Why older talent should be a consideration for today’s inclusive leader

While ‘age’ has not been historically underrepresented in our workforces, creating longer, fulfilling working lives is now an economic imperative. Like with other forms of diversity, popular myths have seen leaders consistently undervalue the performance benefits of age-diversity. Daniel Jolles and Grace Lordan break down three persistent myths about older talent.

Around one third of the US workforce are aged between 18 and 34 years, and another third are aged between 35 and 49. The remaining third are 50+ years. This includes working adults over the ‘traditional’ retirement age of 65, who have more than doubled over the past 20 years to represent 7% of the labour market. This means that most firms now have five generations working side by side.

In leading firms, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies are high on the agenda, touted in value statements as central to innovation, decision-making, and talent acquisition. Yet, these strategies are primarily focused on gender and race, and ignore generational-diversity altogether. Partly, and rightly, this is due to leaders prioritising steps aimed at correcting historic gender and racial underrepresentation in key roles. Partly, and incorrectly, this is due to leaders undervaluing the benefits of generationally diverse perspectives. The complex problems faced by organisations today demand a wide variety of perspectives. Despite growth in the participation of older adults in the labour market, indicators show that older workers are still being brushed aside far too early. In the US, less than half the population aged in their sixties are currently working. Employment rates drop from a healthy 76% for people 50 to 54 years old to just 31% for those aged 65 to 69. In the UK, data shows workers aged 50+ were up to 50% more likely than their younger counterparts to have been impacted by redundancy in the past 12 months.

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Πηγή: blogs.lse.ac.uk