Young HR leaders unwilling to recruit workers 55 and older

Sometimes ageism isn’t so much about older people; it’s about how younger people perceive and treat others.

A new report, for instance, found that younger HR professionals are far more likely to hire candidates their own age. The survey, conducted by ProAge and 55/Redefined, made it clear just how bad the problem is: Only a quarter (24%) of HR leaders between ages 25 and 30 said they were very willing or motivated to recruit workers over 55. Meantime, 63% of HR leaders aged 46 to 50 were motivated to hire workers over 55.

It’s a harsh realization for older workers considering that more than half said they wanted to continue working beyond the age of 65. And 65% of employers said they encourage retirement at legal retirement age or before.

“If you are early in your HR career, all you may have heard in the last five to ten years is ‘good’ equals a focus on youth employment, social mobility, BAME, LGBTQ+ etc.,” said Kevin Fisher, HR director at Together. “By default, it may be then by consequence you think everyone not in those categories is therefore ‘not so good.’ We almost need to park categories to get back to the core of what does the individual bring to the table, regardless of their D&I [diversity and inclusion] categorizations.”

Employers looking to hire younger teams

As the pandemic created an uneasy job market for older workers, companies ramping up hiring efforts have been looking to hire younger, not older people.

Only 30% of employers said they are very motivated to recruit professionals aged 55 and old. That number doesn’t improve particularly with smaller companies, where only 18% said they look for more senior employees.

Most unusual: The one sector that registered as most motivated to recruit older workers is IT and tech (41%) — which contradicts stereotypes about older workers not being tech-savvy enough to integrate into the modern workplace.

The charge: seniors lack energy

One of the gripes employers articulated about over-50 workers is that they apparently don’t bring enough oomph to the table.

Twenty-one percent of employers said that older workers just lack the energy they need in the workplace, which they cited as a disadvantage. What exactly is energy? According to the research, it’s just something not associated with older workers.

“Ultimately ‘energy’ is a personal trait often unrelated to age with anecdotes of 20-year-olds who struggle with getting up in the morning and 70-year-olds leaping out of bed to do their daily gym session before work,” the survey said. “This result demonstrates that over a fifth of employers believe the stereotypes and clichés about ageing and that negatively influences their desire to employ and develop older workers.”

What employers and older workers can do

Changing the ageism narrative in the office isn’t going to happen overnight and biases will likely continue to exist, but both employers and older workers can make interim changes that benefit both parties.

HR departments could stop hiring on previous experience and technical fit — and instead focus on soft skills, motivation, and cultural fit.

Meanwhile, older workers can always update their resume and LinkedIn account to sound younger, take online classes that add new skills to the resume, and experiment with online networking where age is not always so prominent.