Robert Sheen is founder and CEO of Trusaic, a purpose-driven technology company focused on pay equity, DEI and healthcare.
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Forward-thinking employers are bucking recruiting conventions by dialing up their efforts to attract and retain older workers. A few key demographic trends reveal why.
More than one-quarter of the workers in G7 countries will be age 55 or older by 2031. The U.S. workforce will reach this milestone even sooner—by 2028. At the same time, global talent shortages are projected to lead to more than 85 million unfilled jobs by 2030, resulting in annual revenue losses of roughly $8.5 trillion. In the U.S. alone, there are presently 9 million open jobs.
Clearly, employers need to embrace older workers like never before if they hope to meet their businesses’ future demands and position themselves for long-term success. Organizations simply can’t recruit enough younger workers to fill their talent needs. In fact, Bain & Company estimates that approximately 150 million jobs globally will need to shift to workers 55 and older by the end of the decade.
Talent supplies and demand aren’t the only reasons organizations are opening up to hiring older workers. As a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) noted, older workers are being seen as more dependable and hard-working than younger workers.
Yet, despite all of these factors, employers generally remain slow to shift their talent strategies, opportunity equity and corporate cultures to embrace older workers.
A Lack Of Programs And Policies
An AARP global survey of employers found that only around 4% had implemented programs to integrate older workers into their talent systems, and only a little more than one-quarter said they’re "very likely" to explore doing so in the future. What’s more, a mere 6% had policies in place related to unbiased recruiting processes that would foster multigenerational workforces.
In the U.S., a recent SHRM survey found that 30% of U.S. workers felt they were treated unfairly at some point in their career due to their age, and 26% of workers age 50 and older said they’d been the target of age-related remarks in the previous six months. Among those treated unfairly, 72% said the experience made them feel like quitting their job. Most organizations simply can’t afford to maintain workplace cultures that support these kinds of negative employee experiences, especially in light of how crucial older workers are to their future success and their reputations as employers.
Nor can many employers afford the potential financial impacts of age discrimination. Last October, pharmaceutical company Lilly USA agreed to pay $2.4 million to settle a nationwide age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. EEOC. In addition, Lilly will "provide EEO training to managers and human resources personnel, survey job applicants on whether they experienced discrimination, and specifically state in contracts with third-party recruiters that it doesn’t discriminate against candidates for employment based upon age."
Of course, this is just one of the many age discrimination lawsuits settled in 2023. Although the specific number of 2023 settlements hasn’t yet been published, according to the EEOC, it resolved more than 12,000 age-related discrimination cases in fiscal year 2022, more than 13,000 such cases in 2021 and well over 15,000 such cases in 2020. While these numbers are going in the right direction, they reveal a persistent and costly blind spot in employers’ treatment of older workers.
The Benefits Of A Multigenerational Workforce
Research from a variety of sources, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), shows that age-diverse firms have lower turnover and higher productivity rates than their benchmark peers. Plus, "the experience of older workers helps younger workers perform better, thereby boosting productivity directly and indirectly," the OECD states.
Employers also report that older workers tend to have superior problem-solving and interpersonal communication skills, possess a strong work ethic, offer a deep understanding of customer service and bring a larger perspective to bear on their work and that of their teammates—all of which complement the skills that younger workers bring to the table. Plus, the skillsets of older workers tend to be ones that AI technologies can’t replicate or replace, which arguably makes them even more valuable. In other words, multigenerational workforces provide deep and varied bench strength to their organizations.
As the AARP research revealed, 78% of surveyed organizations reported having a multigenerational workforce, yet just 42% provide their managers with the training and support necessary to manage such a workforce effectively; only 39% focus on how to avoid age discrimination in recruitment or hiring; and just 38% focus on how to avoid age discrimination in providing access to training opportunities.
As these statistics show, there’s still plenty of progress to be made in shifting workplace policies, cultures and opportunity equity to nurture a multigenerational workforce.
Improving Age-Related Opportunity Equity
Indeed, opportunity equity is a particular concern when building a multigenerational workforce. All too often, when speaking about their organizations’ opportunity equity, employers refer only to the hiring, pay and promotional opportunities they provide across genders, races and ethnicities. Employers need to widen their focus to include age-related opportunity equity.
As a 2023 Transamerica Institute® report states, one strategy being used by many employers to foster multigenerational workforces is to promote lifelong learning—a powerful indicator that an organization supports age-related opportunity equity. The most frequently cited learning programs include mentorships and reverse mentorships (in which younger workers share their expertise with older workers), specific job training, internships for individuals reentering the workforce and professional development programs.
These types of programs are strong incentives for attracting and retaining older workers. Sadly, Transamerica found that only 28% of the nearly 1,900 employers surveyed offer specific training to address generational differences and help prevent age discrimination.
Final Thoughts
Welcoming older workers and boosting their opportunity equity may still be in the early stages at many organizations, but given the stark realities of talent supply and demand in the face of an aging global workforce, wise employers will take action now to embrace this crucial talent pool.
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