Work needs age diversity but ageism is alive and kicking

Essentially, ageism is bias against a person or group on the grounds of age. Both the young and old, and everyone in between encounter ageism. Age discrimination in all its guises is a universal, highly variable and complex phenomenon.

In the workplace, we need age diversity to profit from the invaluable contributions that each age group can offer. However, with the age diversity that is present within industry, there is an unhealthy level of ageism. A European Union directive outlawed ageism many years ago, but it is still rife on the ground.

Ageism is present in every stage of employment from recruitment and selection to terminations. Age impacts training and development, decisions about promotions and demotions, retrenchments and redeployments, and everything else in the workplace.

Old stereotypes are out
The problem about ageism stems from the fact that the old stereotypes are no longer valid. That is the world we live in. People in their 70s run marathons and start university courses. Men in their 30s ‘retire’ to take on family duties. Young people in their 20s make millions with technology breakthroughs.

Relevant changes in our world include:

• Universal education;
• Better technology;
• Wider dissemination of knowledge;
• Diffusion of the internet globally;
• Lifelong learning;
• Better nutrition and healthcare; and
• Generally higher standards of living.

Taken together, all of this means that people are smarter and cleverer earlier in life and living healthier to older ages. In a globalised world with access to information and technology, highly motivated and self-directed individuals are attaining levels of intelligence, competencies and abilities that were often previously age-related.

Yet, despite the changes, old perceptions and generalisations remain common. Some employers believe that young people lack maturity and wisdom, and older people are ineffective and have a host of medical problems.

In many cases attitudes to age come from a previous generation when education, health and longevity were very different. Commonly there is bias, prejudice and discrimination. Of course, this is not just practiced by employers, but also customers, work colleagues and society at large. 

Age bias: experienced by all age groups
Age discrimination rates highly on the list of most common workplace complaints. Many older job hunters, especially above 40, see ageism as their biggest problem when looking for jobs or working towards a promotion or a position of authority. Surveys regularly find that a huge number of people believe they have been victims of ageism¹.

With the ageing of the population especially in developed and newly developed countries, age issues are likely to arise more often over the years ahead. Increasingly, older workers will make up the bulk of available labour. Even in countries where there is a generally younger population, because of greater mobility mainly attributable to globalisation, older employees will be more readily available than younger ones.

Like every other group, young people in their 20s also experience ageism. Many often comment that they were found unsuitable for career advancement because they looked far too young or they lacked the necessary experience and expertise to win the vacancy on offer. Others note that they are disadvantaged because employers do not value their technology know-how.

Countless young people in their 20s, believe they are capable of doing more than their bosses allow them. Many dissatisfied young people are taking the bold step of setting up their own businesses and enterprises and some are even competing with their former employers.

Even those in their 30s and 40s sometimes report age discrimination. Those in their mid-30s who encounter age discrimination often complain of being called too old as employers wanting to create a youthful company image prefer to recruit those in their late twenties. On the other hand, those in their mid-30s also encounter being described as too young to take on the responsibilities of senior managers who “should be around 40.”

Most employees feel age in the workplace is irrelevant, with more than half the job hunters in many countries citing skills, expertise, relevant experience, personality, or some combination, as the most important factors. Yet, employers seem to cling to a theory that experience, expertise, ability, skills, knowledge and intellectual capital are all age related. The firm belief is: if you are not the right age or belong to a particular generation, you do not have what it takes to do a particular job or you are just not suited.

How people develop today 
Adult development and aging are complex phenomena. Understanding how adults develop and change requires input from a wide variety of perspectives. Throughout life, the speed, content and extent of development progresses at different rates for different people. Development is defined by genetics, environment, situation, circumstances, opportunity, impediments and a whole host of factors. Yet employers, work colleagues, customers and others persist in stereotyping and having rigid definitions of how people should develop.

