Mid-life workers believe their age is a barrier

Just over half of the workers in the UK think that age is a barrier when it comes to applying for jobs, with mid-life workers being strongest in that belief.

This is the finding of a new survey that the Centre for Ageing Better has carried out. It spoke to a total of 4,000 people of working age and 51% of them said that age becomes a barrier by the mid-50s. Another 36% felt that the cut-off point in the eyes of employers was lower than that – at age 50. Meanwhile, 8% said that it was hard to get employers interested once you hit the age of 40.

The group of respondents who were most convinced that finding a job gets harder by around 50 were those aged between 45 and 54. Among that group, 41% said that this was the case.

Ray Wareing from the Sellick Partnership recruitment company said that many employers were still hanging on to out-of-date biases against older workers. He argued that HR needs to train hiring managers in spotting such biases and eliminating them.

That kind of training requires a deep grasp of bias concepts though. This means it may be better to bring in an employee relations consultant from Hertfordshire, as they can offer that sort of expertise.

Tracy Riddell works for the Centre for Ageing Better. Speaking to HR Magazine, she said:

“To de-bias the application process, employers should consider removing any non-essential details on application forms that might indicate someone’s age.”

She cited ‘previous work history’ as an example of that.