The new age enterprise problem – Ageism
Ageism (also spelled "agism") is stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. With organizations increasingly looking at new ways to work, being agile, young, and dynamic, often unknowingly become age-discriminating.
It’s often seen that highly experienced individuals who, for whatever reason find themselves without a job, struggle to get employment and one of the key hidden reasons for their struggle is organizations preferring a younger candidate.
Organizations who aim to move too fast and to align themselves with new ways of working and new technologies often forget that with age comes wisdom and certainly a lot of professional experience.
Many hiring managers feel that candidates after a certain age would not be flexible, not be open to learning new things, not fast enough in decision making, and may not be able to work or lead a team of diverse backgrounds. Though it may be true in a fraction of cases, it not entirely true. Candidates who are at a longer years of experience infact are the “New Collar” workforce.
These candidates are enthusiastic, open to learn, well read, and extremely agile. The “New Collar” workforce consciously makes an attempt to be new, fast, and cool and would succeed if given a chance.
I highly recommend every reader of this article to watch the famous Hollywood movie – The Intern. It’s the best example in the context of this article. So here are somethings organizations need to do to overcome Ageism
- Be flexible. Diversity hiring is not only restricted to Gender Diversity
- Assess skills and not age
- Be real “equal opportunity employer”
- Coach hiring teams and managers about Diversity and sensitize them on the problem of Ageism.
Every employee, candidate, and individual come with varied set of experiences and skills. It’s up to organizations to make the most out of them.
Hope you had a good read and we can always talk about HR and related topics here on LinkedIn.
Happy Learning and Thinking.
Regards,
Laksh Sharma
HR Leader - AskHR India South Asia, Associate Director HR, IBM
6 年Great thoughts Laksh. Definitely, something worth thinking about for each & every difficult role.
Alternative Learning |Generative AI| HRM| Communication |Artist | Enterprise
6 年Laksh, this oversight has created a huge chaos without leadership and guidance skills in organisations. We tend to look back after repercussions are devastating.
HR Consulting | HR Transformation & Implementation | Start-up Mentor I Talent Acquisition I M&A Integration
6 年Very well articulated thoughts Laksh. Thanks a lot for sharing your perspectives.
Head of Operations, ARGA Investments
6 年A very important aspect of inclusion "age" that gets to the bottom of the list with priority towards differently-abled, gender, culture, language etc. Well described Laksh Sharma, PMP?, but I say it works both ways with a flip side example of mine.. the reason why I quit JPM when my boss considers my age first and then skills prior to deciding on my promotion! Her words " What's your age ponz, it took me 14 years to get there and you are 5 years in the industry!!!"...well written!
Lead Employee Relations - India
6 年Good Read!!? totally agree.