Wisdom at work | Dave Tomm, President, Seasoned Workforce, Rockland
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Dave Tomm: "This whole [aging workforce] issue is too important just to leave it where it is."
At 68 years old and still working, Dave Tomm understands the desire to forgo retirement, and how hard it can be for Maine’s older workers to find jobs. And with more than 30 years of experience owning a business, Tomm is also familiar with the ins and outs of employee recruitment and retention. For the past eight years, Tomm, founder of Seasoned Workforce in Rockland, has put his own professional history to work educating Maine businesses about why it’s important to recruit and retain older workers. Employees with decades-long careers take a wealth of institutional knowledge with them when they retire, and there are not enough younger people entering the workforce to take their place. This makes catering to those people age 50 and older who don’t want to retire critical for Maine and the nation. Moving forward, Tomm’s expertise will be more valuable to Maine than ever.
All of the nation’s 77 million baby boomers will hit retirement age in the next 25 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a state with the nation’s highest median age of 41.1 years, that means we could lose four out of every 10 workers. Tomm has been on the cutting edge of the aging workforce issue since launching the Seasoned Workforce program in 2002.
In conjunction with adult-education organizations and CareerCenters, Tomm holds forums across the state designed to connect older job seekers with businesses and staffing agencies interested in hiring them. He’s held more than 25 forums this year, with plans to top 30 before year’s end, and has worked with more than 1,100 participants and 50 companies, from Maine-based businesses such as L.L.Bean, Bangor Savings Bank and Geiger, to national companies including Securitas, ING and Home Depot.
At one recent forum in Portland, Tomm acted as part moderator, part motivational speaker, telling the group of about 30 participants the best ways to find jobs (“Don’t be afraid to network”) and encouraging them to be optimistic (“I’d like you to think of the rest of your lives as a new invention”). Tomm asked the job seekers — who ranged from retirees looking for part-time work to those recently laid off from multi-decade careers — to talk about their skills, while representatives from staffing agency Manpower took notes. At the end of the three-hour forum, the businesses and staffing agencies left with a list of potential employees, while attendees went home with job leads. “It’s taking networking to another level,” Tomm explains.
As awareness of the issue has intensified now that the oldest among the boomers have started to retire, Tomm has stepped up his efforts, turning Seasoned Workforce in 2006 from a nonprofit program run by the Penobscot Bay Region Chamber of Commerce into a private, for-profit business. Tomm has become one of the state’s chief advocates for the aging workforce, and is bridging the gap between Maine businesses and the older workers who will continue to occupy an important place in the state’s economy.
Though he “has yet to make a nickel,” much less break even, Tomm is optimistic about the future of Seasoned Workforce and plans to add online networking and a resume service to generate revenue. He also hopes to partner with staffing agencies and businesses to expand the program into other states.
Ultimately, Tomm says the key to integrating seasoned workers into the state’s workforce — and to making sure they’re used to their full potential — is for businesses large and small to rethink their corporate structure. “They have to take another look at the way they hire, their benefits and other creative things they’re able to do,” says Tomm. “It’s not rocket science, it’s just recognizing things. And what businesses have to do is recognize change.”
Mindy Favreau
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