Think and Solve 2

GROUP A
Prepared by :
Name Matric No.
MUHAMMAD ASYRAF B MD. BASRI 247180

AREENA AMANI BT ROHIZAM 247410

NURAIN HUSNA BINTI HAMIDI 247481
AYLA FARIHAH BT AHMAD NAZMI 247582

To
DR. ANNUAR ASWAN BIN MOHD NOOR

On (11 October 2019)

First Semester (September), session 2019/20 (A191)

Submit as part of the coursework requirement
BSMH3123 SEMINAR IN HUMAN RESOURCES

SCHOOL OF BUSSINESS MANAGEMENT

COLLEGE OF BUSSINESS, UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA
Introduction

In 2018, the Malaysian population aged over 65 years was projected to be 6.6%. Malaysia
is now facing the prospect of an aging population, and the latest statistics estimated that this would
happen as soon as 2030. An aging population is defined as one in which those aged 65 and above
represent at least 15% of the total population. The 15 percent mark would be met by 2030,
according to a report by the Chief Statistician of Malaysia on July 2019. The last ten years have
seen a shift in the age structure of Malaysia. The proportion of the population between 0 and 14
years had been steadily declining, while the opposite was true for those aged 65 or older. This
development represented the average age of the Malaysian population and was expected to reach
34.1 years by 2030, up from 28.2 years by 2015.

Income rates and health status were found to be closely associated with elderly people's
life satisfaction. Employment is an important factor in maintaining healthy elderly people. As the
proportion of the aged population increases over time, it is predicted that the ratio of working
people to retired people will drop. Although this could be alleviated by raising the retirement age,
this would lead to a shortage of workers. Continued employment would lead to higher morality,
satisfaction, better adaptation, longevity, broader social network, and better perceived health
among the elderly. This could keep them safe and reduce the health care burden.

Question 1

If you are the person in charge for recruitment, would you prefer to recruit older or younger
candidates? Justify your arguments.

We prefer to recruit older candidate rather than younger candidate:

I. Experience
The older candidates have a lot of experience. Mature workers can mentor the
younger and less experienced workforce in many ways, especially in soft skills such as
better time management planning, communication skills as well as problem-solving
competency. Their experience can also lend itself to helping the younger staff set more
realistic career expectations.
 The older candidate tend to become more productive as they rich with experiences
in doing their job. Older workers are better able to understand the big picture because they
have more life experience to draw from. They are more likely to be aware of unusual
options that have worked before or to suggest an out-of-context tool for an innovative use
because they know it exists from a previous job. The wisdom of years in the workforce can
also help in assessing the consequences of possible solutions.

The old candidates avoid mistakes by having good judgment and they acquire good
judgment by making mistakes is valid. Experienced workers have already made their
learning mistakes with someone else. Even if they need to learn a whole new area of
expertise, the wisdom they've already acquired about doing business is likely to help you
avoid the costly "training errors" that are part of getting inexperienced new hires up to
speed.

II. Less Demand

Less demand in this context refer to older candidates tend to less demand than the
younger candidates. Less demand in asking for wages and benefits. Younger candidates or
fresh graduates usually ask wages align with their level of education without care about
their experienced, but the company looking for the one who experienced much. The more
experience, the higher salary they will pay. Even if the older candidates asking for high
salary it is okay because they align with what they have such as skill and experienced.

Older candidates will work without ask many questions because there more likely
familiar with what they are doing before. If hire a younger candidate, the company needs
to provide training to them, and it will affect the cost and time of the company. Next, the
older candidates do not ask much about the benefits rather than young candidates. Older
candidates just focus on the job and then go back to home, contrary with young candidates.
Younger candidates will be happy if company can provide gym for them to release tension
after office hour.
III. Loyalty
In a survey by Workforce, 80% of respondents claimed that the definition of loyalty
in the workplace has changed over the years. Today, loyal employees are those who are
hired to do a specific job and they will do everything they can to do the best job. Employees
loyalty refers to employees who are committed to the growth of their company and consider
being an employee of the organization as in their best interest. According to a report, “the
length of time a worker remains with the same employer increases with the age at which
the worker began the job”.

Older workers become more loyal because they know the struggles of the company
want to achieve their goals. They know the hardship of the company in order to achieve
their target. This will make their bond with the company are stronger and makes them loyal
to the company. Next, the feeling of wanting to be giving something back to company leads
to loyalty.

After all the struggles they faced, the least think they can do is loyal to the company.
Loyal doesn’t mean stay in the company did not do anything but loyal means willing to
give something to enhance the productivity of the company and the feeling loved the
company whole-heartily. By having a loyal employee, they will do their job in the best
possible manner and they will contribute greatly to boost productivity of the organization.
They are willing to work hard day in, day out and offer a company with high levels of
output.

