We’ve all experienced ageism in one form or the other throughout our lives – where we’re either too young or too old for what we want to do. While only annoying to encounter this in a line at the amusement park, ageism can be wildly frustrating to encounter in a more high-stakes situation, such as the workplace. Ageism at work can lead to organisation-wide dysfunction and high employee turnover. However, it is a mistake to think that this issue can be countered by only including a certain generation in the workforce, or limiting positions of power to one generation. Some countries even have legislation in place to ensure that people don’t face discrimination in the workplace. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act in the US for example forbids age discrimination against anyone 40 or older. The concept of age diversity however does not apply to just those who are older. It also refers to the discrimination of those who are young, by reason of their youth.
Ageism is a very confining approach that limits the potential of any organisation. This is because every generation possesses different strengths, work styles, and expectations due to the very different contexts that they were brought up in. The creation of a multigenerational workforce ensures that you bring together such individuals with different perspectives, skills, and abilities. Actively bringing diverse groups together results in the creation of teams that are capable of outperforming their less diverse peers. Lack of age diversity is not only an issue that pertains to organisational performance either – it’s a serious global issue that intersects with other challenges such as racism, gender rights, financial inclusion, health, poverty, and even human rights.
Ensuring age diversity within the organisation therefore is of manifest importance, both from an employee as well as an organisational point of view.
The mistake most organisations make however is ensuring age diversity in the recruitment process and in the recruitment process alone. The management in charge of an age diverse workforce also needs to ensure that they cater to the different needs of the people they manage. A diverse, yet dysfunctional group of people will not create the synergy that those in management might expect to achieve. But what are the different age groups and what are the age-related issues that management may be expected to mitigate?
The generations
Managers can expect to find up to five generations of workers in the job market today. These are the Gen Z, the millennials, Gen X, the baby boomers and maybe even the Silent generation who preceded them. The first and most important thing that has to be noted, and reiterated, is that individuals cannot be profiled based on the generations they are born in. The most that can be gathered is that they share certain traits purely based on the shared life experiences they had growing up, and the fact that they may have shared needs given the stage of life that they are in. It is important that management does not make assumptions about individuals. This makes for interesting challenges when it comes to unlocking the benefits of a multigenerational workforce on board.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is an issue faced by all generations. For example, most thought that the older generations would want to return to work physically after the pandemic while the younger generations would be the ones who would prefer to work from home. However, what the period following the quarantine revealed is that all generations wanted to enjoy improved workplace flexibility in order to enjoy a better work-life balance.
Difference in priorities
One key challenge that management faces in dealing with different generations are the different priorities in life they have. The youngest in the workforce can still be schooling, while the oldest are looking up retirement options in their spare time. The important factor is to not to prioritise the needs of one generation over the other. Employees that don’t have children for example often find their needs such as leave ignored in favour of the needs of employees that do. This is because management gives greater emotional weight to the needs of parents. The needs of all employees should be equal before management to ensure that favouritism does not foster bitterness between employees. Management should ensure that these emotional biases do not affect their decision-making. The benefits provided to employees of different generations should also address the different priorities that they have.
The age gap
The emotional distance that the age gap might create is a very real issue that management has to face in getting employees belonging to different generations. For example, the younger members of the organisation may find it intimidating to raise issues with or question the actions of the older generations even if they occupy the same position within the organisational hierarchy. This may lead to either bad decisions being carried out or the younger generations missing out on a chance to learn. It is important that management pays attention to whether such power dynamics emerge between workers. They should take every opportunity to ensure that the younger employees are empowered to engage with their older colleagues. On the other hand, older employees should be trained to engage with the younger generations on equal terms.
In addition to addressing these challenges separately, there are some structural and cultural changes that can be implemented within the management itself to ensure that they are better equipped to ensure that there is inclusivity and solidarity among the different generations. Making an age-diverse workforce an organisational priority is of paramount importance to ensure that the recruitment process is free from age bias. Removing indicators of age from the application process and blind hiring processes are a few structural changes that could help. Retention practices to upskill employees should address employees of all generations as it is presumptuous to imagine that older employees are not interested in career advancement. Employees of all ages will benefit from mentorship, as well as the organisation itself.
However, it is important to remember that conflicts between different generations of employees are inevitable despite management’s best efforts. These should be addressed quickly and effectively and without leaving any room for misinterpretations of bias – the organisation should not be allowed to become an arena for generational clashes.
Both management and employees should be trained, and the training reinforced to appreciate the differences among them, so that they would be able to accept them and move forward in achieving organisational goals. Surface-level differences between employees should not be allowed to obstruct the benefits of having a multigenerational workforce.
(Theruni Liyanage)