Summary: Whenever age is used to diminish the competency and capability of older employees, ageism is in action. Employees who are 50 years of age or older (Over-50s) typically face the most appalling age bias and discrimination. Here I offer insights on how to promote old-age-friendly workplace practices… Let’s promote more inclusive work environments for older employees!
“Cultivating a multigenerational workforce will broaden your talent pool and improve retention rates”
It is time for a fundamental programme of reforms to support older employees overcome the obstacles and prejudices that prevent them from working effectively. In this opinion blog, as a starting point, I propose the Acknowledge-Grow-Embrace (AGE) framework (Cortijo et al., 2019) as a model that can be used by organisations to take advantage of the diversity of thought, experiences, and skills of an age-diverse workforce, creating a sustainable and socially responsible workplace.
STAGE 1 (A) - ACKNOWLEDGE: The first step in such programme would be to recognise and admit that ageism may be occurring within the organisation, even if anti-discrimination policies are already in place. It is here we recommend auditing your organisation’s hiring, development, promotion, and employee termination/dismissal practices. In this first stage you could also consider implementing employee surveys to better understand the vertical and horizontal distribution, and work experience, of different age groups within the organisation.
STAGE 2 (G) - GROW: The next step is to put systems in place to address any age-biases identified in stage 1. This might include regular reporting and monitoring of areas of concern; adjustments to hiring practices to guarantee over-50s are not being excluded; actions to ensure relevant training is being provided to over-50s; initiatives to challenge age-based stereotyping; and steps to attract and maintain older talent within the organisation.
STAGE 3 (E) – EMBRACE: This stage is about empowering over-50s by respecting and appreciating what makes them different. This group of employees should be acknowledged and valued for their skills and experience and encouraged to reach their full potential. As employees become more aware of the need to be grateful and respectful and to appreciate and recognise each other, they learn to see differences as opportunities to learn and grow, instead of being threatened by them.
“People with fixed mindsets have been found to be more likely to endorse stereotypes and to be prejudiced towards over-50s”
This three-step framework will help you integrate age-diversity into your corporate DE&I strategy. Any planned HR interventions to level the organisational playing field for older employees should be based on your age-related DE&I audit findings. Once your organisation has a clear picture of its starting position, it can consider those interventions that may be most relevant and effective for your specific work environment.
Best practices to 'EMBRACE' over-50s in your workplace
So, how should we embrace older employees in the workplace? There is no one silver bullet DE&I strategy for that purpose, so here I provide a selection of key tactics, interventions, and ideas for embracing over-50s in the workplace. What is important is that business leaders begin that forward motion that will sustain long-term DE&I success in their organisations.
- Know your workforce: It is essential that HR and Senior Leader teams understand the age demographics within each of their business units. They need to make use of data and analytics to gauge insight from their workforce to understand how their different teams are split by age, and identify opinion trends within each of these. There will be contrasting patterns among younger and older generations. Over-50s will definitely have different needs and expectations.?
- Make your organisation’s position clear: Prominently communicate your age discrimination policy by announcing it at all-staff meetings, as well as posting it in detail on bulletin boards or the intranet, and incorporating it in your employee handbook. The policy should include a clear definition of ageism, with workplace examples, as well as reporting and grievance procedures. You need to get senior leaders to open the door, set the tone, and send the message that DE&I and ageism is something to be discussed and acted on.
- Sensitise senior leadership: Make sure your leaders are fully on-board. Being aware of the repercussions of discrimination and unconscious biases in the workplace or understanding the business case for DE&I is not enough. Creating awareness is a good start, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to action. Senior leaders must be intentional in engaging and acknowledging over-50s and their value through micro-affirmations, both in what and how they communicate it to employees. They need a holistic approach to learn the tools, frameworks, and necessary skills to bridge the gap between DE&I theory and practice. The programme should do more than just lecture on what not to do; it should provide real-workplace examples and active participation to sensitise and keep senior leaders engaged.?
- Require the participation of all employees: Help them understand that a mature workforce brings in experience that can be used to support organisations grow and develop. Implement communication & diversity training to make sure employees at all levels are able to recognise age bias and related harassment and discrimination and empower them to report it immediately. Train and coach managers on what triggers age discrimination and how to avoid it. Since negative sentiments/feelings and workplace stress tend to increase idiosyncratic age stereotypes, wellbeing and stress management initiatives may also support multigenerational cohesion.
- Eliminate age-based stereotypes: Create a positive and inclusive culture that treats age as seriously as other protected characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, and disability. Empower all employees to challenge their direct reports, peers and superiors when they see age related stereotyping. HR will need to work with the different heads of business units to address any existing biases that may lead to exclusion or discrimination.?
- Ensure equal opportunities: Ensure all HR practices are applied effectively and fairly to all staff, including older employees. Guarantee good talent management practices. Remove potential age prejudice and stereotyping in connection with appraisal and performance management. Managers need to learn to make recruitment and promotion decisions based on objective criteria relevant to the job and personal merit. Offer secure contracts to older employees wherever possible. Do not approach layoffs based on age or pay. Remove age related discriminatory language from your job descriptions. Place advertisements where older employee groups might look. Do not require applicants to list their birthdate or picture on forms. Avoid age-related interview questions. Promote ‘Returnships’ by inviting older employees to come back from retirement, through specific programs tailored to the aging. Hire retirees for short-term projects. Offer part-time roles or seasonal positions for semi-retirees.?
