Ageism at work: What employers need to know

In a world of ageing populations, extending working lives is widely viewed as an economic necessity. With up to four generations working alongside each other, organisations must ensure that workplaces are inclusive, avoiding both individual and organisational harm.

What is Ageism?

Ageism or age discrimination is discrimination or unfair treatment based on a person’s age. Under the Equality Act 2010, employees are protected from age discrimination in all aspects of employment including recruitment, employment terms and conditions, promotions and transfers, training and dismissals. The Equality Act protects people from direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Age discrimination can lead to the formation of workplace ingroups and outgroups, which reduces information sharing and collaboration.

Stereotyping

Age-based discrimination is linked to negative beliefs and assumptions. Younger employees can be perceived as less reliable, less conscientious, or less capable simply because of their age. As a result, they can be overlooked for training opportunities, greater responsibilities, and promotions. Younger workers also tend to receive lower pay and benefits relative to similarly experienced older workers.

Equally for older workers it is common to face stereotyping in the workplace. Although some assumptions made about older workers can be favourable in that they can be seen as more reliable or as having a stronger work ethic, it’s far more common for older workers to face negative stereotypes; including perceptions that they are less adaptable, lack physical capabilities, have limited technological competence, are less trainable and are resistant to change. These negative stereotypes, although they are largely unfounded, persist and result in significant discrimination.

Age related discrimination and worker underperformance

The presence of negative age-related stereotypes does not only result in direct discrimination. It can also result in worker underperformance, even for employees who have previously performed strongly. This can occur through two routes – one external and one internal.

The external route occurs when an older worker becomes so worried about confirming a negative age-based stereotype that it impedes their ability to focus, causing their performance to suffer. Thus, a vicious spiral is created, and the stereotype becomes self-fulfilling.

The internal route occurs when the worker internalises a stereotype via repeated exposure to it. If you grow up continuously hearing that older people are less competent, when you become older, you might believe that you are now less competent. Such internalised stereotypes create self-imposed constraints. The impact of such age-related stereotypes, whichever route they stem from, is not trivial. They have been shown to cause damaging psychological and physiological changes, ranging from a deterioration in memory and weaker cognitive performance to poorer cardiovascular stress responses.

The exception

There is an important and notable exemption for employers to be aware of here. While the Equality Act 2010 protects you from age discrimination at work or when applying for a job, there is an exception in the law which applies to age discrimination only.

An employer can make a decision based on someone’s age if they can show that it is objectively justified and proportionate. This should only be a defence in a limited number of circumstances and doesn’t mean that employers have ‘free rein’ to discriminate against older workers. Aside from very specific circumstances, employers can’t force employees to retire.
Interventions

Given the complexity of this issue, the most successful initiatives will be those that take a systematic and wide-ranging approach. Ensuring there is a robust and inclusive approach to culture lays the foundation upon which ageism can be identified and rooted out. Understanding inclusive recruitment and unconscious bias is particularly key.

Positive action

Positive action refers to the steps that an employer can take to encourage people from disadvantaged groups to apply for jobs.

For example, if an employer analysis their diversity data and finds that older people are underrepresented in their workplace, they can state in recruitment adverts that older people are welcome to apply. This isn’t the same as positive discrimination, which is against the law. An example of positive discrimination would be where an employer decides to only accept applications from older candidates, even though the job could be done equally well by a younger person. This is illegal.

Positive action is an intervention which can be used at the discretion of an employer, following an evidence led approach. Where two job applicants are both equally able to do the job, the employer can base their decision on positive action to improve the diversity of their workplace. The rules for doing this are strict and the employer must be able to show that the candidates were equally qualified. Either way, employers must always offer the job to the most suitable candidate, even if they fall outside of the protected characteristic that the employer was seeking to target.

AGE model

The AGE model is an approach which has its roots in self-determination theory, it aims to move a workplace’s age-related practices away from being extrinsically motivated (something organisations feel they have to do) to being intrinsically motivated (something they want to do). This comes back to the creation of inclusive culture; Inclusive Employers can support embedding this approach through training and support.

The takeaway

Age-discrimination commonly affects both younger and older workers, and intersectionality will also likely be playing a role. Any steps to level the playing field should be based on age-related audit findings and consider the needs of all affected workers.

Once your organisation has a clear picture of its starting position, it can consider which interventions may be most relevant and effective. Whatever approach is taken, it will be important to measure its effectiveness over time and not just assume that introducing one or more changes means that the issue has been resolved.

You can find out more about intergenerational workplaces in our blog, use our Multigenerational/Intergenerational workforce factsheet or get in touch about Intergenerational Workforces training within your organisation.