How to prevent ageism from impacting your hybrid workforce

As employers make decisions around hybrid work arrangements, they need to be careful that they’re not inadvertently discriminating against their younger employees.

Ageism — prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age — is common among older workers, yet is beginning to affect Gen Z and millennials, too. Thirty-six percent of younger employees say they have experienced discrimnation due to their age, compared to 39% of employees over 40, according to data from the Harris Poll.

This discrimnation will become more frequent as employers shift to a hybrid work arrangement and require workers to get back to their desks, says Todd Moran, chief learning strategist at NovoEd, an online learning platform. Younger workers may feel more pressure to return to work to secure their position than someone older and more established.

“In the hybrid workforce dynamic, the folks that are being brought back into an office are of a younger generation, because they don't have as much control over whether they can make demands or stay in a remote setting,” Moran says. “Older generations can look at the last 18 months and reevaluate where they are and the body of work they've done. They have the ability to self-select.”

Read more: The pandemic is forcing Gen Z to rethink their future

Splitting the workforce into those who can work remotely and those who need to come back to the office presents a variety of problems to the overall diversity of the organization, Moran says. Regardless of location, employers need to provide equal training and development opportunities so both younger and older workers don’t feel left behind.

“An inclusive workforce is not just about gender or ethnicity, but is about the age dynamic,” Moran says. “The more inclusive and diverse the workforce, the greater output, the greater tangible productivity, the greater pace of innovation. Whether an employee is in the workplace or not, development opportunities should be digital and virtual-first, so they’re not inviting bias.”

Younger employees have felt the lack of training and development opportunities more acutely than older generations, who have a broader range of experience to cull from. Sixty-six percent of Gen Z employees say COVID has been detrimental to their career progress, compared to 38% of the total workforce population, data from Robert Half found.

Read more: Hiring older workers? Beware of age discrimination creeping into your recruiting practices

However, older employees are facing these challenges too, says Mindy Feldbaum, AARP Foundation’s vice president of workforce programs. With the rapid adoption of technology, older employees can get left behind and miss out on valuable opportunities, and at worst, be forced to leave the workforce.

“The digital transformation of businesses accelerated potential inequalities in the labor market,” Feldbaum says. “One in three older workers lack the foundational digital skills needed for jobs today. Employers should provide equal access to that so they can continue to have those relevant skills and be able to capitalize on the changing nature of work and the workplace.”

Regardless of where an employee is logging in from, HR leaders need to be intentional about why they are asking employees to return to work and how they’re providing development opportunities for all, Moran says. Mentorship programs and accessible and interactive training programs can help give all employees, regardless of age, the tools to succeed.

“Be intentional about creating formal coaching and mentor-mentee relationships, not in service of just the people in the office, but using technology to bring these folks together,” Moran says. “The best of them are doing it because it's a groundswell of ask from employee populations.”