As a dedicated armchair politician, I’ve certainly had plenty of controversial stories to keep me busy over the past number of weeks. The vocabulary and particularly the descriptive clichés are in themselves quite interesting. On one side, we see Prime Minister Cretien at age 68 being described as “yesterday’s man”, or a “left over caretaker” making a “tiresome exit” On the other side, his rival, Paul Martin, at the “youthful” age of 64 is being painted as a refreshing, energetic, and vibrant contender. My what a difference four years can make! It seems there’s a stereotypical “rule of agism” being applied to one individual but not the other. A rather humourous, ridiculous and discriminatory situation I might add.

But putting party politics aside, this very public war against a “worn out workhorse” also serves to demonstrate the pervasiveness of negative stereotypes about age and older workers. And with the fast growing population of “grey hairs” in the workforce, this unfortunate bias will create a number of human resource challenges that will be far from humourous, I assure you.

Interesting, it was only a few short years ago that futurists were warning of an impending severe labour shortage because of Baby Boomer retirements. However, today’s reality strongly suggests that people will stay in the workforce. In fact, although banks and financial planners have been successful in teaching Baby Boomers to sing the Freedom 55 song, many today are finding they cannot afford to retire. Still others, already retired, are finding they do not have the financial resources for prolonged retirement and are returning to the workforce. Then again, some retirees are finding they simply miss the socialization of work and are returning as consultants, contractors and part-time workers.

So it seems that corporations will have to deal with a challenging new future workforce that includes both younger workers as well as older workers, those defined as individuals between age 40 and age 75. This “older worker” group will consist of a diverse population of individuals such as those experiencing mid-life career changes, displaced workers, early retirees, older retires, and empty nesters made up of re-entry women and stay-at-home dads.

And, as poor Mr. Cretien is finding out, one of the key challenges will be fighting the heavy hangover of those age-old, negative stereotypes. Some of these stereotypes and myths suggest that older workers:

• have higher absenteeism from work;
• are unwilling or unable to adapt to new technology;
• are not motivated and are just waiting for retirement;
• are less productive than younger workers;
• have memory problems and declining interest;
• stifle creativity because of old school ideas;
• tend to be less flexible than younger workers;
• are uncomfortable reporting to a younger worker;
• will retire before any training investment is realized, and;
• will jeopardize company pension and medical plans.

Actually, most of these myths have been completely dispelled through studies conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in conjunction with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Other complementary studies have also shown no reported depletion in intelligence, learning ability, memory, speed, accuracy or motivation.

In fact, additional studies by the AARP have shown that the top job performance criteria and attributes of older, mature workers include:

• quality customer service experience;
• personal and work stability;
• dependability to initiate sales and transactions;
• eagerness to provide support and guidance;
• superior communication skills
• varied work experience
• better ability to work with mature clientele
• a strong work ethic.

However, while these studies demonstrated there is an increasingly positive perception of older workers, nothing was being done to meet the aging worker challenges.

And, if US statistics on age discrimination Human Rights awards are any sign of things to come, then we Canadians need to do a better job of ensuring our work environments are free of any discriminatory worker impact.

While I realize that things may not change overnight, there are a number of steps that companies can take to begin to take to improve their workplaces. These include:

• It’s your corporate responsibility to provide a favourable work atmosphere (organization culture) for all employees. You can test the nature of your culture through the conduct of a company review or audit of employee attitudes. This will identify issues and attitudes that tend to create challenges related to discriminatory behaviour and will enable you to begin dealing with the issues before they become bigger problems;
• Provide management and staff training on the value of older workers, help them to dispel the myths applied to older workers and to rethink and change their attitudes;
• Review your HR policies and procedures in particular for recruitment and selection items to ensure that your application forms and process are not discriminatory;
• Develop standard company questions that are directly related to and are required for each of your jobs, be sure that all questions are nondiscriminatory;
• Review your policies to determine if they are friendly toward older workers; rigid scheduling and other barriers may be a detriment to attracting more of the older worker group; take steps to build a supportive environment that builds morale and productivity;
• Train line managers responsible for recruitment on discrimination issues, particularly the Canadian and Manitoba Human Rights Code; pay particular attention to company behaviours that discriminate against older workers;
• Implement a diversity task force and make certain older workers are included both on the committee and in discussion of issues.

Retirement is fast becoming an outdated concept and as a company you can’t afford to let stereotypes and prejudices prevent your company from capitalizing on years of business saavy and experience. So, think again…are your current workers and future candidates “washed up” at 40? 60? 65? Absolutely not! Don’t count them out.

Sources: Myths Related to Older Workers, Dome Employment Services, Overview of the Aging Workforce Challenges, HRDC, Age Bias: Is Your Corporate Culture in Need of an Overhall, SHRM, July 1998.

Barbara J. Bowes, FCHRP, CMC Barbara Bowes is President of Legacy Bowes Group. She can be reached at barb@bowesgroup.com. Legacy Bowes Group 301-161 Portage Avenue E. Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2L6 p: 204.957.5525 f: 204.957.5834 e: info@legacybowes.com « Back