- Promote wellbeing: Offer occupational health and wellbeing support to older employees. HR and People teams need to adjust their wellbeing policies to accommodate potential needs of older employees. Redesign job roles around the person if they have long-term health conditions or other functional limitations. Evaluate accessibility for employees affected by illnesses associated with age that could result in mobility problems or similar challenges. In physically demanding roles, provide ergonomic adjustments and technological solutions to maintain the productivity of older employees. Offer more accessible workstations with more light, larger fonts, and other things that can help accommodate the needs of older employees. Ensure all policies around healthcare and wellness programmes are always up to date.
- Encourage flexible working: Promote flexible working positively and openly. Evidence shows the value of flexible working both as a retention tool and to help over-50s make an effective return to work. If necessary or requested, allow over-50s to slowly phase to part-time hours. Implement job-sharing opportunities for over-50s. For example, 'Grandparental Leave' to help their children with their childcare responsibilities is one way that businesses are responding to the challenges that older employees experience.
- Individualise communications: Tailored communications across your workforce for different generations/age-groups is vital. In reality no single communication channel will suit all over-50s just because they happen to be in that age group. Stereotypically, organisations do not expect over-50s to use social media or advanced business communication tools. Therefore, it is important to listen and ask over-50s how they prefer to be contacted: face-to-face meetings? Emails?
- Promote multigenerational teamwork: Interventions that support inter-departmental multi-generational teamwork do reduce ageist beliefs and improve cross-age collaboration and respect in organisations. Moreover, you could also promote informal communication channels by designing roles for older people to effectively coordinate teams, disseminate information, maximise social contact and interaction. Also, do not forget to plan employee events and team building exercises that cater to all ages.
- Boost empowerment: Create an empowered workforce where over-50s can be seen and heard equally. Give older employees as much autonomy as is possible in their work. Consider what you can do to create a psychologically safe work environment where over-50s feel free to speak up, be heard, and bring their authentic self.
- Recognise knowledge and experience: Celebrate long-term employees for their loyalty. Create tailor-made years of service awards programmes to recognise the work and contribution of older employees. Provide over-50s with titles and roles that let them contribute their expertise. Create opportunities for them to mentor and share their knowledge and experience with more junior colleagues or new hires. Motivate them with incentives like an hour or two per week (paid, of course) of one-on-one mentoring time. Properly rewarding over-50s at work means understanding their desire to share their experience and wisdom, and be looked up to as leaders in their domain.
- Support development and reskilling: Constantly evaluate career and progress opportunities for over-50s. Ensure that older employees have variety in their work and opportunities to learn new skills. The automatic exclusion of specific age groups, such as those nearing retirement, is an unfairly discriminatory practice. Guarantee older employees are eligible for training and development programmes to upskill. Consider intergenerational methods to bring over-50s training and development opportunities that they can use, e.g., introduce internships for over-50s (Senior Intern Programmes). Reverse mentoring, networking, and intergenerational cross-training may be of more interest to over-50s than traditional training classes. Finally, offer over-50s a ‘safe space’ in which to talk about their own training needs.
Each organisation will have different needs for their over-50s employee population. There will not be a universal solution. Whatever DE&I intervention is considered, it will be important to monitor its effectiveness over time and not just assume that by introducing some actions the ageism challenge will simply disappear.
Moreover, as with all steps to support disadvantaged groups in workplaces, any initiatives adopted will need to be carefully communicated as a win-win opportunity for all employees. This will help avoid potential resentment from existing age-privileged groups in the organisation, who may otherwise feel threatened and react in a hostile manner.
Some final thoughts…
Although the above ideas are a great start, simply creating age-related DE&I policies will not be enough. Do not assume that all employees will understand, follow and comply with your DE&I guidelines on ageism. Your policies must stress that your company will not tolerate unfair treatment based on age. Senior leaders, managers, and human resource departments need to become role models and, if necessary, must enforce these policies, whether that includes formal discipline or something more severe.
Do not forget that many older employees are still eager to keep contributing their talents and experience to the business because of the loyalty and commitment that they have to their organisations. An ageing workforce still brings tremendous value to businesses and employees alike. And by ensuring there is a levelled playing field for employees of all age groups, senior leaders are setting themselves and their businesses up for success.
- The AGE model: Addressing ageism in the workplace through corporate social responsibility – Journal of Labor and Society, Volume22, Issue1, March 2019, Pages 197-213 - Virginia Cortijo, Lee Phillip McGinnis, Elif ?i?li-Ciamarra
- Ageism and Mistreatment of Older Workers: Current Reality, Future Solutions - Springer (2012) - Patricia Brownell (Editor), James J. Kelly (Editor)
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Disclaimer: The author is making this ‘Opinion Blog / Guide’ available in his personal effort to advance the understanding of best practices in workplace related matters. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this ‘Opinion Blog / Guide’ or for the results obtained from the use of the information provided. The information is provided on an ‘as is’ basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness and without any warranties of any kind whatsoever, express or implied. The views expressed are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of any entity whatsoever with which the author has been, is now, or is to be affiliated in the future.
