Keeping Chile's older workers... working

Summary

Business Daily – "Keeping Chile's Older Workers... working"

BBC World Service
Host: Jane Chambers
Date: September 29, 2025

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Overview

This episode explores how Chile, a country with one of the fastest-aging populations in South America, is navigating the challenges and opportunities of keeping older workers employed. Host Jane Chambers visits Santiago to speak with older employees, progressive employers, recruiters, HR professionals, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, and gerontology experts. The discussion covers ageism in the labor market, the economic and societal need to retain senior talent, and innovative efforts to change company practices and public policy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Chile’s Aging Population: The Challenge

• By 2050, a third of Chile’s population will be over 60 ([01:37]).
• Traditional retirement ages—65 for men, 60 for women—leave many without sufficient pensions, pushing older adults to keep seeking work ([02:56]).

Jane Chambers:
"Businesses need to change their ageist mindset." ([01:37])

Alejandra Dietrich (café worker, 68):
"It's hard for older people to find work here in Chile. They always want to employ younger people who've just finished university and we get left behind... our pensions aren't enough for us to live on, so we need to carry on working." ([01:19])

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Success Stories: Proactive Employers

• At Café Figo, only women over 50 are employed. The owner believes older workers bring experience, energy, and form a supportive family-like team ([03:32]).

Carolina Belloglio (employer):
"I've had the personal experience of leaving the job market when I was over 50 and it was hard to find employment. I only employ women over 50 years old, and we are like a family... It's such a waste to lose all those skills." ([03:32])

• Dietrich, the 68-year-old employee, finds fulfillment and purpose at her job, despite never having worked in a café before ([03:10]).

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Shifting Trends in Recruitment

• The age barrier in executive search is slowly moving: once, even 50-year-olds were considered "too old" for senior positions, but companies are now more open to hiring experienced candidates near or beyond 60 ([04:52]).

Mario Mora (headhunter):
"Twenty years ago, for all the senior positions, they were looking for people in the 40s, early 40s... Nowadays, we have perceived a clear change in this trend... today in senior positions, we can work with candidates that are over 50, 55, 58, even 60 years old." ([04:52])

• However, returning to corporate life after entrepreneurial ventures remains difficult due to Chile’s conservative business culture and views on failure ([06:34]).

Mario Mora:
"When you go into your own business and you don't do well, there is a trend to perceive you as a... that you lose. You see, these failures... are not considered very well [here]." ([06:34])

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Ageism in Established Industries

• Security firm Securitas faces client resistance to hiring workers over 50-55, citing health concerns ([07:51]).
• HR lead Marcela Pumarino is working to change perceptions by demonstrating the capabilities and reliability of older employees ([08:13]).

Marcela Pumarino (Securitas Chile):
"There's a lot of skills [elder people] can contribute and I would like a mindset shift... It's not age [that is] the most important thing in the interview, you have to find out the skills, the experience and what that person can contribute." ([08:13])

On challenging clients' age bias:
"In the requirement they prefer somebody younger. But we introduce and we present somebody with the same skills... they can shift that idea that they have." ([09:03])

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Promoting Broader Change: The Talenton Initiative

• Non-profit Talenton brings together professionals 50+ to work with companies and lobby for improved labor policies ([12:18]).
• Aims: influence public policy toward flexible work, share best practices, fight ageist stereotypes, and demonstrate the economic, social, and health benefits of senior employment ([12:18], [13:36]).

Alejandra Perez (Talenton President):
"It has a great, a huge impact in economy and public policy... The more you maintain yourself active, the less you get ill... purpose is really, really a drive." ([13:36])

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Intergenerational Companies & the Value of Experience

• Marcus Scheier, a German executive who founded Ganesha Lab in Chile at age 55, emphasizes the value of mixing generations in business ([16:21]).
• Prepares younger leaders for succession; combines youthful energy with experience for sustained innovation ([16:21]).

Marcus Scheier (Ganesha Lab):
"When I built my own company, that was one of my goals: to always have different generations playing with each other, working with each other... For me, this question about vision of long term, if you want to do that right, you need to think about the generational best practices in the company." ([16:21], [17:55])

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The Need for Legal and Cultural Change

• Rosita Kornfeld, a pioneering gerontologist, stresses that both public policies and business culture must shift ([18:47]).
• Advocates for flexible hours, semi-retirement options, and more recognition of older workers' skills ([18:47], [19:39]).

