Multi-Generational Workforce Poses Challenges for HR Professionals

Age discrimination harms young and older employees, raising legal and strategic challenges for HR professionals. Termination and promotion decisions aren’t the only considerations; lower engagement may result from age discrimination as well. 

“Age discrimination is often understood as something that happens to older people, but age stereotypes can disadvantage people at either end of the age continuum,” said Carol Kulik, a professor at Adelaide University in Adelaide, Australia. In her team’s research, younger workers said they receive less support for their caregiving responsibilities because managers associate caregiving with older employees.

There is evidence that age discrimination happens at young ages, especially in some industries, Kulik added. For example, in the tech sector, people in their 30s report experiences of age discrimination, though the Age Discrimination in Employment Act only protects workers age 40 and older, she said.

Sometimes young employees are excluded from client-facing opportunities or leadership roles due to perceptions that they lack credibility or experience due to their age, said Christina Hymer, an assistant professor at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

As for older workers, false assumptions sometimes impede their advancement, Kulik noted. For example, a manager might erroneously assume that a 55-year-old worker is not interested in advancement and might not encourage them to apply for a promotion. Or a manager might fail to recommend a 55-year-old for advanced training, wrongly assuming the employee won’t be with the organization long enough to deliver a return on investment. Or the manager could assume the employee already has years of experience, overlooking the fact that existing skills still need updating. 

In such instances, age stereotypes have closed the door to an opportunity even before the employee expressed an interest in the opportunity, Kulik said.

Article: SHRM CEO Testifies on the Potential of Older Workers

Longer Work Lives

“It appears more people are continuing to work into their 70s and beyond,” said Leslie Lajewski, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Morristown, N.J. Because of this, there are more age claims where employees in their 70s compare themselves to employees in their 50s and 60s, she said. Ten years ago, the common age discrimination claim was employees in their 50s and 60s comparing themselves to employees in their 40s, she added.

“As people are living longer and healthier lives, there is more opportunity for work to be part of our lives beyond retirement ages,” Kulik noted. 

Since 1948, the number of older Americans has increased 457%, reaching a level of 59.7 million in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “Since 1985, a growing share of those age 65 and older have chosen to participate in the labor force because of personal preference or economic necessity,” the BLS said. In 2024, 19.5% of people age 65 and older participated in the U.S. labor force: 23.4% of men and 16.2% of women. Of the 168.1 million people in the labor force in 2024, 11.6 million, or roughly 7%, were age 65 and older.

“The upward trend over the last several decades means that millions more people ages 65 and older are participating in the labor force today,” said Justin Ladner, Ph.D., SHRM senior labor economist.

Areas of High Legal Risk

Due to their sheer numbers, more Baby Boomers will be on juries in age discrimination cases, and they are likely to take a critical view of age discrimination, said Carolyn Burnette, an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Sacramento, Calif.

Some areas of high legal risk when managing older employees, according to Robin Shea, an attorney with Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete in Winston-Salem, N.C., include:

• Assuming an employee is ready to retire based solely on the employee’s age.
• Trying to encourage early retirement based on legitimate performance issues that the employer never addressed.
• Assuming that employees past a certain age are not technologically literate.
• Making comments to the effect that the workforce, or a specific team, is “too old” or needs “fresh blood.”

“Often the worst offenders making these comments are older employees,” Shea said.  
Risks also occur when an employer is going through a reduction in force (RIF) and focuses on eliminating positions that are highly compensated, she noted. “If the focus is really on compensation rather than age, then the courts have said that this is not age discrimination under federal law,” she said. “But if the employees included in the RIF are all, say, over 55, then the employer will be at risk of at least having to defend an age discrimination claim.”

Wrongful termination based on age is the most common claim of age discrimination in today’s workplace, Lajewski said. A key component to preventing age discrimination is for HR professionals to ensure that performance standards and goals are being applied equally to all employees, regardless of age. 

In addition, regular and consistent training should be a standard tool for every HR professional, she added.

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Engagement Dips

Apart from legal risk, “older employees who suspect age discrimination become less engaged, and employers lose some of the value those employees could deliver,” Kulik said.

“HR professionals need to move their employers away from a compliance mindset — managing age discrimination risks — to a strategic one: recognizing the enormous capabilities in a multi-generational workforce,” she said.

The multi-generational workforce will be discussed at BLUEPRINT for I&D, an event that will be held Nov. 15-18 in Nashville.