Josh Bersin and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic* say we often evaluate people based on their age, and this is becoming a major challenge in the workplace.
Photo: Yacob Chuk
There’s a lot of talk about gender bias, racial bias and culture bias at work and each are important for many reasons.
But perhaps one of the biggest and most problematic types of bias we face is the bias of age: we often evaluate people based on their age, and this is now becoming a major challenge in the workplace.
If you are older, you are likely to be considered less capable, less able to adapt, or less willing to roll up your sleeves and do something new than your younger peers.
Much has been written about this recently, because the workforce is ageing at a rapid rate.
This is largely a result of baby boomers reaching retirement at a rate faster than millennials are able to step into their place.
We face two clear demographic trends.
First, and this is of course something we should celebrate, we are living longer.
Second, young people are having fewer children, and fertility rates are declining throughout the industrialised world.
We argue that employers must bring older people back to work and give them meaningful, important jobs.
The myth propagated by the retirement industry is that people over the age of 65 should retire.
Despite the billions of dollars spent convincing us that our “golden years” should involve travel, golf, and sitting around the pool, research actually shows that people who stop working and retire often suffer from depression, heart attacks, and a general malaise of not having as much purpose in their lives.
Many people, particularly those who have enjoyed long and meaningful careers, do like to work.
It represents an opportunity to give value to others and the community; it gives you a network of friends and associates to be with; and it gives you something to do with your intellectual and physical energy.
Countless individuals in their sixties and seventies are actively engaged with their careers, and certain to avoid retirement.
This suggests that age does correspond with workplace wisdom, and research proves it.
Contrary to popular belief, older, more tenured people are more successful entrepreneurs.
Those over the age of 40 are three times more likely to create successful companies as a result of their patient, collaborative natures, and their lack of a “need to prove myself” attitude that tends to accompany youth.
Our career systems, pay systems, and recruitment and assessment systems are designed against hiring older people.
Many employers believe that older people are “overpaid” and can be “replaced with younger workers” who can do the job just as well.
People like Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and others publicly state that “younger people are smarter”.
The scientific evidence on this issue shows differently: For most people, raw mental horsepower declines after the age of 30, but knowledge and expertise — the main predictors of job performance — keep increasing even beyond the age of 80.
There is also ample evidence to assume that traits like drive and curiosity are catalysts for new skill acquisition, even during late adulthood.
Beside the value and competence older employees can bring to the workforce, there is the issue of cognitive diversity.
Few things of value have ever been accomplished by individuals working alone.
The vast majority of our advancements are the result of people working together.
The best way to maximise team output is to increase cognitive diversity, which is significantly more likely to occur if you can get people of different ages (and experiences) working together.
To truly overcome age discrimination, and the damage it could bring to our global economy, employers need to take action.
Here are some suggestions:
Give older people titles and roles that let them contribute their expertise:
You can do this without necessarily offering higher and higher pay.
Offer accommodations for flexible work:
This includes more accessible workstations with more light, larger fonts, and other things that can help accommodate the needs of people of all ages.
Bring age into your diversity, equity and inclusion programs:
Studies show that age-diverse teams feel more psychological safety and innovative than teams that are age-biased.
Give older workers managerial roles, supervisor roles, and mentor roles:
These positions will let them leverage their years of expertise or tenure.
Recruit older people:
Invite them back to work from retirement and tell stories of older people succeeding at your organisation.
Coach and teach recruiters not to discriminate by age:
This includes tackling implicit biases, which is an illegal practice.
Teach younger leaders about reverse mentoring:
Show them how they can help older people and understand how to manage older workers, who have biases of their own.
As the global economy ages, ageism will become a more important issue than ever.
Put the terms “longevity” and “age” into your wellbeing, diversity, and recruiting strategies.
People of every age are motivated to come to work.
If you can create an inclusive, fair, and meaningful experience for older employees, as well as younger ones, you’ll not only find your organisation becomes more innovative, engaging, and profitable over time, you will be benefiting society at large.
* Josh Bersin is founder of Bersin by Deloitte and the Josh Bersin Academy.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and Columbia University, and an Associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He tweets at @drtcp. His website is www.drtomas.com.
This article first appeared at hbr.org.
