With a renewed ‘war for talent’ continuing to dog the hospitality and travel industry landscape, TMS Asia-Pacific has pointed employers towards what  represents one of the best available sources of candidates for years to come  – the Baby Boomers.

TMS CEO Andrew Chan said while many companies were continuing to channel huge resources into  attracting candidates from the younger end of the spectrum, employers would also do well to address the other end of the age scale – and in particular the over 50’s.

“Organisations need to start becoming more flexible in their approach and look beyond candidates starting out in their careers as the only source of potential talent,” he said.

“Huge amounts of well intentioned energy are being devoted in trying to snare candidates from the Gen X and Gen Y demographs.

“But in reality, the hospitality and tourism industry struggle to match the higher salaries and benefits readily available in other sectors and needs to be looking at other potential candidate pools.

“The Boomers represent one of the best sources of available candidates for years to come.

Mr Chan said that some employers are in fact beginning to see the light and have begun actively seeking to recruit older employees. “But these are few and there remains a good deal of negative perceptions when it comes to mature workers,” he said. “Some employers still think that mature workers are challenged by technology and require more training to learning new systems.

“This is completely untrue, and in reality, the over 50’s are as keen as mustard to get on with the job, in many cases they offer more experience than their younger colleagues, they are always ready to learn a new skill and can often prove to be more stable then their Gen Y counterparts.