Retaining knowledge within the workforce and supporting age diversity is essential for economic productivity both now and into the future.
To foster a diverse and inclusive workplace, it’s crucial to eliminate age bias in recruitment and promote an environment where all employees, regardless of age, feel valued. Despite progress, age discrimination persists in many modern workplaces, limiting opportunities for both older and younger workers and imposing significant costs on businesses.
Major global organizations such as the United Nations recognize the importance of inter-generational unity in work and community. In this article, we will explore why retaining knowledge and supporting age diversity are essential for economic productivity, review what these organizations are saying about this important subject and highlight the importance of career development.
The UN and OECD’s take on age diversity
The United Nations (UN) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have highlighted the importance of a diverse workforce that spans all age groups.
The Sustainable Development Goals and the Decade of Healthy Aging are well-established global initiatives of the United Nations; they align these with a sharper focus on how to harness longevity in the future of work. With a particular focus on the Sustainable Development Goal of Decent Work, the UN highlights the value of all workers, promotes the inclusion of older persons within evolving labour markets and encourages organizations to reduce age discrimination.
The OECD echoes the UN’s sentiments about the need for age diversity. It highlights that age-diverse teams can drive productivity and innovation by combining the unique strengths of different age groups. A significant insight from the OECD’s standpoint is the opportunity for older employees to share their knowledge and experience with younger colleagues, while also reciprocally acquiring new skills from them.
Promoting the power of age diversity
In an era of uncertainty, employers face the economic and social shifts of an aging population, digital technology advances and, more recently, the ongoing impact of COVID-19. Adapting to these changes demands a heightened focus on organizational resilience and unlocking the full potential of diverse talent, regardless of age. Employing effective career practices and tools will enable both workers and organizations to enhance agility, inclusivity and productivity.
Hiring experienced older workers brings the benefit of transferring knowledge not only to clients and customers but also to team members. Encouraging mentorship and knowledge sharing in an inclusive workplace yields a significant return on investment for employers. As the mature workforce grows older, businesses and communities gain access to a valuable wealth of knowledge that must be recognized, valued and utilized. Automation and technology cannot replace the experience and personal mentorship that mature workers bring to a job or that of younger workers imparting their insights on trends and emerging skills.
“Hiring experienced older workers brings the benefit of transferring knowledge not only to clients and customers but also to team members.”
Career development across the lifespan
It is good to remember that age does not regulate where a person stands within the career life span. Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space theory (1990) comprises five career stages – growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance and disengagement, with developmental tasks and roles undertaken during each. However, he acknowledged that life events can cause people to revisit earlier career life stages – for instance, a mid-life worker in the maintenance stage of their career returning to an exploration stage via a career change, or a retiree deciding to re-engage with employment and return to the establishment stage of their career. Super termed this process “mini-cycling,” wherein interests, abilities and values undergo reappraisal through processes observed in earlier developmental stages.
Jobseekers of all ages need to review their key skills, strengths and experience to better understand the value they bring to an employer. Experience and knowledge do not only manifest from paid working experience but also from life experiences. Additionally, all jobseekers need to stay adaptable while pursuing meaningful work in career transitions. Providing career support involves considering four psychological dimensions of career adaptability: taking ownership of tasks (control), a future-focused work approach (concern), confidence in contributing to a workplace and a commitment to lifelong learning (curiosity) (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).
Conclusion
Age diversity and knowledge retention aren’t just buzzwords; they’re the building blocks of economic productivity and positive social development. The United Nations and the OECD understand the importance of age diversity, and it’s a strategy many forward-thinking organizations are now adopting in Canada, Australia and across the globe.
From young workers seeking career pathways and advancement to the older workers wanting to (or needing to) stay engaged or re-engage with work and contribute, career development programs must be flexible and inclusive. They must foster a culture of lifelong learning, ensuring that employees of all ages have the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge.
An age-diverse workforce is a growing global reality, and multi-age integration and community-building are essential ingredients for societies and businesses to harness its benefits. Organizations and leaders can expedite the realization of these advantages by proactively designing career development-focused policies and practices that foster collaboration, a sense of belonging and productivity.
