At Work: Lesson from surveys help all looking for jobs

• Mature workers are three times more likely to be hired than millennials
• Yet millennials rate high in creativity and networking.
• Workers with criminal records are more likely to get a second chance if they're honest.

Here's some good news for two kinds of job hunters: those who are older and those who have had a run-in with the law.

Yes, both groups have a better chance of getting hired than you might think, according to surveys.

Let's start with the mature worker who is three times more likely to be hired over a younger or millennial worker, 60 percent of hiring managers said.

Why? Out of 500 hiring managers who were surveyed, Addeco's survey showed that 91 percent are most likely to associate mature workers with reliability and 88 percent associate them with professionalism.

Far fewer mature workers need to improve their writing skills — only 9 percent — compared to 46 percent of millennials, born between 1981 and 2000, hiring managers said.

On the other hand, 74 percent of hiring managers said millennial workers are creative and 73 percent said they are strong networkers. Seventy two percent also thought mature workers need more technological know-how.

"Plenty of jobs will be created from now until 2030, and the odds are good that many of the positions will be taken by older Americans," Chris Farrell wrote recently in Bloomberg Businessweek.

The trend of staying in the work force later in life took hold about two decades ago, he says, and this work-longer mindset "reflects a number of fundamental factors that aren't about to dissipate."

Most important, perhaps "are the high education levels achieved by boomers, the shift toward more intellectually creative and less physically demanding work in many sectors of the economy and the huge wave of women entering the work force," he writes.

More employers also may understand the competitive advantage of hiring mature workers.

Farrell cites the 2010 Harvard Business Review article, How BMW is Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb.The company conducted an experiment at a German plant introducing "70 small — mostly ergonomic — changes, such as adding barbershop chairs so workers can perform tasks sitting down or standing up and orthopedic shoes for comfort."

The result: An investment of $50,000 increased productivity by 7 percent, bringing the assembly line "on a par with lines in which workers were, on average, younger," the article said.

In other words, he says productivity matters more than demographics. And a decline in worker productivity with an aging labor force is not inevitable.

As for hiring someone with a criminal record, a new study from CareerBuilder says companies are open to giving people second chances. Fifty one percent of the 2,000 human resource managers interviewed reported that their organizations have hired someone with a criminal record.

The biggest key to making yourself more marketable: Be honest.

68% of hiring managers say be upfront about a conviction, how it affected you and what you learned from it. Be prepared to talk about how what you went through has helped you grow professionally and personally.

And while incarcerated, take classes and earn degrees and get vocational training. Help an employer see that you're willing to work your way up and that you're motivated.

Do you have to be older than 50 to be seen as reliable and professional with strong writing skills? Not necessarily.

But take a serious look at what such surveys tell you — the kind of workers that companies desire most.

That includes professionals who can be counted on, can think clearly and communicate effectively; people who are motivated and will help a company be productive.

You can't just mouth those words in interviews. You have to actually do it and be it.

Career consultantAndrea Kayis the author of Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 steps to get out of your funk and on to your future ,www.andreakay.comorwww.lifesabitchchangecareers.com.See an index of Kay's At Work columns here. Write to her in care of USA TODAY/Gannett, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Va. 22108. E-mail:andrea@andreakay.com. Twitter:@AndreaKayCareer. Facebook:facebook.com/AndreaKayCareerAdvice.