Findings prove that older workers are the most flexible

New research from Talent Q, a people assessment company that helps employers recruit and manage talent, has shown that older workers are the most flexible. In-depth analysis of over 5,700 workers reveals that as people get older they become increasingly willing to take on new tasks and more varied roles.

The research defies the common preconception that older workers are unwilling to accommodate change and that they may be unresponsive to new challenges presented in the workplace.

The study had numerous positive findings, with older workers being happy to work on their own and take a leading role without the need for much guidance. They also demonstrate a high level of ability in building successful working relationships with colleagues, clients and suppliers. Intelligence testing revealed that older workers' verbal reasoning was the same as their younger colleagues and while they take longer to calculate answers to numerical problems, they are equally able.

While it was shown that workers in their fifties and sixties are much less ambitious than their younger colleagues, this is simply thought to be a sign that they have achieved their goals or decided that they are happy with their lot in life.

Steve O'Dell, chief executive of Talent Q, said: "Older people in the workplace might sometimes be viewed as being stuck in their ways and a little less sharp. Our research gives a very different perspective."

"Talent Q found that older workers are less preoccupied about climbing the career ladder and that they tend to be happy, fulfilled and confident. As a result, they are glad to take on new work or projects, and aren't unduly phased by lots of changes. They tend to plough on regardless - a fact that employers are quickly discovering can be a real benefit to their business.

"With an ageing population, and therefore an ageing workforce, the challenge for employers is to understand how to motivate and energise workers in their fifties and sixties. These research findings should be very helpful to employers looking to build well-balanced, effective teams."

Personality assessment

- Employers have previously used different personality assessments for recruiting people, developing people and managing teams. Dimensions is unique as it incorporates all measures into a single assessment

- Superior understanding and measurement of the key aspects of personality have allowed Talent Q to reduce the time taken to complete a personality assessment from one hour to half an hour

- Feedback to employers is insightful and actionable. For recruiters, the feedback includes very specific interview questions which help them to further determine candidates' strengths and weaknesses

Intelligence assessment

- Doing away with a multiplicity of verbal and numerical intelligence tests for people of different levels, Elements gives employers a single, unbiased, benchmark test

- The online questionnaire is 'dynamic' - it changes according to the candidate's capability as they progress through it

- With one test for the entire organisation, and the removal of graduate/non graduate versions, Talent Q is helping organisations find talent in unexpected places

Research validity

The findings were based on data from over 5,700 people who have completed Dimensions. Over 4,900 of these people provided detailed bio-data. For the purposes of this release, correlations above 0.1 have been regarded as the minimum to be deemed psychological significant (as opposed a 0.03 benchmark usually used to prove statistical significance).