Bridgestar, the nonprofit talent-search firm that specializes in people “bridging” into the nonprofit sector from the corporate world, features an interview with Marc Freedman headlined, “Encore: Finding Meaning in a Post-Retirement Career.”

A fitness trainer at the YMCA in Rochester, New York.

Marc Freedman challenged employers to invest in older adults who want meaningful work in the second half of their lives.

“Employers need to recognize, particularly those facing talent shortages, that there is more than one place to look when filling these gaps,” Freedman says in an interview in today’s online edition of The New York Times. “While many young people have an enormous amount to offer, there is another vast and growing pool of talent and commitment.

“And employers need to correct some misconceptions,” he told reporter Marci Alboher. “They often assume that people in their 50s and 60s have one foot out the door. But an accumulation of evidence supports the fact that turnover is less with this population than with young people. So it is worth investing in these individuals.”

Velma Simpson. Photo by Alex Harris.

Marc Freedman, in a column in today’s Washington Post, takes issue with an Allstate ad exhorting Americans to save for 30 years of retirement.

“Millions of boomers are headed not for endless vacation but for a new stage of work, driven both by the desire to remain productive and the need to make ends meet over longer life spans,” Freedman, author of Encore, writes in the piece, “One More Time, With Meaning.”

That makes the central question, both for individuals and society at large, “What work will boomers do?”

2007 Purpose Prize winner Gordon Johnson

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Marc Freedman defines encore careers as ‘give-back careers’ and challenges boomers to answer the call for a higher purpose.

Freedman called for policy changes that make encore careers easier to find and for more programs such as Troops to Teachers, which trains veterans for second careers in teaching.

CBS Sunday Morning profiles several people pursuing encore careers in a segment by correspondent Rita Braver that features an interview with Marc Freedman, author of Encore.

The CBS crew spent a day with Freedman on the road, including his appearance at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by Sen. Herbert Kohl.

Here’s the promotion blurb from CBS’s website:

“Just like they’ve redefined so many other things, baby boomers are already redefining retirement. By 2012, people over 55 will make up over one-fifth of the workforce. But, unlike their parents, they’re not going to go off to the golf course or the rocking chair. A full three-fourths of boomers say they expect to work in their retirement years. And most say they’ll have a new, second career — a career they want to be more fulfilling, that contributes to the greater good. Rita Braver introduces you to “Encore Careers” which experts say will be the biggest change in the labor force since women entered the workplace in the 1970s.”

In a Q&A with The Wall Street Journal, Marc Freedman distills the essence of the encore idea.

Freedman cites as encore examples Ed Speedling, a health care executive turned advocate for the homeless, and Gary Maxworthy, the food industry executive who has brought fresh produce to food banks throughout California.

Some excerpts from Glenn Ruffenach’s interview:

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: What is an “encore career”?

MR. FREEDMAN: I see an encore career as having five key characteristics. First, it’s a significant body of work, one that could entail, say, 10 or 15 or even 20 years of your life. It takes place in the second half of life, after the end of a midlife career. Ideally, it involves some type of pay or benefits. And at its core, it’s about the search for new meaning and a deep desire to contribute to the greater good.

Marc Freedman’s Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life was named Best Inspirational Retirement Guide by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

“This book challenges baby-boomers to build a better world through a second career and provides concrete steps to help them find their next job,” the magazine wrote.

Ode magazine adapts a section of Marc Freedman’s Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life in its November issue.

“The emerging trend toward extended productivity needs to be supported at every turn, as individuals seek to make ends meet over longer lifespans and societies seek to balance the fiscal ship,” Freedman writes.

Jan Hively at a SHiFT meeting

Minnesota has become a hotbed of encore activity.

An editorial in today’s Star-Tribune describes some of the individual stories included in Marc Freedman’s Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, and concludes:

“As the huge wave of baby boomers ages, their types should become the rule rather than the exception, both for the benefit of the seniors and for society overall. Older Americans are clamoring to stay active in more meaningful ways — and the work force needs their talent, expertise and commitment.”

Marc Freedman. Photo by Robyn Twomey

Money magazine features Marc Freedman’s conception of the encore career as “The Big Idea” in their September issue, in an article headlined, “Retire Later, Retire Happier.”

“Freedman suggests that if older Americans could just find more meaningful jobs, they’d happily work longer, save more and tax the system less,” Donna Rosato writes. “So what’s stopping them?”