As the population’s life expectancy increases, it affects employment relationships in a number of ways. The most significant way will be the diversity of employee’s age and experience. The current age for retirement is around 55 years old, but that number is not indicative of a person’s ability to remain in the workforce beyond that. Studies show that humans are living longer and capable of working well beyond the average retirement age. As the elder employees begin to re-enter the workforce, younger employees will naturally feel a divide from them. It is not uncommon for people to associate more with people their own age because they have more in common. On one hand the aging workforce will create a rift in employee relationships. But as an employer hires older employees, they will begin to bring a higher level of maturity and experience that should bring employees closer.
As the age gap begins to grow amongst employees, managers will be met with the challenge of meshing different generations together that can work cohesively without redundant issues. This is not a new challenge for managers, but having so many employees that are older will be. The most profound challenge a manger will face during this age diversification will be the ability to manage someone who is likely much older than them. Most managers aren’t the oldest person on the job but they aren’t the youngest either. As employees begin to come in older, younger managers will have to learn how to relate to them and train them. Deep-level diversity training should be a top priority to combat any issues that may arise. The new employees will likely need training to bring them up to speed with current operations as technology has many positions.
Between 2006 and 2016, 93% of the workforce’s growth will be of people over 54. Companies should be prepared for policies that could bring about age discrimination charges. I feel the no mandatory retirement policy will cause the most problems. With employees being able to work for such a long time, it will be hard to terminate employees with a tenure that gives them higher wages. As employees begin to age, their performance may drop but that is not grounds for termination. That leaves a company with less productive workers that can demand higher wages because of their tenure. Older employees should have their performance monitored after a certain age to make sure they are still productive and useful. These policies should be altered to require a physical and mental evaluation to employees after a certain age. This will give employers the certainty that their older employees are capable of working effectively.
While employers begin building their diverse workforce, they come across many challenges. The main challenge is to understand differences in people and how they benefit your company. On the flip side you have to weed out the differences in people that can cause problems to the organization. Race is also a huge issue in the workforce. And as our country continues to be a huge melting pot, companies still have executives and employees that see the color of peoples skin and make assumptions about them. Companies should require deep level diversity training for employees and management.
Organizations should have very stern disciplinary actions to anyone involved in discriminatory actions against anyone. If there was a zero tolerance policy, employees would think twice before they decide to allow their negative view of someone else turn into abuse. For example; if John were to leave a noose on an African American man’s desk he should be fired immediately. If other employees know that there is a zero tolerance policy for discrimination, they will be adamant about keeping their behavior inline with policy. When people are held to a standard and given consequences for their actions, they tend to stay with in the confines of the rules.
There are many benefits to having a diverse workforce. When your employees come from different backgrounds and upbringings, they have more to offer. Different points of view are needed for any company to grow. When adding older employees with younger ones, you get the benefit of experience and knowledge. The younger employees bring more vitality and knowledge of current technology. When you take the best of each person and put it into a company, only good things can happen. If all the employees had the same thing to offer, there would be a clear limit to heights a company could travel. You need diverse people for diverse thinking to bring about universally good results.