Benefits of Age Diversity

In the workplace, there is a great deal to be gained from age diversity.

Age diversity enables organisations to profit from the invaluable contributions that each age group can offer.

The opposite of promoting age diversity, is to allow ageism to thrive. Ageism is essentially nothing more than a bias against a particular age group on the grounds of age.

Ageism can be spotted in almost every stage of employment, from recruitment and selection to terminations. Age can influence decisions about training and development, promotions and demotions, retrenchments and redeployments. In some organisations it is a dominant theme.

In the UK, the government introduced a voluntary Code of Practice on age diversity in employment in 1999. But organisations like the renowned advocacy group, ‘Age Concern’ condemn many companies for failing to take any action. In fact, many older people’s pressure groups take the view that the voluntary code is not working and that legislation is needed.

In an extensive 2003 research study conducted by the huge UK research company, Ipsos MORI, researchers found that age rather than sex or race is the most common form of discrimination in the workplace. This study received questionnaires from 1804 individuals aged between 18 and 64. Six percent of respondents said they had felt discriminated against on the basis of age, whereas the number claiming to have experienced gender discrimination was 4%. The number of respondents who said they’d experienced sexual discrimination was 2% and for race discrimination it was 1%.

Of those who believed they had personally encountered ageism in the workplace, just over half said they were discriminated against because they were too old.  The remaining half claimed to have received unfair treatment for being too young.

While ageism remains strong in some organisations and in some industry sectors, others are rejoicing that for the first time in corporate history, people are becoming more aware of the range of generations occupying workspaces. Grandparents are working alongside - and sometimes even answering to - people fresh out of college (piercings and all).

With this diversity in age comes different attitudes toward workspace design. At the extremes there are some who still hanker after the corner office with traditional mahogany furnishings, while others are happy using a table at their favourite nearby coffee shop. With staff retention being so important, there is a real need now to accommodate the workspace desires of all employees.

Some office designers are suggesting that the cubicle age is almost dead. More and more people are reportedly wanting to bring panels down. There's more of a collaborative environment throughout the typical office today.

Designing for multiple generations is intended to increase employee retention, reduce turnover and increase morale. It's all about being more responsive to diversity in the work force.