Rosita Kornfeld (academic):
"The state and companies are going to have to recruit more old people because of the aging population. They don't have an alternative... For me, there are three key issues: politicians need to be engaged, Chile needs to stop being ageist and start to employ older people, and there needs to be more flexibility." ([18:47])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "We still want to work and not be left at home with nothing to do."
  – Alejandra Dietrich, café worker ([01:19])

• "We are like a family… It's such a waste to lose all those skills."
  – Carolina Belloglio, employer ([03:32])

• "Failures... are not considered very well here."
  – Mario Mora, recruiter ([06:34])

• "You have to assess somehow the client and tell them to meet the person and to make a test. So don't just say no because of the age."
  – Marcela Pumarino, Securitas HR ([09:03])

• "Purpose is really, really a drive. Being happy for being healthy and for feeling that you are productive."
  – Alejandra Perez, Talenton ([13:36])

• "If you want to do [long-term vision] right, you need to think about the generational best practices in the company."
  – Marcus Scheier, Ganesha Lab ([17:55])

• "This is a cultural change where the state, civil society, older people and businesses all have to be involved. This is a change which everyone in the country needs to take seriously and play their part."
  – Rosita Kornfeld ([19:45])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:19 – Older workers’ struggles and lack of pension security in Chile
• 03:32 – Café Figo: Employing women over 50; "family" work atmosphere
• 04:52 – Mario Mora on evolving attitudes toward older professionals in executive recruitment
• 07:51 – Securitas Chile: Age bias in the security industry
• 12:18 – Alejandra Perez introduces nonprofit Talenton’s advocacy and company initiatives
• 13:36 – The economic and social case for employing older people
• 15:31 – Marcus Scheier on founding a biotech firm at 55 and integrating generations
• 18:11 – Rosita Kornfeld: policy changes, flexible working, and fighting stereotypes
• 19:45 – The call for cultural transformation across all of Chile

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Tone & Language

• The episode is factual, practical, and empathetic.
• Voices of older workers and progressive leaders are highlighted, with positivity about change but realism about the scope of challenges.
• Much discussion is framed conversationally, bringing across personal experiences and opinions in an accessible way.

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Conclusion

The episode paints a nuanced picture of Chile's urgent need to adapt to an aging workforce. It showcases forward-thinking employers, insights from recruitment and nonprofit leaders, and the lived experiences of older workers. Despite pockets of progress, the challenge remains significant, requiring collaboration between state, business, and society to complete the cultural and structural shift towards inclusive, age-diverse employment.

Transcript

[Jane Chambers]

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[Jane Chambers]

Hello and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. I'm Jane Chambers. Today I'm in Chile's capital, Santiago.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

It's hard for older people to find work here in Chile. They always want to employ younger people who've just finished university and we get left behind. But I still want to work and not be left at home with nothing to do. Also, our pensions aren't enough for us to live on, so we need to carry on working.

[Jane Chambers]

The South American country has one of the fastest growing aging populations in the region. By 2050, it's estimated that a third of the population will be more than 60 years old. And just like many countries around the world with an aging population, businesses need to change their ageist mindset.

[Alejandra Perez]

Our population is getting older and older, but our social system, our labor market, has not adapted. Ageism in Chile is really present.

[Jane Chambers]

We'll hear from members of the business community, ahead of the curve and already adapting to the situation, about how they want to bring public policy, businesses and the public with them. That's all coming up in today's Business Daily. I've come to Cafe Figo, where there's an array of delicious bread and sandwiches with salmon and chicken and pesto and soup. And I'm here to talk to one of the people who works here, Alejandra Dietrich.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

My name is Alejandra DIETRICH and I'm 68 years old. I used to work in the local council here in Vitacoura, giving people information. Then I worked as a secretary and I was there for 15 years.

[Jane Chambers]

The legal retirement age here in Chile is 65 years old for men and 60 years old for women. But as Alejandra said earlier, her pension doesn't cover her living costs and she still wants to work.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

I've never worked in anything like this before, but I thought I'd give it a go. And now I've been here for over a year and I really enjoy it. It's a small cafe and I've got to know my clients who are friendly and kind.

[Jane Chambers]

Sitting at one of the cafe's tables is Alejandra's boss, Carolina Belloglio, who tells me about who she employs and why.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

I've had the personal experience of leaving the job market when I was over 50 and it was hard to find employment. I still think we have so much to give in terms of our experience and energy, and it's such a waste to lose all those skills. I only employ women over 50 years old, and we are like a family. We come from all walks of life, teachers, nurses and secretaries. We support each other and understand that we are in another stage of our lives.

[Jane Chambers]

So, one success story of someone actively recruiting older people. But there's still a lot to be done to stop the business world dismissing talented workers because of their age. I'm traveling on the metro across Santiago to a business district called Al Golf. I'm here to meet someone whose job is to help older professionals find work.

