Mixed-age employees ‘make for a more flexible workforce’

Managers should look to employ personnel from a range of age groups in order to build the strongest and most adaptable workforces.

This is the opinion of Rachel Krys, campaign director for the Employers Forum on Age, who said prejudice against older demographics “is a problem”.

She remarked: “Although age discrimination legislation has gone quite a long way to combating it, I think unspoken age discrimination is still happening a lot.”

According to Ms Krys, many candidates aged over 50 feel they may be well qualified for a position, but fail to get past the initial screening.

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The recruitment industry in particular has found it difficult to adjust to legislation regarding ageism, she added, with many believing older applicants will struggle to fit in to companies’ cultures.

Her comments followed recent statistics by the Department of Communities and Local Government, which showed age discrimination was the most common form of prejudice in the employment market during 2009-10.