Employee turnover has decreased since Civitan Foundation began hiring older caregivers like Leo Levenson, 65, at right, who helps client David Zowin, 43.

The problems facing older workers are well documented in the media, so it was refreshing to attend the Encore Opportunity Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., yesterday, where the buzz in the room was all about the value and values that experienced employees bring to a job. The event honored 8 nonprofits or government organizations that have demonstrated their commitment to encore talent.

“Seven out of 10 nonprofits have recently hired someone we’d think of as in an encore career,” said Civic Ventures Vice President Phyllis Segal, citing recent research done by Civic Ventures and MetLife Foundation. “And those who have done it are far more positive about recruiting the encore workforce than those who haven’t.” That led to what Segal jokingly called her very sophisticated theory on hiring encore talent: “Try it, you’ll like it.”

During a panel discussion and mingling over lunch, a few themes emerged. Social innovators like Elaine Santore (cofounder of Umbrella of the Capital District) stumbled into social entrepreneurship to solve a problem or fill a need. Santore created an organization that matches up individuals over 50 with handypeople to help with household chores. She got the idea when her own mother had to give up her home because she could no longer care for it. By starting Umbrella, Santore created jobs for retired plumbers, carpenters and others looking for part-time work. The business model made sense. “Who better to help a senior than another senior?” she explained.

Many of the people hiring and managing encore talent are in encore careers themselves. “I was CEO of a children’s service agency and took early retirement, the so-called dream. About two and a half years into it, I realized that it just wasn’t for me,” said Jim Fischer, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Lake-Sumter Florida Inc. Dawn Trapp, executive director of Civitan Foundation, which runs programs for people with disabilities, moved into the nonprofit world after a long career in the travel industry. Captain Cecil Whiteaker, 62, came to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department after 20 years in the Marines.

The employers talked a lot about how experienced workers tend to have patience and life experience that helps them on the job. Whiteaker found Gwinnett County’s use of older people as jailers to be especially successful. “Sometimes they become mentors or informal counselors to the inmates,” he said. Trapp said she values experienced workers because they tend to make a commitment to the work. “We were predominantly hiring college students and turnover was very high,” she said.

Intergenerational issues do exist in these organizations, but they aren’t insurmountable. “We force good communication because we put people together and expect it,” said Habitat for Humanity’s Fischer. “We always try to mix our resources on a task, like sending a 21- and a 72-year-old out on a truck. We’re also seeing a lot of mentoring which goes both ways, especially around technology.”

Diane Piktialis, an expert on boomers and workplace issues who helped select the winners, closed with a gentle command to employers to go home and replicate their activities. At least one organization in attendance, Umbrella of the Capital District, is already doing that.