The employees of any company are an essential part of it, and managers and employers are always looking for the best people to hire so that they can perform well, move forward with technology, and know the latest work methods to help the company’s growth and development.

Today, some hiring managers and recruiters pay attention to the age of people in the recruitment process. In other words, every company has a specific age range for hiring employees. This issue causes age discrimination among employees and in companies.

Age discrimination in the workplace is not only harmful to employees, it also affects your company and business. Therefore, many companies should use online assessment tools such as Wetest to avoid that from happening.  

When we say age discrimination is bad for businesses, we are talking about significant risks, missing out on a large talent pool of older workers in the hiring practices, and moreover, missing out on the enormous contribution that older employees can make to the business. 

It is vital for companies to avoid age discrimination in the hiring process, as older workers are an important and rapidly growing segment of the labor market. 

The truth is the world of work is becoming more and more complex, and experienced employees may be just what you need to help tackle tough challenges. 

If you don’t know how to prevent age discrimination and its consequences in your company, this article is for you. 

In this article, we discuss age discrimination in detail, provide essential tips on including age diversity in the hiring process and prevent age discrimination.

What is age discrimination in the workplace?

Age discrimination in the workplace means putting employees at a disadvantage and treating them less favorably because of their age.

Age discrimination in the work environment happens against people over the age of 40. It is good to know that it is illegal for an employer or other party to favor an older worker over a younger worker, even if both workers are over the age of 40.

Employees of any age may be stressed about losing their jobs, but those over 40 are more concerned if they work in an environment where there is age discrimination, even if they are good employees and have a good track record too.

Therefore, people of all ages can be affected, including young and older workers, and this group is being prioritized as the number of older workers increases.

When there is age discrimination in a company, a person is perceived as too old or too young and is therefore treated less favorably or denied the same opportunities as others in a similar situation.

The good news is that some organizations protect employees of any age, meaning that all employees have equal opportunities, whether too young or too old. 

Therefore, in order for all people to have equal rights and to work in a peaceful environment, and for employers to have excellent and professional employees, there should be age diversity among employees.

We will talk more about this topic in the next section.

What is age diversity in the workplace?

The term age diversity in the workplace refers to the inclusion of different age groups in the work environment. This may sound obvious, but it’s more subtle than you might think. 

When discussing age diversity, we’re not just talking about the differences between employees and their managers. It also compares the employee’s age to another employee and even two different departments within the company.

Some believe that older workers are less adaptable than younger employees, or they need more time to finish a task or even learn a new job, or work with a new application or system. But according to recent research, that is not true!

There are some employees who, even though they are over 40 or 50 years old, can still adapt themselves to new work methods and systems and move forward with technology.

These people have a lot of experience in their job position, and because they have worked in various environments for a long time, they can cooperate with younger workers and help them sometimes.

Therefore, you can hire more than just young people as an employer or hiring manager. Remember that both young and old employees can be helpful for your business, so try to choose your employees from each age group to get the best result.

How to have age diversity in the workplace?

To comply with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), companies must not only promote age diversity in the workplace and avoid the penalties and lawsuits that hiring workers of different ages entails. 

Follow the tips below to learn more about age diversity in the workplace.

• Accept the differences:

Even though colleagues of different ages share a common goal, their opinions about things can differ significantly. 

You need to establish ground rules for respecting differences, so everyone of any age feels comfortable sharing new ideas. Setting these rules is especially important when not all employees are used to working with people of different ages. 

• Communicate with employees:

Open your mind and talk to employees about age diversity and encourage them to move beyond traditional clichés because they can create biases and negatively impact workplace interactions. 

Moreover, ensure your managers fully understand the benefits of age diversity, so they can speak out beyond outdated beliefs and encourage all employees to get along with working with people of different ages.

• Motivate learning:

Motivate your employees by learning from each other. Younger people can share new things they know with older people, and older people can use their experience to help younger employees in return.

So try to manage the work environment in such a way that people interact with each other and help each other towards a common goal.

In addition, it is important to provide the same employment opportunities regardless of age so that all employees can build rewarding careers. 

• Respect the older employees:

One of the critical things that you should pay attention to is that when you hire and introduce an old employee (for example, over 40 years old) to your team, you have actually brought a wealth of experience and skills into your team.

Therefore, both you and other employees must respect such people and try to treat them appropriately. Of course, older people should also treat other employees well.

• Use technology:

If you have someone on your team who knows how to work with different social media platforms and applications, ask them to teach other employees, especially the elders. 

