Unlocking the value of intergenerational teams

Putting Age on the Agenda

We all have an age, so you might think it would be something we’re much more connected to and aware of. But on a personal level, many of us already internalise ageism, making assumptions about ourselves based on our age – whether that’s around technology or other things we feel might hold us back from being part of the conversation.

When we do this ourselves, we can inadvertently give other people permission to make those same assumptions about age. same assumptions about age. This may be why age isn’t as high on the DE&I agenda as other topics. In a ProAge/Brave Starts UK survey of around 200 people working in HR and DE&I, age ranked fourth on their agenda, behind ethnicity, gender and disability. Many respondents reported that the business case for age inclusion wasn’t as clear, or that it simply wasn’t viewed as a business priority.

Intergenerational Workforces as an Opportunity, Rather Than a Challenge

 
Many managers see an intergenerational workforce as a challenge. I think that’s rooted in the idea of ‘us and them’ – seeing ourselves as part of one group and othering our colleagues in the workplace.

The interesting thing is that we already know diverse teams perform better, whether that’s diversity of gender, race or socioeconomic background. The same is true of age.

We carried out another piece of research recently with Ciphr, where we asked people about the benefits they saw from multi-generational working. It was interesting what they told us, although you can probably guess some of the answers.

• The biggest benefit people identified was bringing together a broader range of experience and perspectives. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said that – almost nine in ten people.
• Another key theme was knowledge sharing and mentoring opportunities, whether that’s traditional mentoring or reverse mentoring.
• Succession planning also featured strongly.

What’s particularly important is the context we’re operating in today. In many sectors, it’s a tight labour market, so helping organisations retain skills and knowledge has become increasingly important.

When organisations and line managers improve intergenerational working, they shift what’s often seen as a challenge into a genuine opportunity. Valuable knowledge is kept in-house and more opportunities are created to share that knowledge across teams.

Age Bias Through Good Intentions (Not Bad Behaviour)

Age bias often shows up through good intentions. For example, if you go into a card shop, you’ll probably see birthday cards that are quite ageist. We give these cards with good intentions, not meaning to be insulting or hurtful, but they can still be limiting. They influence how people see themselves, how they view their own opportunities and whether they put themselves forward. They also shape how other people see them.

You hear people say things like younger employees just need “more time to grow into a role”. At the other end of the age spectrum, you hear assumptions that older people may not want to learn, especially when it comes to technology. You also hear well-intentioned comments such as, “Let’s not put too much pressure on them.”

I’ve heard that said about women experiencing the menopause. Again, it’s often well-intentioned, but it skips an important question: what strengths do I see in this person, and how can I help them develop?

When, as managers and leaders, we catch ourselves making assumptions based on age, it’s time to change our mindset. Instead of asking whether someone is ready, we should ask how we can support them to progress.

• How could we encourage them to take the next step?
• If someone needs more time to grow into a role, is there an opportunity for mentoring, whether that’s traditional or reverse mentoring?
• Could we pair them with someone who can help them build a technical skill or strengthen their people management skills?
• What training or support could we provide to help them make that next step?

It comes back to the social acceptability of ageist comments. We make them ourselves, and we hear them from others. They’re often well-intentioned, but they can still be limiting, and they shape both how we see ourselves and how others see us.

Internalised Agesim: An Example from Mix

“We were working with a board of directors who, perhaps because of wider societal narratives, described themselves as ‘pale, male and stale’. We challenged them on it because, although they were trying to be self-deprecating, we didn’t think it was helpful. We encouraged them to stop telling that story about themselves and to see it differently. Instead of focusing on a label, they could recognise that they were in positions of influence and had the opportunity to make the workplace better.”

Potential vs. Experience

There’s potential in all of us to grow into a role. But many organisations still have a tendency, when they’re recruiting, to ask for ten or even fifteen years’ experience.

We need to find the right balance between valuing experience and valuing potential. ‘Potential’ is about what somebody can grow into, but we also have a responsibility to help nurture that potential by giving people the opportunities, training and support they need, and by connecting them with the right people.

The number of years someone has spent in a role isn’t always a good indicator of how well they’ve performed. Someone could have ten years’ experience because they never progressed to the next level. Equally, someone else might have achieved an enormous amount in just two years and be able to demonstrate exactly what they’ve accomplished.

That’s why you need to have a conversation with the person, rather than relying on the number of years listed on their CV. Someone who has progressed quickly, achieved a great deal and can clearly articulate the impact of their work could be exactly the person whose potential you want to nurture and develop.

