Can ageism at work ever truly be solved? Let’s look at some solutions — Diversely

3. Recruitment

Finally, recruitment can be difficult enough with the mountains of CV’s received for every post that is advertised, and due to the sheer numbers of these, automation such as the dreaded Applicant Tracking Systems, (ATS), often discards valuable candidates by the very nature of the way they work. This is not an age issue but a general one. However, with a long and varied career of an older worker, it can be extremely difficult to minimise the length and details within a CV, therefore falling foul of the length criteria and the reluctance to read through them.

Organisations need to start thinking outside of the box by creating a list of the benefits an older worker can bring to the party and to use these as part of the successful criteria they believe would benefit the role on offer.

There are too many boxes to tick, too much criteria that is a must, and too much emphasis on the technical or industry specific knowledge placed on an endless list of requirements. Yes, of course certain roles must have specific requirements, but generally most jobs advertised these days ask for pointless things that simply have not been thought through and are completely irrelevant.