For an example of how aging varies, we need only look at the intellectual capability of a 30 year-old executive in 2006 compared to an executive of the same age in 1996. In ten years, the educational system has changed, the training received has been continuously updated, communications have changed dramatically, with the common use of the internet the information bubble has exploded and the economy experienced by these individuals is totally different. It is not surprising, therefore, that the individual’s capacity, as an executive, will be different.

In the area of individual development, the research by the German Professor, scholar and psychologist, Paul Baltes², is especially enlightening. Baltes is currently the Director of the Center of Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and the Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Berlin.

Baltes identified four key factors that drive the development of individuals:

1. Multidirectionality – Progress through life involves both growth and development. As people grow in one area, they may lose in another and at a different rate. For example, a person’s vocabulary may increase throughout life, but reaction time may decline.
2. Plasticity - An individual’s capacity is not pre-determined nor set in concrete. Many skills can be trained or improved with practice, even in later life.
3. Historical context – The development of individuals within a particular set of circumstances is determined by the historical time in which they are born and the culture in which they grow up.
4. Multiple Causation – Individuals develop results from a wide variety of forces. Biological, psychological, socio-cultural and life-cycle forces shape development.

Age diversity makes the workplace richer
Partly because people develop at different rates and people from different generations show different levels of development, it becomes vitally important to have diversity of age in the workforce.

Building bridges across generations remains challenging, as the members of the different age groups often do not share the same reference points or the same level of connectedness. Important implications for the workplace include:

• Managers and leaders must recognise with the passing on of lifetime employment, they need to change their views about age; and
• They need to acknowledge that diversity of age among their subordinates may add much value in terms of ideas, creativity and innovation.

With the advent of universality of education especially up to tertiary level, the rhetoric of lifelong learning, better nutrition and health care, regular exercise and effective and efficient personal and intellectual development, an individual in his mid-fifties can easily have the competencies, skills, abilities, intellectual capital, aptitude, attitude and physical wellness equivalent to someone in his or her mid-thirties.

Age, ageism and workforce diversity affect all aspects of human resources management, including: recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and benefits, career development and human relations. In any particular workplace, these major sectors of HR cannot be addressed without regard to the mix of generations existing in the workforce.  “One size fits all” simply does not apply.

Similarly, HR professionals cannot assume that people who come from a clearly defined generation, e.g. Baby Boomers, will all consistently demonstrate specific characteristics. In the future, the diversity of age in the workplace, and within each generation, will have to be recognised if a successful workplace is to emerge.

Where human resources professionals practise age related discrimination or bias, their company loses. They may well be missing out on the very best potential talent.

Just as corporations are judged today for their approach to the environment, so in the future, ageism will be a differentiator. Good practice will involve:

• A workforce which is age diverse;
• Applications for vacancies coming from all age groups; and
• Objective person specifications and job descriptions being based solely on skills, relevant experience and capacity to do the job. 

Conclusion
We live in an era where maintaining age diversity in the workplace is a must. It is pivotal for organisations to thrive and to attain the vision they set for themselves.

Tailoring policies and practices for age diversity is an important emphasis in the management of human capital. In addition, it can be a demonstration of management and organisational flexibility. Companies that discriminate on the basis of age are limiting their chances of recruiting and retaining the best people.

As people live longer, engage in lifelong learning and pursue intellectual and skill growth throughout life, diversity in the workplace will become more common.

In their quest to open doors to employment, development and opportunities for all working people, human resources specialists should not be constrained by age issues.

Footnotes
1. The UK body, Age Concern, which works to promote the well being of all older people and to help make later life a fulfilling and enjoyable experience, conducts regular surveys. Age Concern believes that about 80% of older people experience ageism. See: www.ageconcern.org.uk 

2. Baltes, P. B. (1987): Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology. 23. pp. 611-626.; Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U. & Staudinger, U. M. (1998): Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In Lerner, R, M. (Editor): Handbook of Child Psychology. Volume 1. Theoretical Models of Human Development. New York, NY: Willey. 5^th Edition, (pp. 1029-1143).