While workplace diversity is often talked about in terms of gender and race, age is also an important element in creating a diverse workforce—and realizing all the advantages that diversity offers.
What are the benefits of age diversity?
In a survey by the Living, Learning, and Earning Longer Collaborative Initiative, 83 percent of global business leaders said they recognize that multigenerational workforces are key to company growth and long-term success.Age diversity in the workplace comes with:
- Better performance
- A stronger talent pipeline
- Continuity and stability
- Better retention of intellectual capital and institutional knowledge
- More insight into the valuable marketplace of over-50 consumers
Senior HR leaders understand it’s important to have diverse perspectives in the room.
“Our younger generations give companies a strong pulse on the present and the future and then our older generations are such valuable sources of institutional knowledge and understanding of what’s come before in that company, or even in that industry,” said Sara Rahmani, Chronus VP of People Experience and DEI. “When you have all those perspectives in the same room, it has a positive effect on workplace performance and culture.”
What do older employees want?
Older workers want the same things as anyone else in the workplace—to have positive relationships with colleagues, perform meaningful work, and be recognized and valued for their contributions. And employees of every age want to continue to learn and develop their career. However, there are some generational differences in attitudes and expectations.For example, while different generations express a preference for hybrid work, 68 percent of Boomers and 63 percent of Gen X surveyed said that cost savings was a factor in that preference. Millennials, meanwhile, focused on stress reduction as a reason to prefer hybrid work.
And while many Millennials said they would rather quit than go back to the office, Boomers felt that a few days per week on site were beneficial to forming a strong relationship with coworkers, with 68 percent saying that up to two days a week helped strengthen these ties.
How to promote age diversity in the workplace
One of the most important steps to promoting age diversity in the workplace is to make sure age is part of your company’s DEI strategy. This offers an opportunity to set standards and practices that eliminate age-based discrimination and encourage inclusion, such as:- Ensuring the hiring process is “age-blind”
- Fostering workforce awareness of unconscious bias related to age
- Training managers and staff to be aware of ageism and take steps to counteract it
Assess workplace policies and programs to make sure they are relevant to employees of any age or life stage.
Tips for engaging older employees
Here are several tactics to consider when looking to better retain and utilize older workers.Mentoring
A study by professional coaching firm Moving Ahead showed that 87 percent of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence. Mentoring also reinforces the message that everyone’s perspective matters—a crucial element of engagement.
This holds true for older workers as well as they get to know younger colleagues and pass on the wisdom of their experience. Types of mentoring conducive for older employees include:
- Reverse mentoring—where a younger employee acts a mentor to an older colleague—is another way to engage older workers, offering them an opportunity to update their skills and cultural knowledge.
- Flash mentoring occurs when participants take part in a one-time or limited number of mentoring rounds, often around a specific subject, knowledge set or skill.
Learning and development opportunities
Building technical and professional skills are also key to engaging older workers and fostering their loyalty. And offering opportunities for older workers to transfer their knowledge to younger workers helps older workers feel valuable and engaged as well as contributes to institutional knowledge retention.