Age Bias Isn’t Just Experienced by Older Workers

Age bias is often seen as something that only affects older workers. And it does – absolutely. Research shows that people in their late fifties are often viewed as being almost too old to hire. We also know that people in their forties and fifties who are looking for work typically spend many months longer finding a new job than those earlier in their careers.

But age bias doesn’t only affect older workers.

Many people at the start of their careers talk about not being given a voice or not being given opportunities. In fact, during an in-person training session we ran recently, participants asked us to talk about ‘youngism’ in the workplace as well as ageism. Once we opened up that conversation, it was hard to get people to stop talking. They shared example after example of doing good work but hearing comments like, “You just need a little more time to mature in the role.”

In some organisations, there’s almost an old-fashioned version of time-served progression, where people are expected to wait a certain amount of time before they’re considered ready for the next opportunity.

So age bias can affect people at the beginning of their careers just as much as it can later on.

The Intersection of Age and Gender

I’ve had some fascinating conversations with a professor at Henley Business School, who’s done a great deal of research into the intersection of age and gender. She describes how women in the workplace are often perceived as being younger than their male counterparts for longer in their careers. As a result, they’re less likely to be credited with the same level of gravitas or experience, and they may receive fewer opportunities.

She describes it using a Goldilocks analogy. If you imagine a scale of ‘too young’, ‘just right’ and ‘too old’, the ‘just right’ window is much narrower for women than it is for men.

That window also tends to coincide with a stage of life when many women have significant family responsibilities. Of course, those responsibilities apply to men as well, but women have traditionally taken on a greater share of them. The intersection of age and gender can therefore have a profound impact on women’s careers.

I think it’s particularly important when you consider that women entering the workforce are, statistically, often better educated and achieve higher grades than their male counterparts. Despite that, they’re still frequently perceived as being less mature or less ready.

Mix Real-World Example: Intersectionality and Age

At Mix, we recently ran a focus group with women managers to explore why women weren’t progressing at the same rate as their male counterparts.

At first, it would have been easy to assume the barriers were purely related to gender. But as we listened to people’s experiences, it became clear that the picture was much more complex.

Many of the women who shared their experiences were at the same organisational level – they were all managers – but they also tended to be among the younger managers. Some had come through graduate schemes rather than spending twenty years working their way up. Many were also physically smaller than their male counterparts.

It was fascinating to explore how these different aspects of their identity combined to shape their experiences at work. For example, some were responsible for locking up stores late at night in locations where they didn’t always feel safe. That can be intimidating for anyone, but several explained that their physical stature made them feel even more vulnerable.

Rather than assuming the answer was simply to provide more security, we discussed a broader range of options. Should additional security be available when needed, or would it be more effective to equip security staff with a better understanding of the situations these managers faced and how they could provide appropriate support?

It was a powerful reminder that workplace experiences are rarely shaped by a single characteristic. Age, gender and other aspects of identity often interact, and understanding those intersections helps organisations develop more effective and inclusive solutions.

Why We Need to Think Differently About Age and Technology

Technology, and especially AI, is one of the biggest areas where assumptions are made about people’s abilities across different generations.

The interesting thing is that AI is a great enabler. It’s changed the way we work. You no longer need to be a computer programmer to use AI or get it to carry out complex tasks, such as analysing large amounts of data. With the right prompts, many of us can achieve far more than we could before.

There’s a generational difference in how people think about technology, but we need to shift our mindset from talking about digital competence to digital confidence.

People of all ages can lack digital confidence, although it’s often more common among older workers. The challenge is that a lack of confidence can have a spiralling effect, influencing the opportunities people are offered and whether they’re encouraged to engage with new technologies.

This is where the value of mentoring is particularly visible, both across generations and within them. We need to create more opportunities for people to build confidence, rather than assuming capability based on age.

Final Thoughts

Creating an age-inclusive workplace isn’t about treating every generation differently. It’s about recognising the strengths, experience and potential that people bring at every stage of their careers, and creating an environment where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive.

If you’re leading an intergenerational team, take a look around your organisation, your team, your colleagues, and ask – who might you be underestimating because of their age? There are probably people out there who’ve got wonderful, wonderful skills that with a little bit of nurturing could take you in your organisation, your team very far.

Whether you’re looking to develop more inclusive leaders, improve collaboration across generations or embed age inclusion into your wider culture strategy, taking action now can help you build a stronger, more resilient organisation.

Mix and ProAge work with organisations of all sizes to develop more inclusive workplace cultures through consultancy, leadership development, workshops, e-learning and practical support for boards, executive teams, managers and employee networks. If you’d like to explore how we can help your organisation create a more age-inclusive workplace, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch or request a free 15 minute consultation.