With just over 10,000 Americans turning 65 each day, a new wave of the most educated, experienced generation of workers with vast amounts of knowledge is approaching traditional retirement age.
The Cleveland Foundation anticipates that in Cuyahoga County alone, between the years 2000 and 2050, the percentage of individuals age 50 and older is expected t increase 66 percent. At the same time, Americans are living and working longer than ever before.
People work for multiple reasons: they need the money, they love what they do or employers do not want to lose the institutional knowledge employees possess. With so many reasons to remain employed, no wonder encore careers have gained a foothold in Northeast Ohio.
WHY PURSUE AN ENCORE CAREER?
Having the ability to transfer both professional skills and sometimes personal skills or hobbies into a flexible part-time job can be rewarding. Skills can be parlayed into work for local nonprofit and government agencies that match social interests. Enjoy animals? The local animal shelter may need fundraising or marketing help. Did you work in education? A local nonprofit providing adult education programs may use your assistance in their resource library.
If you have been retired for an extended period of time and need to re-enter the workforce for financial reasons, networking can help you connect with other professionals.
COMMUNITY BENEFITS
Most nonprofits and governmental agencies depend on federal and state funding or private foundation support. That can mean lean budgets and even leaner staffing while struggling to acquire experienced staff to help build and sustain programs. A passionate and experienced encore employee can provide skills that have been put to the test on a day-to-day basis, helping to grow a business and its funding.
With years of real-world professional skills, encore employees also know how to develop and manage people. They can provide a multigenerational workforce where their valuable life experience and people skills translate to lower training costs and coaching assistance.
LOCAL HELP TO REENTER THE WORKFORCE
The demand for encore careers is growing rapidly. The Encore Cleveland initiative was launched in 2013 by the Cleveland Foundation. It helps connect and pay for a network of organizations to give Greater Clevelanders an array of meaningful local work opportunities.
An example is the Encore Career Network, a division of Mature Services. Encore Career Network helps people find work similar to what they did during their career or to explore a new path aligned with their interests or passions. Individuals fill needs in areas such as finance, human resources, operations, marketing or grant writing, or provide direct services in areas such as tutoring, mentoring or other intergenerational programming.
