In the modern-day workplace, age bias is a thing of the past, right? People are all treated equally, no matter how young or old they are. Because that is what needs to be the case if you are striving to become a diverse company. And if you have set ambitious diversity and inclusion goals. Unfortunately, reality often differs from the image we just created. A lot of young and old workers still experience age bias in the workplace. Young workers might hear that they are “too young” for a certain job. While senior workers hear that a company is looking for someone with “a lot of energy”. Senior workers, in particular, have a lot of trouble finding a new job. Even in times when candidates are scarce.
6 ways to recognize age bias
Age bias is a tricky thing. Often, managers and recruiters don’t realize that there is age bias in the workplace. It can go completely unnoticed, just like many other biases do. There are six ways to spot age bias in the workplace:
- Opportunities to learn and grow are only offered to younger employees. Senior employees are excluded from courses, training programs and conferences.
- Challenging assignments are only offered to younger employees. Routine, unpleasant and less challenging assignments are for the senior employees to take care of.
- Senior employees don’t receive invites to client meetings or company activities.
- Snide comments about someone’s age. These comments might seem to be subtle and playful, but people do mean what they say. Senior employees might need to listen to jokes about their slow typing and gasps for breath when taking the stairs.
- Sometimes, someone’s age also has an influence on raises and promotions. Although hard to prove, young and older workers might receive these less often or not at all anymore.
- Young and older applicants are not invited for a job interview based on the age on their resume. Young candidates are considered to have too little experience. Older candidates, on the other hand, are thought of as too experienced for the job.
Use Textmetrics to remove age bias in the workplace
Age bias is a form of discrimination and has no place in the workplace. Do you recognize hidden age bias in your company? Then it’s high time you put an end to it. Textmetrics can be a big help here, especially when it comes to recruitment. Because young or older candidates often refrain from applying because there is age bias in a job description.
You can use the Textmetrics platform to remove age bias from your job descriptions. The platform gives you suggestions while you’re writing. For example, words that discourage older candidates from applying are highlighted. You can replace these with words that appeal to everyone. As a result, your job descriptions will be free of age bias. And you’ll receive applications from people of all ages.
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