Hotel Chain Leads Way in Hiring Senior Citizens : Jobs: A prominent employer of the elderly came by the role honestly: It needed help in a tight labor market.

Days Inns of America Inc. never intended to become an advocate of hiring the elderly--or, for that matter, anything else.

The hotels began hiring older people during a mid-’80s labor shortage, then found itself being cited as a leading example of corporate America’s evolving attitudes toward the elderly.

Hiring older workers was a necessity, said Richard Smith, Days senior vice president.

“It was not because we were doing something that elevated us in the social strata. We did it because it made good business sense,” he said. “We were not trying to be good corporate citizens. We were trying to run a business.”

The company’s experience with older workers dates to 1985, when the economy was booming and Days Inns, a relatively small chain that underwent an expansive franchising program, was emerging as one of the largest hotel chains.

Quite simply, the growing company was having trouble finding and keeping workers, especially in its reservations department.

In desperation, company officials attended an Atlanta job fair for older people. Smith said the company was shocked to learn how many people there were looking for jobs.

The company also was pleasantly surprised, Smith said, that the few older people it hired turned out to be good employees. They tended to be more conscientious than the average younger worker, adapted well to change and were rarely absent.

Six years later, about 25% of the 600 employees at Days Inns’ two national reservations centers are senior citizens, and company officials estimate that hundreds more are employed at the various franchised hotels.

“It’s a wonderful environment. They bend over backward to treat seniors equally,” said Dan Young, 74, of Atlanta, a reservations agent since 1986.

“It is so rare today to be wanted, especially in the business world,” said Young, who went to Days Inns after being fired from his job at a vacuum cleaner company on New Year’s Day.

The chain now sponsors its own job fairs across the country, and Smith has twice testified before Congress about older workers’ concerns.

While Days Inns and a few other companies--McDonald’s and the insurance company Travelers Corp. are commonly cited--win kudos for opening their doors to older workers and speaking out for their cause, advocates say the workplace climate remains less than inviting for the mature employee.

“Say what you will about experience, maturity, dedication, low absenteeism,” said Sara E. Rix of the American Assn. of Retired Persons. “It’s very difficult to find work after you’re 50, 55.

“Age is a big impediment in getting hired or promoted in mid-life,” said Rix, a senior analyst of employment issues at AARP’s Public Policy Institute.

In addition to lingering prejudice against older people, seniors seeking jobs often are shut out by companies that decide it is cheaper to hire younger people, she said.

For example, Rix said, a company may have to recruit and train two people to fill one 40-hour-a-week position, because many older people must work part time to keep their income low enough to maintain Social Security benefits.

Even among companies that are hiring older workers, things aren’t always what they seem, Rix said. Many older people returning to work can find only menial jobs.

“Most older workers looking for work want good jobs, not the jobs they’re hired for,” she said.

Recent Florida State and Penn State universities studies found that many business managers perceive older workers as set in their ways and ill-prepared to move up.

Another study, released this year by the Commonwealth Fund, a philanthropic foundation, said companies that have hired people over 50 have found them to be adaptable and efficient.

The Commonwealth Fund study was based partly on Days Inns’ experiences.

Smith of Days Inns said company officials at first shared the common perceptions of older workers, but found otherwise once they were integrated into the chain.

“The misgivings we had were typical,” he said. “We had people who thought it was appropriate to keep older people out of the company.”

Now, older workers are not considered an oddity at Days Inn, Smith said. “To us it’s old hat,” he said.

These days, the main obstacle to an older person getting hired at Days Inns is the same thing that initially opened their opportunity--the economy.

“The problem we’re facing now is the economy. Hiring is flat,” Smith said.

“We have . . . peaks and valleys. Now we’re not hiring.”