Where employers find experienced talent.
Retirement sure looks a lot different than it used to.
People are retiring younger – at age 61, on average – than ever. What’s more, they are more healthy, active, and ‘with it’ than any previous generation. They may not want to work 50-hour weeks in a high-pressure job any more, but they definitely don’t want to sit in a rocking chair knitting mittens for their grandchildren, either.
At the same time, Employers are beginning to realize that ‘older’ – usually defined as anyone over 50 – workers who leave the workforce are taking a lot of very valuable skills and experience with them. They want to tap into this talent pool, but up until now they haven’t known where to find them.
So we created Retired Worker: We connect older workers who want to work on a part-time, temporary or project basis with Employers who are looking for the experience, broad skill base and value they deliver.
How does it work?
Think of Retired Worker as a sort of ‘dating service’. Job-seekers sign up as ‘member Employees’, and create a Skills Profile, which is an online, point-and-click ‘resume’ including details about education, experience, specific skills, accreditations and certifications, what type of work they are looking for, etc. (They can also upload their resume if they have one, but it is not mandatory.)
When Employers post jobs, they are also taken through this point-and-click process, detailing what they are looking for.
Employees and Employers are then ‘matched’ in two ways: First, within 24 hours of posting a job, Employers receive a list of the top 10 member Employees who fit the requirements they indicated in their job posting. Second, job-seekers can ‘self-apply’ to jobs they see posted simply by clicking on the ‘Apply Now’ button. Employers can look at the candidate’s Skills Profile and email address online. From there, Employers contact candidates directly to arrange for interviews.
A new feature: Employers can now search the Retired Worker membership database for specific skills and experience, without having to post a job publicly. Again, their search will generate a list of the member Employees who match their criteria, and they are given candidate’s name and email address, and contact candidates directly.
What does it cost?
Membership is always free for Employees.
Job postings cost $50 each, or 3 for $125. Job postings stay up for 30 days or until there are 3 matches, whichever is longer (of course Employers are welcome to remove job postings earlier if the position is filled). For more details about our pricing packages, please click here.
Employees
Click here to create a free Employee membership and profile. It only takes about 5 minutes, and you don’t need a resumé!
If you’re already a member, just click Member Sign-In over there on the left.
Browse through our current jobs here.
Want to know more about being an Employee at Retired Worker? Click here.
Employers
Post a job opportunity here.
Want to know more about being an Employer at Retired Worker? Click here.
Background
Retired Worker was created, and is owned by, Sarah Welstead and Max Stocker. Sarah is the president of StayAwake (www.stayawake.tv), a marketing company in downtown Toronto. Max is the brains behind Really Useful Computing (www.reallyusefulcomputing.com), a website and database consultancy, also located in Toronto.
Linda Welstead (Director of Market Development and Sarah’s mom) was the inspiration for the site: It was her retirement in 2002 that alerted Sarah and Max that there was no service for retired people who wanted to work on a part-time, casual, or seasonal basis. In most cases, when a niche like this is identified, it doesn’t take long for a solution to appear: someone in the target market would build a website in their basement and it would grow organically – without big corporate backing – simply because the pent-up demand was so great. But while internet use is growing fastest among people 55+, few have the advanced programming skills required to create a site like Retired Worker – the solution had to come from somewhere outside the demographic.