[Mario Mora]

My name is Mario Mora. I am in the executive search business since 20 years ago. And before that I spent almost 25 years in the banking industry.

[Jane Chambers]

Executive search business, that's headhunting. What happens? What have you come across in Chile with people of a certain age? Tell me about some of the problems that they face.

[Mario Mora]

Well, you see, I don't know how this is in Europe or in other regions, but in Chile historically has been a very difficult situation for people when they get close to the 50 plus or 55 years old. Twenty years ago, the company were looking for senior people, young people. So for all the senior positions, they were looking for people in the 40s, early 40s, you know, a guy with 50 years and about that was considered old. However, nowadays we have perceived a clear change in this trend. And today in senior positions, we can work with candidates that are over 50, 55, 58, even 60 years old. The companies, they prefer to hire people with strong competencies, technical and personal competencies, and if the guys are close to 60 or late 50s. One of the objectives that they have when they arrive is to form a backup and create the condition for a succession in three, four years.

[Jane Chambers]

So things are improving in some sectors, but as Mario explains, not everywhere.

[Mario Mora]

In general, it's difficult when you have a person in the 50s that leave the job because the guy decided to go into some entrepreneurial activity or, you know, as an independent business guy and after two, three years working, the project didn't work well and he decided to come back to corporate life is not that easy.

[Jane Chambers]

And why do you think it's difficult to come back to corporate life? What happens in Chile?

[Mario Mora]

Chile is a very particular society. In the business side, when you go into your own business and you don't do well, there is a trend to perceive you as a. That you lose. You see these failures which are very normal in other economies, in other countries, because you can consider this as a lesson, you know, a learning experience here are considered, are not considered very well.

[Jane Chambers]

While Mario clearly sees the benefits of hiring more senior talent, other industries are still struggling with ageism towards their employees. I've come to another part of Santiago called Providencia. There's a lot of security checks going on. I need to hand over my ID card to get into the building and go through some complicated barriers which you'd expect from a security firm. That's Marcelo Pumarino, the head of human resources for Securitas Chile, a firm which provides security solutions for businesses across the country.

[Marcela Pumarino]

We're more than 7,000 people from Arica to Puntarenas.

[Jane Chambers]

Many of her employees are security guards. But as they get older, Marcela faces problems finding them work.

[Marcela Pumarino]

That's a challenge that's a little bit complex because usually our clients prefer people, younger people because they associate age with health condition.

[Jane Chambers]

So what happens with your clients? Do they put barriers? Are they asking for specific ages?

[Marcela Pumarino]

Yes, there are some clients, they prefer people that they are not over 50 or 55 years old. There is a demographic change going on and so it's important to value the experience of elder people. There's a lot of skills they can contribute and I would like mindset shift if you want to have people with energy, people with good health condition. It's not age the most important thing in the interview, you have to find out the skills, the experience and what that person can contribute.

[Jane Chambers]

Marcella's actively trying to change clients attitudes.

[Marcela Pumarino]

For example, in the requirement they prefer somebody younger. But we introduce and we present somebody with the same skills of health, of good health conditions with energy, they can shift that idea that they have. And of course they see somebody that is, I don't know, 50 plus 55, whatever, and they see that this person has a great performance, a great commitment, lots of experience, and they value that. You have to assess somehow the client and tell them to meet the person and to make a test. So don't just say no because of the age.

[Jane Chambers]

Give them a chance.

[Mario Mora]

Of course.

[Jane Chambers]

Marcela Pumarino, you're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Jane Chambers in Chile, finding out how businesses are trying to adapt to an aging population.

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[Jane Chambers]

As we heard, Marcella's company Securitas is determined to help their older employees to carry on working along with a growing number of Chilean companies. They've recently signed an agreement with a non profit organization called Talenton where they've promised to share their best practices and learn from each other to improve the environment for 50 plus workers in the workforce. I'm off to talk to the president of Talenton, Alejandra Perez, to find out more about who they are and what they do.

[Alejandra Perez]

We are a group of around 40 people, mostly 50 plus, and we are all professionals. We all had corporate careers. Some of them are board members, entrepreneurs. And so what we do in talenton is to mainly we want to influence public policies, to change the laws, to change regulations, so that work can be more flexible for these target of people, professional people, and also with the companies to work with them to promote the best practices, to both hire senior talent and also to prolong their business careers. We have very big companies and very technological and smaller companies. So it's an experiment, I would say, in a way. But we have seen that these companies are eager to learn from other companies and to share their experiences and to together to, well, to tell the others how you can face these challenges.

