Agency places mid- to post-career professionals

Forty-somethings who’ve been laid off have an ally in town: Available Jones.

Several years ago, when Jo Manhart launched the placement agency, she intended it for retired people.

“When I discovered so many 40-plus people were downsized, and they were in just as bad shape as someone who was 65, bewildered and frightened, I changed it to mature people,” she said.

The age of her placements range from 36 to 80, with the majority over 50, and run the gambit of blue-collar and white-collar backgrounds. Manhart said several have doctorates, while some are high school dropouts.

At age 74, Manhart said “work is what I do.” When she left the corporate world at age 64, she wasn’t ready to be idle.

“In my first week home, I read five books, wore sweatpants and gained 10 pounds,” she said.

She said among many retirees, there’s a need to get out of the house and back into the “rough and tumble of business.” Many people try volunteering to fill the hours of the day, but Manhart acknowledged that volunteers are undervalued.

When she was searching for a company name, she thought it’d be interesting to call it Geezers to Go, but friends convinced her to dump that thought. She did make certain the name avoided senior, golden, experienced and retired, because “what does that really offer?”

She landed upon Available Jones when a friend said, “I’m Available Jones next Tuesday.” From the friend, Manhart learned that the name came from the Li’l Abner comic strip. 

“Available Jones was always available. You pay him and he’s available.”

When Manhart set up her Web site, she contacted Al Capp enterprises and now pays an annual fee to use the logo and permission to use any graphics from the strips. She plans to incorporate it into her advertising.

She said the name is at the top of the alphabetical list and non-gender. In addition, the name “tells you we’re available,” and Jones is an all-purpose name.

Once her site was online, she received publicity and calls from people across the country, wondering if she had franchises in their area. They were fearful about their jobs and looking for employment.

She compiled her ideas into an unpublished book, How to Lose Money on Your Own Business and Love It. 

“I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how good my people are and how much I think of them, it’s what an employer needs that is the most important.”

She said that everyone thinks the “mature” placement agency is a wonderful idea, but it has to capture the imagination of the employers. That’s where the hurdle is. Several major employers in the Columbia area don’t use agencies. And employers who do, most likely receive numerous responses to classified ads – so Manhart asks, why would they pay her percentage?  However, she explained, if the employer doesn’t like the person, they don’t have to pay her.

She sees her services as a benefit to employers because she can save them time. She interviews her client and checks references. Plus, she said, she uses her sense of judgment to decide who is going to do what they say can do. In the matching process, she said she “tries not to put a square peg in a round hole.”

Another hurdle is getting past the stereotype of the little old lady. Manhart said “And when people said to me, “Can your people do the computer?” She responded: “My people invented the computer.”

Manhart said there are so many benefits to hiring older workers. Because of their stage in life, they don’t have the same issues that often conflict younger workers.

“There are so many advantages to hire a mature person who is willing to work for you.”

She said these are people who are moderately well off and desire to contribute, and not necessarily in the same field. She cited a woman who was a dean at a small college out east. As Manhart was sharing information with an employer, she mentioned her client held a Ph.D. in library science. By coincidence, that employer needed someone to coordinate the corporate library.

Her placements also have included handymen, dishwashers and one person who handled direct marketing of patriotic videos.

“Whatever you want: full time, part time, project, temporary, temp-to-hire,” Manhart said of her clients. Since the beginning, 117 men and 190 women have contacted her in search of a job. She sees it growing.

“With more (people in their) 40s being laid off, this workforce is going to become more available. I think my idea is one whose time has come.” ?