When I write these lines I am about to turn 60. I believe this age qualifies me to comment on the challenges experienced by senior talent in the professional world. As it is trendy to give names and tags to everything, i am happy to accept the tag “senior” (which means older in Latin), and “talent” (since we all have some). Just allow me to decline respectfully the tag “silver”, which makes me feel like a marketing target for travel plans or hair transplants.
Can you imagine at this point a job advertisement like this?
“The ideal candidate is a man with leadership skills, experience etc etc”.
Fortunately, it is unthinkable in the 21st century. This stems from women’s ongoing struggle against historical discrimination, which is now yielding results and gaining notice in positions of influence. However, at least in my country we have all seen more than one ad on Linkedin with phrases similar to
“The ideal candidate is a person between 30 and 40 years of age with X skills….”That is ageism.
Ageism is discrimination based on age, and it is real. You can find it, conscious or not, in the context of recruitment, where age can become a barrier hiding abilities and strengths. But also in the daily life of companies, where biased communication or assignments can stop many professionals from developing their skills and contributing value.
A growing number of companies are implementing diversity and inclusion plans, which is great news and very necessary. Diversity is wealth. Mixed collaboration environments generate more productive and creative interactions. That is why well-run companies are striving to create a culture in which different individuals are included, each with a right to express themselves as what they are. However, these efforts, which are progressing well with regard to other dimensions (sex, race, orientation), sometimes forget to include the age dimension.No company would boast in its communication campaigns of having a “male” or “caucasian” team… but many appear proud of having ” a young team.”
The bias
Discrimination usually is fed by some cognitive bias. Bias happens when we have the habit to quickly assume things without criticizing or checking them, and we make decisions based on those assumptions. Which prejudices are behind age discrimination? These are some examples.
“Older people have too high salary expectations”
This assumption is sometimes phrased as “you are overqualified for this role”. This is an euphemism, as the concern is probably not overqualification but rather the pay expectation. Instead of discarding the supposedly overqualified candidate, we should ask them about their expectation. We might be surprised. Perhaps the senior, with mortgages already paid and children raised, has a flexible economic expectation and a motivation based on enjoying work.
“Older people don’t understand digital”
This is an interesting asumption considering that the digital revolution was driven by a previous generation, who left it as a heritage to the digital natives.
It true that different generations have had different learning preferences. While digital natives intuitively prefer tactile and visual interfaces, some people of previous generations had a preference for linear language. A 60-year-old probably learned to use technology by reading manuals, and a 30-year-old prefers to save time tapping around the screen. This difference in habits may have given place to some family discussions and jokes, but at this point no one should seriously assume that the older generation is not qualified to learn and manage any combination of digital tools effectively. The brain’s ability to learn and unlearn is enormous… and it is NOT lost with age. This, by the way, is the next bias.
“Senior people have less capacity for learning and innovation.”
If this were true, the problem would not start at age 50, it would start at 12 or earlier. The learning capacity of children seems to be superior to that of any adult. But studies on brain plasticity show that it remains with age, and is closely related to habit. This means that a mature adult trained in concentration and learning is perfectly capable of learning any skill or knowledge. Just observe how in the intellectual professions where many leaders tend not to retire until very advanced ages. And just as we can learn, we can unlearn -biases, traditions, habits-, which is necessary to have open and innovative attitudes.
As in any discriminatory system, the mistake is to accept assumptions. Instead, we should look at individuals one by one and judging them for their true abilities or behaviours.
The Savia initiative
To find out more about the problem and some proposals to solve it, I turned to Beatriz Ester, director of projects and alliances at Generación Savia.
Beatriz explains to me that Generación Savia is a non-profit project created in 2018 by Fundación Endesa in collaboration with Fundación Más Humano. Savia aims to be a meeting point for people, institutions and companies interested in promoting development and employability opportunities for senior professionals. Its mission is to generate activities and inspire changes that value the experience and talent of an entire generation. “Working to improve the return to the labour market of those over 50 with all their knowledge is a social obligation, and also a great opportunity for companies,” she declares.
What can we do?
I ask Beatriz what is the best thing that a professional or a person over 50 can do to make their way against this discriminatory headwind. She gives the following advice:
“On a social level, participate in movements that give voice to senior talent. This can be through projects such as SAVIA Generation, or others. Actively participate in social networks, initiatives related to employment, and any forum of interest that helps add and boost the value of seniors.
On a personal level, SAVIA promotes constant activity. The action plan starts defining our objective and the steps needed to achieve it.
These steps begin with self-knowledge and self-assessment.
We need to work on our personal brand to communicate our contribution to the job market and our differentiators.
Another step is training, updating knowledge in order to achieve our goal.
It is also important to understand the labour market, how it has evolved, what new forms of work exist and how we can fit into them. We can consider new options such as self-employment, entrepreneurship, interim management, project work, independent consultancy…
Paying attention to networking and social relations is a key step. We need to be visible for the market.
All this has to go hand in hand with perseverance. It is easy to fall into discourage but we have to overcome it until the solution will eventually come. Which will never happen if we hide at hom!e”.
Creating diversity together
Changing biases is a long-term task, but thanks to the efforts of initiatives like Generación SAVIA we are beginning to be aware of the problem and to take steps. These steps affect different agents:
Recruiters should reflect on the enormous amount of experience and talent that they could be missing if they formally or informally filter candidates by age. But recruiting departments try to meet the expectations of the management they work for. Therefore, it is management at all levels who should really lead any diversity and inclusion effort.
Leaders should open the door to talent of different ages -this is diversity- and make sure that everyone feels free to express their preferences regarding communication styles, entertainment, image, etc. freely, without pretending to be who they are not. This is inclusion.
And as for the guys of my generation: let’s not try to appear to be what we are not, let’s maintain a certain vindictive spirit, let’s take care of our network, and let’s never abandon the habit of learning. That’s what keeps the brain young and life interesting.