[Jane Chambers]

In terms of money, what kind of money do you think can be saved by keeping older people in the workforce?

[Alejandra Perez]

A lot of money. First of all, pensions. Pensions in Chile is a very difficult thing. After you have worked all your life, you are faced with the reality that you need more money to survive. And if you have to finance until the age of 80 or 90, and if you stop working at age 60 in the case of women, or 65 in the case of men, well, how can you can finance that in the health system too? Because if you have older people not working and with very scarce economic resources, the state will have to pay for their health, for example, their care. And so it has a great, a huge impact in economy and public policy. That is the economical point of view. But also we have learned that people really want to continue being productive and feeling that they are a contribution to society. And the more you maintain yourself active, the less you get ill. And so it has to do with mental health and depression. A lot of things that happen to old people who feel alone, who feel they are discarded from society, to feel that they don't have anything, a purpose in life. And so purpose is really, really a drive. Being happy for being healthy and for feeling that you are productive.

[Marcus Scheier]

I was called crazy when I came and decided to do what I do. So people called me really literally and probably crazy because I stepped into something which nobody had done before.

[Jane Chambers]

That's 65 year old Marcus Scheier, a German executive and entrepreneur who moved to Chile to found Ganesha Lab, a company which focuses on helping biotech startups across Latin America to develop and reach international markets. I caught up with him in a busy hotel lobby in Santiago between his meetings. Marcus says Chile can be a difficult country to work in and it has.

[Marcus Scheier]

To do a little bit with the conservativeness and the risk adverseness in the country and the very short term view on what business means. And for me, business always meant long term means impact.

[Jane Chambers]

Markus's company, Ganesha Lab, is also part of the network of businesses working with talent on to share their best practices and show other companies how to embrace an aging market and work with different generations.

[Marcus Scheier]

I'm myself probably in that older generation. I started the company when I was 55, now I'm 65. And when I built my own company, that was one of my goals to to always have different generations playing with each other, working with each other. Because there is on the one hand the unstoppable spirit of the young ones and then of course the more experienced of the older ones. And so that was for me very important to really build a company which always has the opportunity to renew itself.

[Jane Chambers]

And how have you seen that at play in your own company? I think you've kind of been a mentor and now have successful.

[Marcus Scheier]

Absolutely. So on the one hand I am a mentor. I'm also a mentor to startups which are very often younger founders, but also we have founders which are more in the later stage of their careers. But how it has turned out specifically for the company is that we were always prepared for change. So for example, I myself just handed over my responsibility as a general manager to someone younger and this someone younger, I'm a mentor too, for more than 10 years, hired him three years ago and step by step prepared him to take over. So today I'm as a chairman, more the mentor and the one who gives the strategic direction to the company, while the younger generation focuses more on the execution, on the relationship in the ecosystem, etc. So for me, this question about envision of long term, if you want to do that right, you need to think about the generational best practices in the company.

[Jane Chambers]

My last stop is to meet Rosita Kornfeld, mate. She's in her mid-70s and a thoughtful hostess, offering me coffee and biscuits in her apartment overlooking the Andes mountains with walls covered in beautiful artwork.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

We've come a long way since 1991, when I started to work on this. There are now basic pensions for people even if they haven't worked, which isn't usual in the rest of Latin America. And some healthcare issues are covered by the state. But we still have a long way to go.

[Jane Chambers]

Rosita's an academic specialising in old age who's been pioneering the rights of old people in chile since the 1990s when she worked as the national director of the National Service for Elderly People in Chile. She thinks that companies and the state need to do more to accommodate an ageing population.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

The state and companies are going to have to recruit more old people because of the aging population. They don't have an alternative. But it's hard. The state needs to change the law so that older people can have more flexible working hours or that you can be semi retired and still work. And that always takes time. But it needs to be done. But businesses can start to change their culture. For me, there are three key issues. Politically, politicians need to be engaged and want to make changes. Secondly, Chile needs to stop being ageist and start to employ older people. There are all the myths that they are slower, don't understand new technology and that they get ill. But if you look at the data, that's not true. We want to work and always turn up. And the third key issue is to have more flexibility. Not all of us want to work full time and we have other things going on in our lives.

[Jane Chambers]

Rosita thinks all of Chile needs to change to make this a success.

[Alejandra Dietrich]

This is a cultural change where the state, civil society, older people and businesses all have to be involved. This is a change which everyone in the country needs to take seriously and play their part.

[Jane Chambers]

That's all from Business Daily. Thanks for listening. I'm Jane Chambers and if you enjoyed the programme and want to hear more, search for Business Daily wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

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[Alejandra Dietrich]

Com.