Hi, and welcome back! This Bite is all about age diversity in the workplace and how it
can help you improve organizational performance, so stay tuned!
Have you seen the film The Intern from back in 2015? If you haven’t, I recommend you
watch it. It’s a film telling the story of Ben Whittaker, played by Robert DeNiro, a seventy-year-old
Executive, that decided to apply as an intern in a scale-up after retirement had become
too boring for him.
Although I doubt it was the writer’s intention, it’s about age diversity in the workplace.
While I was watching this film, I couldn’t help but pick up on some valuable lessons
about age diversity in the workplace. The real, non-movie workplace that is of course.
And since I love these kinds of analogies, I thought I’d share them with you.
Before we dive into the core of the video, tho, remember to subscribe to the
channel, hit the notification bell and like the video.
*MUSIC*
Hi, my name is Neelie, and in today’s bite I’ll tell you all about age diversity in
the workplace.
So, what are the benefits?
1. Age diversity means skill diversity
Sure, we live in a rapidly digitalizing world, and we need people who speak ‘tech’ and
know their devices. Yet, we also need people who know how to talk to potential business
partners in a meeting, experienced negotiators who speak ‘human’.
The beauty of age diversity in the workplace lies in the fact that every generation brings
a different set of skills to the table, often, complementing each other.
2. Age diversity opens the mind
If your employees are more or less all from the same generation, it’s easy for them
to start thinking that everyone looks at the world the same way they do. From a business
perspective, this isn’t great: it narrows down your potential customer base.
Having a diversified workforce in terms of age – but also in terms of gender, ethnicity
and sexual orientation – opens people’s minds.
Think about it: if you work in a team with people between 20 and 70 years old, you’ll
hear various perspectives on every topic that comes up.
You’ll discover there’s more than one way to approach a situation. As a result,
your organization will appeal to a much broader customer demographic.
3. Age diversity creates mutual mentors
It’s no secret that the global workforce is aging and that this is creating a fair
amount of challenges. One of the biggest aging workforce challenges
lies in the skill gap that retiring workers leave behind: there literally aren’t enough
people to replace those who go away, let alone the skills they possess.
Age diversity in the workplace enables organizations to launch initiatives such as a two-way mentoring
program. This has several advantages. Experienced workers can teach their younger peers everything
they know and vice versa.
If done in a timely manner, this kind of mentoring can ensure the transfer of crucial skills.
When eventually the time comes for your older workers to retire, you’ve got a group of
younger workers, operational and ready to take over. No risk for the continuity of
the business.
In a similar way, Younger generation workers can certainly teach their older peers a thing
or two when it comes to technology and tools. As such, age diversity in the
workplace creates a two-way mentoring street.
4. Have an adequate onboarding process!
While a baby boomer you just hired may come
with a wealth of expertise when it comes to your business, he or she may have never worked
with iOS or Google Hangouts before. Of course, this stuff isn’t rocket science,
but including it in your onboarding process will help to avoid awkward moments.
5. Age diversity in the workplace makes us nicer people
Let’s face it. Many of us are a tad biased when it comes to people of a certain age.
They’re less flexible, less motivated, too slow and, of course, they take more sick days.
Millennials have their fair share of stereotypes to deal with too: they are lazy, unfocused,
need constant validation and live on avocado toast.
Working side by side with people from different generations is a great way to prove ourselves
wrong. And, by extension, have a positive effect on the way we see – and treat – people
outside the organisation too.
And what about you? Do you think you have the right age diversity in your workplace? What are the
challenges and struggles for that to happen and what are the benefits for you? Let us
know in the comment below!
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