Across the ages
Across the ages
Across the globe, people are living longer. Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 is set to almost double according to the World Health Organisation. Combining this fact with ever increasing skills shortages means that businesses ignore older talent at their peril.
At Alumni we evaluate, assess and recruit candidates, place interim managers, develop leadership teams and more often than we would like, meet people who raise concerns about their age influencing their future career prospects. We also encounter clients who are conflicted about hiring someone too senior, fearing that they will be unable to meet salary requirements, that the role might be too hands on to suit them, or fearing they have a fixed point of view. Just fifteen years ago, an industry leader within IT and telecommunications offered voluntary redundancy to its Swedish employees aged over 35 in a bid to ‘make way for younger workers’. What chilling message did this send to society?
“Diversity issues such as gender equality, ethnicity and sexual orientation have a higher profile, but ageism remains largely ignored. It remains the most common and ‘acceptable’ form of discrimination and as such we believe it should be front and centre on the diversity and inclusion agenda.”
In order to harness the value and benefits that an older workforce brings we need to change the conversation around aging and recognise the competitive advantages they provide in leadership and as we also often find, in interim roles[1]. Far too often, and particularly throughout the current pandemic, older members of society have been held up as needing cossetting and protection. The intention is good but encourages society to view them as frail or lesser in some way. It’s important to bring balance to societies view of our older generations. We need to highlight and also value that the older we get, the more we tend to develop our soft skills; we often become more stable, have more self-knowledge, notice, and react to other people better.
“There can be no doubt that digitisation has had a major part to play in the perception of what skills sets are valued, but hard skills can become redundant quickly as the pace of change in business accelerates, whereas soft skills are perennially valuable.”
More seasoned workers may lack some of the innate tech-savvy of Gen Z, but they have years of experience and business knowledge to share with new hires and younger workers. When leaders support ongoing cross-generational mentoring and collaboration, all employees expand their skill sets, team building is nurtured and camaraderie increases. Getting the young and old to work together more often is good for culture, inclusion, skills transfers and overcoming challenges and problems.
Older people do bring a certain stability to their roles as they are less likely to be looking for opportunities to climb the corporate ladder. They tend to know exactly what they want to do and are focused on getting the work done, traits that are for example particularly evident with our senior interim candidates. However, this does not mean they lack ambition or the desire to learn and progress. According to a study by AARP and AON Hewitt[2], the 50+ segment of the workforce also continues to be the most engaged age cohort across all generations. A useful trait for a leader.
“Age aware leadership is making increasing inroads as demographics are changing but in order to foster a culture that supports multigenerational workforces and truly value the benefits of older employees it is important to establish the realities of ageism in your organisation.”
During selection, are you ignoring late bloomers, the value of career breaks or those who have had a change of direction in their profession? Are the learning and re-skilling opportunities available within your organisation suitable and available for employees of all ages? Are you stunting the progression paths available to older personnel? Leaders can shape workplace culture and champion diversity by setting expectations, holding others accountable and modelling the behaviours they want to see in others. When leaders support workplace equity, they proactively seek thoughts, perspectives, experiences and styles across the age spectrum. Moreover, if they commit to building multigenerational teams and disrupt generational myths to create a greater sense of inclusion of belonging, then everyone will benefit.
Alumni
We have over 30 years’ experience in the fast-paced world of recruitment but still offer the latest in methodologies and knowledge. We have international presence and a global reach into local talent pools as well as a wealth of industry and sector expertise. We help our clients identify their future managers and specialists by tailoring our process to their specific needs and our experience covers a range of industries in both the public and private sectors.
We strive to always challenge your candidate profile and often include both active job seekers and passive candidates, who may not currently be looking for new career opportunities. Our process often begins with thorough analysis and research phase, using a range of inputs from you and our network, to map out the market.
We pride ourselves in recognising the potential in the diversity of talent and will bring candidates with a richness of backgrounds and perspectives to your long list. Throughout the recruitment process we will advise, challenge and help you ensure well-informed decisions that drive your future success.
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