Ageism is still an issue the tech industry needs to tackle

Tech has a reputation for focusing on the young – but why?

Age-related bias doesn’t get the same attention as other forms of discrimination, but it’s an issue the tech sector needs to deal with.

“We don’t want someone who is set in their ways. We want someone who is going to bring fresh ideas, not someone at the end of their career.”

Around ten years ago, it wasn’t unheard of to receive briefs like this from clients looking to hire for a tech role. Thankfully, attitudes have changed, and it doesn’t happen in that way anymore. Ageism, like any form of discrimination, is illegal in the workplace, after all.

But, that doesn’t mean ageism isn’t still an issue the tech industry must face. Surveys routinely show that tech professionals believe there is a degree of age discrimination in the sector - CW Jobs, for example, found that 41% of tech workers said they had encountered age discrimination. This isn’t just something that affects people in their forties and upwards – there have even been reports of some employers favouring Gen Z talent over Millennials as the new generation on the block!

Harvey Nash’s 2024 Global Tech Talent and Salary Report throws some interesting light on the subject. While over half of the 2,700 tech professionals surveyed around the world believed that enough was being done to promote diversity in terms of gender and race, significantly fewer (43%) said the same of age.

From my own experience of working in tech recruitment for more than 15 years, the problem has certainly shrunk, but it does still exist. It isn’t an openly expressed bias in the way it used to sometimes be; it has become more hidden – perhaps even an unconscious bias.

This matters because employers guilty of age-related discrimination could open themselves up to claims under the Equality Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Benefits of experience

It is also important because overlooking people on the basis of age means an employer is depriving themselves of numerous potential benefits. The more experience people have in the workplace, the more knowledge and skills they acquire, with learnings and insights they can share with newer team members in what can be a truly valuable intergenerational exchange.

More mature workers build up resilience and adaptability – essentially, they have experienced more. They are also likely to be more settled in their personal lives, meaning retention is likely to be good.

In later life, because they may have fewer financial burdens and family pressures, many mature tech professionals may be able to give more of themselves, not less, to the job.

There is a perception in some quarters that younger people will naturally be more in touch with new technology including AI, machine learning and cloud; but it’s simply discriminatory to think that older professionals can’t master new technology just as well.

Like all forms of bias, ageism makes generalised assumptions about people when in fact we are all unique individuals who should be given equal opportunity and assessed on our own actual merits and skills.

Neutralising bias

Ageism (and other bias) is something we in the recruitment industry are trying to eradicate by taking all personal details off CVs, applications and shortlists that we put forward to clients. Today’s privacy rules are a help in this regard, obliging us not to share certain information without express permission.

For many organisations, it remains a priority to increase the diversity of their teams. This produces business benefits – the Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report, which is based on the world’s largest survey of technology leadership, has found that six out of ten technology leaders believed their approach to diversity and inclusion was improving the quality of their hires. The report also found that for those organisations that are very successful at promoting diversity, 67% experienced a resulting increase in trust and collaboration, and 62% saw engagement in the business improve.

However, it is almost certainly true that gender and race receive the lion’s share of attention. All personal characteristics should be respected equally, and equity and inclusion must be pursued with respect to them all. This includes age. Recruiters, HR teams, hiring managers and business teams should all keep themselves accountable for continuing to drive the diversity agenda, including diversity awareness and unconscious bias training.

In everyone’s interests

This is an issue that is likely to become more pronounced over time. People are living longer, the state pension age is rising, and people are working longer as a result. It’s already common for people to work into their late sixties and even seventies. It applies at all levels too – with many executives taking up part-time NED and portfolio roles towards the end of their careers instead of exiting to retirement.

Simple logic tells us that ageism is an issue it is in everyone’s interests to resist. Almost all of us will need to work until our mid-sixties at least – and all of us are getting older, after all!

Helen Fleming is executive director of search & specialisms at Harvey Nash.