
Many suggestions -
Actively promote the development and utilization of human resources for the elderly
At present, voluntary service is an important way that the elderly are willing to participate, and it is also an important way for the elderly to participate in social development advocated by the government.
Participating in voluntary service can, on the one hand, promote the physical and mental health of the elderly, and on the other hand help the elderly re-socialize.
Hua Lei, Secretary of the Party Branch of Ruihong No. 1 Community, Jiaxing Road Street, Hongkou District, Shanghai, told reporters that the community will regularly post notices to recruit volunteers to attract retired residents to participate in community volunteer services.
"For example, the recent opening of a park near the community requires a large number of volunteers to maintain order. After the Street New Era Civilization Practice Center informs the neighborhood committee of the recruitment of park volunteers, the neighborhood committee then informs the elderly volunteers of the information (including volunteer service content and subsidies, etc.) Elderly volunteers will sign up according to their own circumstances. Elderly volunteers with more leisure time will choose to go to the park every day to maintain order, and those with less leisure time will choose to go to the park two days a week. Such a flexible time setting can not only make Retirees can use their residual heat without affecting their daily life." Hua Lei said.
Elderly people choose to participate in voluntary services. In addition to some people who give based on their feelings, many people expect to earn a certain amount of income and improve their lives.
For example, according to the "Report", one-third of elderly job seekers hope to meet higher-level consumption needs through reemployment to subsidize their households and increase income.
However, at present, the elderly generally lack re-employment-related channels and can only choose to participate in voluntary services.
Hua Lei said that many elderly people in the community are looking for employment opportunities through the introduction of friends or relatives, which leads to the lack of strong willingness of most elderly people to re-employ. The platform publishes more job information such as service hours, service content, salary and treatment, so as to attract the attention of the elderly to re-employment.”
According to Bao Chunlei, deputy director of the Employment and Entrepreneurship Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, it is necessary to strengthen the development of human resources for senior citizens.
However, there are different types of groups among the elderly. For high-level elderly talents, they should be actively promoted to play their roles. For general elderly human resources, it is necessary to provide more channels to guide them to re-evaluate their wishes under the premise of respecting the wishes of the elderly. employment.
"Take the elderly migrant workers, especially those in the construction industry, as an example. If they only rely on pension income after retirement, it will be difficult for them to maintain their lives. Therefore, they have a strong willingness to re-employ and earn income. For this group of people, we should increase their skills. Training and development efforts will help them obtain better employment opportunities." Bao Chunlei said.
Xu Zhixing, deputy director of the Department of Human Resource Management, School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University, believes that better promotion of entrepreneurship among the elderly is also an effective exploration for the development of human resources for elderly talents. Whether it is improved, whether self-worth is improved, etc. However, the elderly often encounter more resistance to entrepreneurship, including lack of effective guidance and distrust of capital, etc.”
How to ensure the steady and long-term development of entrepreneurship among the elderly?
"In terms of policy incentives, we can set up a special agency in charge of entrepreneurship for the elderly to provide more assistance for entrepreneurship projects and financial support for the elderly; in terms of education, it is recommended to include entrepreneurship for the elderly in the education and training system for the elderly. In addition, now Entrepreneurship requires digital technology. At present, digital technology is relatively unfamiliar to the elderly. I believe that with the joint efforts of the government, society and the elderly, the accumulated knowledge and experience of the elderly will become a valuable asset for entrepreneurship, helping them create more Social value." Xu Zhixing said.
(Our reporter Ren Huan)