Ageism – does it still exist?
1st December 2011
By Ben Davies, Joint Head of Interim Finance.
The planned increases in the state retirement age, combined with a life expectancy now reaching 80 in the UK, mean that the country’s workforce demographic is changing. In 2006, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations made it unlawful to discriminate against workers, employees, job seekers and trainees because of their age. Employers can no longer get rid of someone for being 65 and, in fact, employment for those above that age increased by 15,000 from Feb 2010 to Feb 2011. However, with more senior jobseekers in the market than ever before, survey after survey of them tells us that ageism is still the biggest hurdle they come up against.
So, if employers and recruiters are all aware of what they can and can’t ask, the age-neutral language they must use, and that job descriptions need to be purely competency based, then what is going wrong, why does ageism still exist and what, if anything, can we do about it?
Could it be that, despite the regulations being positively adopted for the job advertising process, actual attitudes are still working against the older candidate when it comes to a contract offer? Entrenched misconceptions can include classics such as older applicants being inflexible, ‘untrainable’, out of touch with their sector, and technophobic. And if these ageist beliefs come from the decision-makers at the top of an organisation, it’s inevitable that they will permeate through some of its employees too.
In reality of course, the opposite of these misconceptions is often true. A career spent learning new skills, working through periods of change both internally and in the world generally, and being at the birth of various technological advances often highlights genuine advantages that older candidates can have over their younger counterparts. However, to suggest that ready-trained, qualified senior candidates can hit the ground running, have a career of relevant industry experience behind them, need minimal supervision, and can bring in valuable key contacts, only discriminates against younger jobseekers – proving that the only criteria for hiring should be the competency for the position in question.
To change attitudes from the top down, employers need to recognise that the age profile of their personnel is going to change. They need to focus on the positives, such as the reduction in staff turnover costs that fewer retirements will bring, and proactively use the experience and skills of older employees to the company’s advantage, in mentoring programmes, for example. Possible stumbling blocks here are that those at the top of organisations can often afford to retire early themselves and so have limited sympathy with those who still need to work into their 60s; and young employees often believe that the older ones should “make way” for their own careers to blossom. I’d like to see them try saying that to 69-year-old Alex Ferguson…
Have you encountered ageism yourself? How many people in your workplace are in their 60s? Let us know in the comments box below.
Back to other Blog stories
Leave a Reply
Thames Valley: St Leonard's House, 126 - 130 St Leonard's Road, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 3DG T: 01753 754 333
London: 17 Dominion Street, London EC2M 2EF T: 020 3440 5270