Do Older Professionals Receive a Fair Shake?


By Kelly Greene From The Wall Street Journal Online

Are older workers getting a fair shake? It depends on where you work, according to a new survey.

Although the majority of companies said they offer the same opportunities to older and younger workers, 17% admitted providing older workers with fewer chances at promotion -- and 11% said they give older workers fewer challenging assignments. Those were the findings from a poll of 150 human-resource executives conducted recently by the Conference Board, a research organization in New York.

The Conference Board defined older workers as those who are 50 and older, says Howard Muson, who wrote a report for the group on the findings. The survey polled HR executives at International Business Machines Corp., Marriott International Inc., Allstate Corp., Dow Chemical Co. and other companies.

"A certain number of these [HR executives] were candid about what really happens -- that the companies give fewer challenging assignments, fewer promotion opportunities to older workers," he says.

Many companies, says Mr. Muson, "like to think that they have a standard policy that covers all ages, when you know they don't." Only 5% of HR executives, for example, said in the survey that their companies offer fewer training opportunities to older workers. "They justify this by saying training is offered to everybody in the company if you want to take advantage of it," he says. "But one Bureau of Labor Statistics study shows that, in fact, older workers receive less formal and informal training. So, even though training is offered to everybody, for some reason, many older workers don't take it."

A survey of 1,645 workers age 50 and older released by the Conference Board last fall found that 72% feel capable of taking on more responsibility -- and two-thirds are interested in further training and development.

"Older and more-experienced workers perceive that management wants to bring new blood in," says Mr. Muson. But managers often believe that older workers are marking time until they can collect a retirement package. "To a great extent, it's a chicken-and-egg proposition," he says.

These concerns may seem academic at a time of layoffs and cutbacks. But 24 million U.S. workers will need to be replaced by 2008 because of death or retirement, according to government estimates. Because of the smaller pool of workers following the baby boom, as many as 4.6 million jobs could go unfilled.

Moreover, layoffs and early retirements have contributed to the need for some companies to retain older workers. For example, Deere & Co., the Moline, Ill., maker of tractors and lawnmowers, laid off many workers and did little active hiring in the 1980s, says Jerry Halamaj, Deere's manager of employee research. The 15-year hiring gap created a "bimodal" work force in which 40% of the manufacturer's workers have at least 20 years of experience -- and half have fewer than five years on the job. As a result, "we're doing a lot of midcareer hiring, and are really bringing in leadership training and development opportunities at both ends of the spectrum," he says. "It is the people who have been around awhile who have something to offer to the younger workers."

Here are other ways in which the findings from the surveys show disconnects:

Some of the older workers who were interviewed feel that their contributions aren't recognized and that they aren't paid fairly. But most of the HR executives surveyed say older workers receive the same compensation as younger workers, if not more.

Older workers say they are targeted first when companies have to fire people; HR executives say they offer early-retirement packages to avoid layoffs.

Many 55-year-old workers would be willing to stay on the job if they were given more time off to pursue other interests. But relatively few companies offer reduced hours or phased retirement. In fact, the survey of HR executives found that older workers are less likely to get part-time work than are younger workers.

Older workers in the earlier survey commented on the importance of age-diversity training, particularly for managers. But 81% of the companies surveyed "don't offer any training on cross-generational issues," says Mr. Muson. "So they're really lagging in dealing with this question of ageism."

There are tough obstacles for companies in retaining older workers, including potential health-insurance expenses and pension rules that could stymie efforts, he says. "But at the very least, they can do an age profile of the overall company and the different business units," taking stock of how many older workers they are likely to lose and to determine whether they should try harder to keep them. He adds that 66% of the companies surveyed hadn't done such an assessment.


http://www.careerjournal.com/hrcente...24-greene.html

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