DE&I: Prevent Ageism In Your Workplace!

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. Employers need to stop disregarding this important talent pool at a time when industrialised economies need them the most. Here I advise organisations on how to shift unhelpful ageist attitudes and embrace a multi-generational workforce… Let’s encourage an all-inclusive workplace for older employees!

Note: We all recognise that employees of various ages might be experiencing age-based discrimination. Even though age-discrimination commonly affects both young and old employees, in this opinion blog I will primarily concentrate on the latter, the Over-50s employee demographic segment!

“Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism” (Claude Pepper)

Whenever I hear about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), it is almost always about ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, very few people seem to openly discuss ageism in the workplace. Unless organisations have a serious internal conversation about age-related biases, these will continue to go unchecked. Change will simply never happen if nobody talks about it.

It is clear that the intricacies around age in the workplace are not being addressed properly. This results in continued mismanagement of talent, decreasing employee belonging, and even discrimination. We have made so many advances in all dimensions of DE&I yet ageism is still an area that is hardly ever talked about and dealt with.

We all know that ageism and stereotyping of older employees is very common in many organisations. In fact, most would say it is by far the most common form of discrimination in the workplace. People openly admit that age discrimination of over-50s is generally accepted in workplaces.

According to ACAS , discrimination of over-50s is most likely to occur in:

• Recruitment – When recruiters and hiring managers automatically dismiss older candidates.
• Training – When line-managers overlook older employees for development opportunities.
• Promotion – When ruling out capable employees to take on extra responsibilities because they are considered to be ‘too old’ for the new role.
• Dismissal – When older employees are disproportionately more likely to be selected for redundancy.

In general, older employees are less likely to be shortlisted for interviews, hired, offered training opportunities, or promoted (Posthuma & Campion, 2009). Consequently, older employees tend to be out of work for longer, and may end up taking lower skilled, lower paid jobs, or may end up in less secure roles, such as contract or entrepreneurial work as a result (Harris et al., 2018).

This situation calls for much needed organisational awareness on when and how age discrimination raises its ugly head in the workplace. Business leaders need to learn how to effectively respond to prejudice and bias on the grounds of employees’ age. This is especially relevant now that employees can work for as long as they want to (the forced retirement age of 65 no longer exists) and the UK Government is planning to raise the retirement age to 68 by the mid-2030s!

Over-50s labour market trends

I feel that from a DE&I perspective it is important to understand the latest trends for this specific demographic group in the job market. So, I had a look at the latest UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) data reports, more specifically their ‘Over-50s Lifestyle Study’ which focuses on the work experiences of adults aged 50 to 70 years.

According to the ONS, one major feature for over 50s has been the increase in their economic inactivity. This reversed the historical falling trend in inactivity for this age group in the last 10 years. The report highlights that 63% of adults aged 50 to 70 years decided to leave work sooner than expected.

This trend has emerged alongside a record number of vacancies which, according to the ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) data, many businesses report as being difficult to fill. So, why are over 50s not benefiting from this booming labour market conditions?

It is important to note that the number of older people in the workplace is expected to increase significantly over the next 20 years. By 2025 we expect 25% of employees in the UK to be over the age of 55. As a consequence, the state pension age is also set to rise to reflect the fact that people are living and working for longer and young people are having fewer children. The UK state pension age is currently 66 but from April 2026 it will start increasing gradually, reaching 67 two years later. It could then start rising again to 68 as early as 2033. Employers need to be ready for this demographic shift in the labour market!

Reasons for over 50s economic inactivity

According to the UK Government Economic Inactivity Report (2022), there are around 8.6 million people who are economically inactive in the UK, a significant number of those, more than 2.3 million (27%), are people between the age of 50 and 64, many of whom have retired early due to lack of workplace support.

According to the ONS, while retirement was the most common reason given by over-50s for leaving work, they did also mention stress and/or mental health as important factors for quitting - they stated they did not feel valued or supported at work.

“Over-50s are generally more likely to want to upskill than any other age group”

On the other hand, those over-50s who never left the workforce were more likely to say they felt supported by their employers with flexible working, occupational health, additional support from their line-managers, support for mental or physical health concerns, reasonable adjustments for health and wellbeing, workplace assistance programmes and training.

Among those over-50s who would consider returning to work, over half (54%) said this would only be for a job that they would enjoy, a job that is suited to their interests, skills, and experience. They are not keen on taking lower skilled jobs. Additional factors for returning to work were flexible working hours, good pay, and being able to work from home. The majority of those who would consider returning to work or are currently looking for paid work would like to return on a part-time basis. So, why do older employees seem to have greater difficulties in landing new positions?

Ageism in our workplaces

Ageism, also called age discrimination, is when you are treated unfavourably because of your age. It arises when someone is unfairly disadvantaged for reasons, which cannot be objectively justified, relating to their age. The UK Equality Act 2010 clearly states that employees must not be discriminated against because of their age. The employment of older persons should be based on their experience, skills and ability rather than age.

“Discriminating against older employees is unethical and illegal”

Over-50s want a job but can't find one because numerous organisations don't want people their age. Only 18% of those aged 50 to 70 years who left or lost their job since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have since managed to return to work. More than a quarter of those over 50s who had lost or left their job since the start of the coronavirus pandemic thought they had experienced age discrimination when looking for paid work.

