Ottawa founder of Top Sixty Over Sixty says turn to older adults to solve the labour shortage
Helen Hirsh Spence has always been a leader.
A lifelong educator, Hirsh Spence spent many years working in senior leadership roles with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board.
She is the former President of the Ontario Principals’ Council.Hirsh Spence was the Head of Elmwood School.
For many years, she was the Chair of the Board of the Jane Goodall Institute—working to raise funds for the famous primatologist.
Then Hirsh Spence retired.
And in her words, became "invisible."
"I was suddenly irrelevant to the general public because people really attach who you are with what you do, and it’s especially bad for women. It’s gendered ageism," says Hirsh Spence.
"My generation was very unlike former generations of those over 60 years old," emphasizes Hirsh Spence. "We still had tons of potential, and lots to offer, and yet we were not being given the chance."
So, Hirsh Spence began leading again. The energetic electric visionary founded Top Sixty Over Sixty.
She was taken back by the focus given to those celebrated as the best and the brightest in Top Forty Under Forty awards.
"That’s really what inspired me. We grew up in a youth-centric world. We want to make aging aspirational. Look forward to getting older. See what you can do because it’s wonderful."
That’s not what is currently happening on Canada’s employment scene, says Hirsch Spence.
"The older workforce is the untapped resource in Canada."
She explains that the CVs of older applicants are less likely considered than those of younger people vying for the same jobs.
Hirsh Spence says she has experienced “ageism” and was driven to create Top Sixty Over Sixty after having witnessed, firsthand, how ageism was impacting Boomers.
"It bothered me because we happen to be in the majority, practically. There are over seven million of us who are over the age of 60 and that number is just increasing."
Hirsh Spence wants companies to rethink their hiring.
She wants employers to focus on experience and the benefits of having a multigenerational labour force.
"Ottawa is one of the best educated cities in the country but the education that most older people have is not being taken advantage of here."
Hirsh Spence doesn’t believe youth should be valued more than experience. She wants to see people of all ages working together, fuelling each other.
"We’re really working with businesses to help them understand the value of either retaining or hiring some older workers," explains Hirsch Spence.
"The findings are, when you do have mixed ages in the workforce there’s a higher level of retention, organizational culture improves," she says.
"There are tons of advantages having older and younger people working together—mutual mentoring, reciprocal mentoring.
"It’s definitely affecting the talent shortage because we’re letting great people go, instead of spending time figuring out great ways of retaining them."
Through Top Sixty Over Sixty, Hirsh Spence intends to bring attention to the value and potential of older adults and to dismantle ageism.
"We help businesses harness the opportunities of demographic change and we help individuals find purpose and meaning in the next stage of their lives," Hirsh Spence says.
"Canada is experiencing a talent shortage, but it isn't taking full advantage of its ageing demographic. ‘Top Sixty’ advocates for age equity in the workplace and wants to help businesses take full advantage of their multigenerational workforce," says a passionate Hirsh Spence.
Hirsh Spence shares examples of Ageist Comments
More Examples of ageist comments
- He's over the hill
- You can't teach an old dog new tricks
- I just had a senior's moment
- She's past her prime
Ageism in advertising
- Anti-aging treatments
- Want to look 10 years younger in just minutes?
- The teeth that make you look younger!
- Deep Set wrinkle repair!
Ageism in the workplace
- When will you be retiring?
- How many more years do you have left?
- I can't give you this training, you'll be gone in a few years
- Colleagues excluding others in conversations, or in activities, based on age
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Lifeline for woman with disabilities approved for medically assisted death after 'mind-blowing, inspiring' support
A 31-year-old disabled Toronto woman who was conditionally approved for a medically assisted death after a fruitless bid for safe housing says her life has been 'changed' by an outpouring of support after telling her story.

School police chief receives blame in Texas shooting response
The police official blamed for not sending officers in more quickly to stop the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting is the chief of the school system's small police force, a unit dedicated ordinarily to building relationships with students and responding to the occasional fight.
'Mom, you gotta carry on': 58-year-old Winnipegger inspired to graduate high school by late son
Fifty-eight-year-old Vivian Ketchum is set to receive her high school diploma at a graduation ceremony at the University of Winnipeg next month. It is a moment that is decades in the making.
Truth tracker: Does the World Economic Forum influence governments like Canada's?
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos was met with justifiable criticisms and unfounded conspiracy theories.
Calling social conservatives dinosaurs was 'wrong terminology', says Patrick Brown
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown says calling social conservatives 'dinosaurs' in a book he wrote about his time in Ontario politics was 'the wrong terminology.'
Fact check: NRA speakers distort gun and crime statistics
Speakers at the National Rifle Association annual meeting assailed a Chicago gun ban that doesn't exist, ignored security upgrades at the Texas school where children were slaughtered and roundly distorted national gun and crime statistics as they pushed back against any tightening of gun laws.
She smeared blood on herself and played dead: 11-year-old reveals chilling details of the massacre
An 11-year-old survivor of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, feared the gunman would come back for her so she smeared herself in her friend's blood and played dead.
Quebec mosque shooter ruling could affect parole eligibility in other high-profile cases
The Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling allowing the Quebec City mosque shooter to be eligible for parole after 25 years is raising concern for more than a dozen similar cases.
Feds aiming to address airport 'bottlenecks' in time for summer travel season
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the federal government is working with groups on the ground to resolve air travel 'bottlenecks' in time for a busy summer.