Has COVID helped combat ageism in the workforce?

Covid has created huge hardship over the past 18 months for everyone. Whether you are young or old, rich or poor, employed or unemployed, healthy or unhealthy – no one has escaped this torment. However, in the words of Harry S Truman, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities, and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties”.

If Harry Truman were alive, he would probably recognise some of the (employment) opportunities that have been directly created by Covid and I do too! One that I feel most passionate about is the slow but sure progress to more diverse and inclusive work forces. Research shows a diverse work environment is simply good business sense, with teams made up of people from different cultures, genders and races often proving more innovative and creative than their peers. Unfortunately, this call for diversity often fails to take older workers into account.

As a recruitment expert, I have seen it time and time again. People with all the required skills and competencies being turned down for an interview or job directly due the number of years’ experience under their belt!

Roll on into 2021 and a large proportion of the country was and still is working from home, and thankfully people with 30 plus years’ experience who I couldn’t secure interviews for before covid are now being interviewed and successfully offered jobs.

My research shows over the past 12 months, 76% of the people that we spoke with are very happy with this arrangement to work remotely. By and large, they are happy because they have done their years of commuting, their work drinks and their socialising with colleagues and it tends not to be as great a priority as it was in the past. Yet they are still able to commit and deliver 110% plus.

Over the past 12 months, this is the feedback that my team and I have received from circa 20 jobs seekers, and I am delighted to pass this exciting news along. We’re glad to report that yet again focusing on more D&I recruitment has yet again been the solution!