More precisely, over 1 in 5 (22%) of those in their 50s and over a third (34%) of those aged 60 to 70 years, who lost or left their job since the coronavirus pandemic, reported they had experienced age discrimination when looking for paid work.

These ONS findings are not unusual. New research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) also suggests firms are much less open to hiring older employees. The CMI found that just four out of 10 hiring managers (42%) were open to hiring people aged between 50 and 64. Most hiring managers (74%) were more open to hiring younger workers between the ages of 18 and 34.

This may help explain why around 15% of over 50s said they had looked for a paid job at some point since they left their job but are no longer looking for work.

Bringing over-50s back into the workforce means employers will need to shift their attitudes towards hiring, training, and promoting older employees. Employers complain of severe labour shortages, while also admit they are hesitant to bring in older employees. Organisations will find it difficult to grow if they do not find enough staff. This means over-50s cannot continue to be ignored and excluded just when the labour market needs them the most - Organisations need those early retirees to return to work!

How to measure the work experience of over-50s

The steps for effectively managing over-50s are the same as for employees of any other age group. In order to manage effective organisational change on matters of age discrimination, first, you need to understand the challenges that over-50s might be facing in your workplace. This will allow you to take the necessary actions to support them.

As the first step, I suggest implementing a pulse survey, a brief and regular set of questions that can be sent to all employees, to measure their views and sentiment on age-related aspects of their work experience. For this purpose, I suggest three key pulse survey statements:

• I feel this company supports equal opportunity for all employees.
• In this company, regardless of their age, employees are treated fairly.
• My line-manager makes me feel valued and appreciated for my contributions.

For these three survey statements I advise to use a five-point Likert-type response scale (e.g., Strongly disagree; Disagree; Neither agree nor disagree; Agree; Strongly agree). The favourable score refers to the combination of the ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ responses.

HR colleagues always ask me about external benchmarks for these survey statements: What are the scores of other organsations? My personal view is these should not be necessary in this instance. Your organisation should aim at being as close as possible to 100% favourable scores in these three survey statements. Your historical results will become your own internal benchmark. It will allow you to monitor your DE&I actions, to see if these are having a positive impact on your target employee population. In DE&I matters, the ultimate goal is to be better today than yesterday, with a plan to become even better tomorrow.

Read more: Employee Feedback & the Culture of ‘Continuous Improvement’

For you to be able to analyse the opinions of different age groups, you will need to incorporate a coding question to identify the feedback of employees of different ages. Consider the following question and response options:

• What is your age?

a)?????Under 25 years old

b)?????25 to 34 years old

c)?????35 to 44 years old

d)?????45 to 54 years old

e)?????Over 55 years old

You can cross-tabulate employee opinions with age but also with other participant attributes, e.g. job level, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, etc.

For example, do older women experience more age-related discrimination than older men? Is ageism more widespread among ethnic minorities? Or perhaps age discrimination is more prevalent in specific job levels, organisational functions, or geographies?

Age based stereotypes can affect disadvantaged employee groups more, with women and ethnic minority individuals facing double vulnerability of discrimination as they get older.

In this respect, you can cross-tabulate employee opinions with any other data that you have collected to see if there are meaningful relationships. This analysis will help you identify hotspots for potential cases of age discrimination within your workplace and guide subsequent corrective actions.

Your analysis should also include an open-ended comments question such as:

• In your opinion, what are the one or two key things your Company could do to create a more inclusive workplace for all employees?

This question will help you obtain further insights about the experience of over-50s. Once you gather all the feedback, you need to synthesise your qualitative and quantitative analyses together. Do triangulate your data (coding question, opinion statements, and verbatim comments) to enrich your analysis; this will render results that cannot be obtained through the analysis of any of these three datasets in isolation. The findings of each single dataset will help to answer your research questions up to a point, but bringing those findings together may give a fuller explanatory narrative of the work experience of over-50s in your organisation.

These findings should be discussed with senior leaders and those business units showing less positive results. This can be done via post-survey focus groups and one-to-one interviews. This debrief exercise could also be used to identify potential corrective actions. Do actively involve your different teams in the action planning process. This will reinforce their championing and commitment towards the implementation of your DE&I programmes. Allow their participation, empower them!

Read more: The Most Effective Way to Measure 'Diversity & Inclusion'

Read more: Caring for Employees with ‘Hidden Disabilities’

Some final thoughts…

In order to best provide for over-50s and increase their levels of engagement, it is important to ask for, record, and monitor the evolution of their feedback and workplace experience. Collecting over-50s input provides valuable insight on how they feel about the organisation's culture.

Surveying over-50s provides business leaders with baseline information about this specific demographic. The consistent data collection over time will provide insights into shifting preferences and trends among your older employees. This sort of employee feedback will guide strategic decisions and informed priorities for your DE&I interventions.

Sources of information:

• UK Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• Age Stereotypes in the Workplace (2009) - Journal of management, Volume 35 Issue 1, February 2009?- Richard A. Posthuma and Michael A. Campion
• Ageism and the Older Worker (2018) - The Gerontologist, Volume 58, Issue 2, April 2018 - Kelly Harris, Sarah Krygsman, Jessica Waschenko, Debbie Laliberte Rudman
• 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.