Must remain in tune with trends to stay employable: Senior citizens

BENGALURU: We continuously challenge the assumption that seniors become redundant after the age of 60 and strive to empower them to find meaningful work,” said Dipti Varma Narain, founder of Silver Surfers Club, at a panel discussion with business leaders on re-employing seniors and building an age inclusive workforce for seniors in the society.

The discussion, held on Thursday at Bangalore International Centre, was an initiative by the organisation that represents seniors who want to continue working, stay financially independent and relevant well past the legal retirement age of 60.

With the official launch of Surge – A renewed Silver workforce, on September 5, members of the organisation tried to understand their insights into building an age-inclusive community, and the opportunities that exist for seniors today.

Annice Joseph, global lead for Cross Generational Intelligence at SAP, Rag Ranjan, senior VP of Northern Trust, Manoj Chakrabarty, chief operating officer of IIM Bangalore, Bala SR, founder of Techstars and Dr Rema Ramachandran, a torch bearer for the silver generation and director of services of International Women’s Federation of Commerce and Industry, India, were the panellists.

All of them agreed that generational inclusion is important as there are symbiotic benefits. One of the senior-most panel members, Chakrabarty said, “Diversity results in more profit. We are as good as the last game. Being relevant is important. We have the same access to everything that youngsters have. We must keep ourselves updated with the current trends to remain employable.”

Agreeing with Chakrabarty, Ramachandran asserted, “If we need to sustain well in society, we need to fit in by learning.”

The core objective of the discussion was to address the emerging opportunity of re-employment by honing skill sets after retirement and keeping oneself as competitive as the youngsters.

The panellists came to a conclusion to build a renewed silver workforce, a body of members needs to be created to share their ideas and values, start a portal where seniors can upload their resumes for jobs and training and upskill the silver generation to start working again with the help of corporates.
Uma Madan, member of The Silver Surfers Club, said, “Today’s seniors, unlike any generation before them, are living longer, healthier and have more active lives. They’ve garnered a wealth of experience, life skill and wisdom, led companies and institutions to success and have so much potential to unlock. Thus, they should always look forward to venturing in to different avenues keeping the age bar behind.”