Tackling ageism in the workplace

High Court judges don’t have to retire until they are 70, hospital consultants can also continue until that age, while Catholic bishops can go on until they are 75 with permission from Rome. The US president is well into his eighth decade and his main challenger in the 2020 election is older still. Why then do organisations continue to try to push people out when they are 65 and younger when they still have much to contribute?

"There is a perception that older people are more costly and less productive," says Tony Devine, managing partner of the Grey Matters Network. "But the ESRI report on The Ageing Workforce in Ireland points to research which shows this perception to be a myth."

Founded in 2015, the Grey Matters Network is an organisation comprised of more than 400 individuals with experience in various areas who offer their expertise to client businesses. “I set it up with Declan Hughes and Mick Furlong. We each had more than 30 years’ experience but still had lots to give. We had masses of experience and we thought there must be a value in that.”

Paul Gillen, a partner with law firm Pinsent Masons, believes the issue will come into focus more in the coming years. "With increased age for receipt of State pension and, in general, a more healthy ageing population, we can expect to see this as a more prevalent issue being raised, including seeing more employees and applicants claiming that their age has led to a disadvantage and potential discrimination," he says.

“Although age is a protected characteristic under legislation, it is still one of those areas that has not received a lot of attention,” Gillen adds. “Whether it is ‘forced’ retirement at State pension age or whether it is couched in a certain cultural fit, people of a certain age do face uphill struggles. There is a policy and public campaign required.”

Age-diverse policies

There are ways for employers to develop more age-diverse policies, he believes. “Employers should understand the impact of their approaches in work, including, for example, their brand, which could culturally be seen to be geared toward younger employees. Employers can do a lot to ensure that they are attracting older talent and making the most of the experience that this can bring. They can do this by having polices that are attractive to older employees, such as flexibility not only for childcare but for those who have caring responsibilities for older family members, not enforcing retirement and providing for retirement planning, but also to ensure inclusion of older employees through buddy or mentoring by older employees with younger employees to bridge that gap.”

Age is the next frontier for human resource strategies, yet employment models, practices and policies are not well aligned to this new reality, according to Helen McCarthy, senior consultant with Mercer Ireland. "Adopting age-diverse policies is crucial to capture the potential of experienced workers," she adds

And these policies are being embraced. “In Ireland, the trend towards greater accommodation of experienced workers is slowly accelerating,”she continues. “Following changes in the law, it is now more difficult for employers to enforce retirement. When it comes to facilitating longer working, the main challenges employers are facing include such things as blocking progression of younger workers, health and fitness concerns, continuing to provide appropriate benefits and inconsistent application of policy.”

Organisations must evaluate policies already in place and assess gaps while determining their future needs, McCarthy advises. Organisations can optimise their experienced workforce through a number of actions including collecting and analysing age-profile data to explore demographic and skills pinch points; developing and implementing people and career strategies that embrace the experienced workforce; and understanding what impact an organisation’s retirement plan design has on the trajectory of retirement readiness and labour flow.

She also recommends that organisations initiate conversations with employees about how they might work differently. “They must also examine and tackle how ageism might manifest in an organisation – analysing pay, bonuses, performance, promotion and recruitment statistics through a lens focused on ageing,” she adds.

“They should develop a lifelong learning attitude that positions people to embrace jobs of the future. Productivity levels across different age and position cohorts in an organisation should be measured and effective, flexible working strategies should be implemented.”

Tony Devine has a different view of the intergenerational workforce. “We now have five generations in the workforce,” he says. “That’s why we have established the first Intergenerational Workplace Day, which will take place in DCU on November 20th. We want to celebrate the diversity that the five generations can bring to the workplace.”

Effective intergenerational working

He points to the case of Chip Conley, the author of Wisdom at Work, as an example of effective intergenerational working. “He set up a boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre that was very successful and wanted to get out in his 50s,” Devine explains. “When he did, he was approached by the Airbnb founders, who wanted someone to help them grow the company. He was both a good and a bad fit. He knew lots about the hotel and accommodation sector but nothing about the digital or sharing economies.”

What Conley realised was that he had been hired as a teacher and a mentor, but he was also a student and an intern. He had to be a beginner and a teacher. This emerged as the secret to succeeding as a mid- or later-life worker – the marriage of wisdom and experience with curiosity and a willingness to learn.

“Conley calls this concept the modern elder and he now runs seminars on it in interesting locations around the world,” says Devine.

“It’s not about them versus us, it’s about the generations collaborating and working together. Research published by Forbes has shown that if you give a problem to an individual they will get it right part of the time; a team will get it right more often, maybe 60 per cent of the time; when you add in gender balance, this rises to 80 per cent; when you bring in age diversity, it climbs to 87 per cent; and with geographic diversity you get over the 90 per cent mark. There is no argument now that greater diversity leads to better decision-making.”