Because using technology makes everyone’s life easier and is a good way for employees to communicate with each other and experience good teamwork. 

Besides, in some cases, it makes technology more accessible to young workers and allows them to use it more efficiently. 

Top tips for age diversity in hiring to avoid age discrimination

So far, we have talked about age discrimination and age diversity in the workplace, and we have examined these issues thoroughly.

In this section, we provide essential tips about age diversity during employment to prevent age discrimination.

1) Training age diversity and discrimination:

Suppose your company wants to prevent age discrimination. In that case, one of the first things to consider is that you need to train your managers and employees about age discrimination and diversity in the workplace. 

This training will help your business in many ways; it helps your managers and employees to understand the benefits of age diversity and the impact of discrimination in the workplace so that they can have great teamwork.

Moreover, remember that training should be more than a lecture to hiring managers and employees on what not to do. Since the employees are from different generations, they must learn how to communicate and work together.

Overall, age diversity training, covering topics such as respect, implicit bias, and team building helps create a solid and inclusive workplace. 

2) Start from the hiring and interview process:

One of the ways that will help you avoid age discrimination is not to use discriminatory phrases and words such as “young workforce,” “high energy,” or “young” when you publish a job advertisement so that people of any age group can make it to the interview stage.

Also, publish the recruitment advertisement in places where all people of any age group can access and use it.

Do not forget that if you introduce age discrimination before the recruitment and interview process, this discrimination will be seen in your work until the end of the journey.

3) Set clear policies for age discrimination:

Try to define a specific policy for age discrimination in the workplace that shows your opposition to this issue and make sure that all your employees are aware of these policies and follow them.

Remember that supervisors, managers, and hiring managers must observe these policies before employees. 

If they find out someone is behaving against these policies and misbehaving with an elderly employee or humiliating someone because of their age, they must warn that employee.

4) Don’t judge older employees:

One of the mistakes of employers and hiring managers is that they think that experienced old people expect high wages, so they avoid hiring them without being sure of this.

Some of these older employees are willing to work with their high experience in another less stressful position and receive the same position’s salary.

Therefore, these people should not be judged, and employers should not make assumptions about them. Because of doing so, employers may not be able to use the experiences of these people.

5) Avoid clichés:

The issue of age discrimination in the workplace is fundamental. However, many companies do not take this issue seriously and ignore it.

Try to be innovative in this direction, teach your employees and managers to forget old stereotypes, and try to be able to cooperate with any person of any age group without discrimination. 

Some of the stereotypes and misconceptions about older employees are that such people have poor memory, lack problem-solving ability, have high salaries, are slow to learn, etc.

Note that discrimination in any form is annoying, especially in the workplace, so it is necessary to end stereotypes and discrimination in order to work in a safe and healthy environment.

6) Don’t emphasize years of experience:

As it was said, discrimination and age diversity are not only for older employees; to have a work environment with age diversity, all people of any age should have equal rights.

When you want to hire new people and publish a job advertisement, try not to focus too much on years of work experience.

Believe it or not, research has shown that many people who do not have much work experience but have many skills are the central employees of companies.

Therefore, in the process of hiring employees, pay attention to their general skills rather than just a lot of work experience. By doing this, you have prevented age discrimination.

7) Reconsider the culture fit:

Culture fit means how well the new employees you hire match your company’s standards and are the right choice for your business.

The important thing is that older employees may not pass the culture fit test, and you may not hire them, but you should know that by doing this, you may quickly lose experienced people who can help your business grow.

So reconsider the culture fit and try to analyze and hire your candidates more open-mindedly.

8) Consider the rules of retirement:

Many old people are still working and have required skills with great job performances. The point that you should pay attention to is that you should not constantly talk about retirement to an employee who is older than others and ask him when he wants to retire.

Anyone can work as long as they have the ability and performance, and they should not wait for retirement only because of their age.

By following these tips, you can prevent age discrimination in your company and business, work with employees of any age group, and enjoy the benefits of such a work environment.

Conclusion

Always keep in mind that in addition to different skills and abilities, employees must be able to adapt themselves to the work environment and avoid any discrimination in the workplace.

Age discrimination in the workplace hurts both employees and businesses. However, if a company consists of employees from different age groups who can work together, that company or business will grow and develop rapidly.

In this article, we talked about discrimination and age diversity in the workplace and provided you with robust solutions that you can use as an employer or hiring manager to provide an environment that is free of any age discrimination.