Question 2

Malaysia shows that the number of elderly in the workforce would increase and at the same
time a shortage of younger cohort is predicted in the future. This situation will create
imbalance in labor supply in the coming years. Suggest FOUR (4) ways that organization
can take to overcome this issue.
 I. Mentor – Mentee
There are some ways for an organization to overcome the issue of to create
imbalance in labor supply in the coming years between older and younger workers. First,
build mentor and mentee program. Older workers often considered more knowledgeable,
reliable, loyal, effective, and being more committed to performance rather than younger
workers that they may lack the skills or experience to convince employer of their ability to
work.
Senior workers will be mentor to all of the younger workers which is have less
experiences and skills. They having probably worked at other places before, they feel
confident enough to take charge and lead the team. Because of the older workers tend to
have more experienced and skilled, they have to teach younger workers on how to improve
their skills and performances.

Ageing also can be one of the effects on the worker’s productivity in an

organization. Basically, older workers are usually known to be more reliable, careful and
conscientious. They also have fewer chances of mistakes. Young workers probably can
learn the mistakes that older workers have made before and try not to repeat them. Older
workers also have fewer accidents and are less likely to quit, resulting in lower employment
costs.

II. Offer contract of employment

Second ways to overcome the issue of to create imbalance in labor supply is make
contract employment for younger workers. Research show that temporary contracts is like
a stepping-stone to a permanent contract rather than a dead end for many younger workers.
They can work within the contract period established by the organization. During that time,
the employees will be evaluated on their performance, skills and ability to work and solve
the problem. Once the assessment is made, the employer can choose whether to take them
to work with the organization or to terminate them.
 Usually, younger workers prefer to continue their education or to work in different
places rather than only in one place to gain more skills and experiences. After the contract
expires, they can also choose to stay or go to another job. This way can create an imbalance
in labor supply in the coming years between older and younger workers.

III. Each department or position must have a quota for both young and older
workforce.
The most effective ways for organization can take to create balance in labour
supply in the future is to ensure that each department or position in the organization must
have a quota for both young and older workforce. The organization may give to the older
workforce the higher position such as senior executives while the younger one is given a
position such as assistant of senior executives. The senior workforces will be given the
higher position because of their experienced and qualifications and the junior workforces
are hired based on their qualifications. By this way, those who are in higher position, or
we can call them as a senior at the workplace, can guide and teach the junior about their
job tasks.

Plus, the senior also can be assigned as a mentor to monitor and evaluate the job
performances of their junior or people under them as the senior are more skilled and
experiences. Both sides will work well together to improve their job performance. This is
because, if the junior can show the best performances in the organization, meaning that
their senior guiding them well for their job tasks. Moreover, most of the younger
workforce have a new energy and perspective. Thus, they are always wanted to learn
more in order to adapt in the work environment.

In addition, it is important for having both senior and junior in all department
because when the senior staffs are retired, their vacancy will be substitute by the junior
staffs with the experience in that position. Thus, the organization does not have to recruit
new employees for that vacancy. This will decrease the cost of recruitment and training
 for the new staff because the junior staffs already have an experienced and had been
guided by their senior previously.

IV. Offer early retirement for older employees.

Another option that employers can use to overcome this issue is to offer early
retirement or buyout plans for older employees. This offer will help to overcome the
shortage of young employees as they will be given the higher opportunity to get hired
when the elderly employees are retired. Plus, these offers will eliminate excess workers
who take advantage of the offer and tend to eliminate employees with highest wages,
which can lead to cost-cutting effect.
According to Dr Manimalar Selvi Naicker, the Histopathologist and Statistician,
on THEStar Online said that, the other disadvantages of late retirement is that the older
employees may not pass on their accumulated knowledge to younger employees because
they want to keep themselves relevant, valuable and to keep the job for themselves. If the
training were not be given to young employees, then the employers have no choice but to
continue to re-employing older employees as they are more skilful than younger
employees. The older employees will create an interminable need for their skills and
service by continuously casting the young employees for not being competent enough for
them.
Besides that, the pros of retiring early is retiring early could be good for the older
employee’s health. “A 2002 study of British civil servants, for example, found that
retiring at age 60 had no effect on the subjects’ physical health and that those with
higher-level jobs saw an improvement in mental health, possibly because they were no
longer subject to work-related stress (and had better pensions than lower-ranked
workers)” (Daugherty G., 2019). Thus, early retirement benefit for both young and older
employees, as the young employees will be given higher chances to get the job while
older employees can maintain a good and healthy lifestyle and stress-free.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the increase in the ageing population in this country is inevitable. Most
employers have the impression that having older employees in the company means incurring
higher costs without awareness or greater understanding of issues related to aging workforce. As
such, organizations need to adjust by changing organizational structure and updating their current
human resource practices in order to remain relevant and sustainable. Given the different
competencies, organizations should understand that a mixture of older and younger employees
provides an opportunity to combine their expertise in order to achieve corporate objectives while
at the same time increasing their profits. Government and business communities need to work
together to ensure that both resources (older and younger workers) are treated equally with respect
to their well-being and job opportunities. This cannot be achieved without full commitment from
both parties.

Reference
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