Nepal News

Organisations are now forced to accommodate the older workers into their milieu
and make some amendments in managing them. Since aged workers are employed
in bigger numbers in the organisations, HR managers find it problematic to manage
the age diversity. Managers work with certain pre-conceived ideas about older
people. There are some long standing stereotypes regarding aging. These include
perceptions like, the older workers have decreased performance, decreased stamina,
are difficult to train, are not flexible, have greater risks and have less capacity to
work. Along with these perceptions there are other assumptions that there are natural
outcomes of getting old e.g. vision, hearing, stamina etc.


However, it is time to dispel with these stereotypical ideas because research has
systematically shown that these assumptions are for the most part false. These biased
views about older workers are considered as responsible for the ongoing discrimination
against them.
Older workers encounter problems on the job as a result of this generalisation. They
stand true only in some cases. However, many of the short comings of older workers
can be overcome. In reality, many older workers are in good health, are open to
change, are trainable and are willing to take reasonable risks. Actually what have
been considered as limitations are now considered as assets.
Considering the strengths of the older workers, they are typically more experienced,
they have realistic expectations of jobs as a result of their own past experience they
are easier to be satisfied and tend to respond to intrinsic reward. The most important
aspect is they usually stay for a longer period with their employers and have lower
absenteeism rates.
There are many legislations which have been chalked out for the protection of the
older workers against discrimination which the employers should thoroughly be aware
of. True characteristics of the older workers need to be recognised, they should be
given support and should be understood properly. The benefits for this extra effort
will usually be forthcoming in the form of increased loyalty and reduced absenteeism
and turnover.
Novelli tries to reduce the age discrimination in the workplace and encourages
employees to adopt human resource policies with multiple options to meet the needs
of older workers and aid them in remaining on the job or returning to the workforce
by offering them more learning opportunities.
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He suggests that companies should provide technology and training courses tailored
to older workers skill gaps in order to keep them abreast with new equipment. He
feels that older workers can learn new things, although, the methods that are used
for training younger workers will not be suitable. Their training should be in the form
of setting their own pace to work or take alternative classes. This would help them
to become better trained and highly performing staff. He stresses that public perceptions
of older workers should change and it should be understood that by turning away
the older workers, we are wasting human capital.
Dowd says that we can change the mindset we have about older workers as they
are able to get different kind of knowledge, experience and wisdom something which
is not taught in schools and to ignore this kind of knowledge and wisdom in return
for skilled employees is considered ignorance on the part of the employers. He
further adds that solutions focused on older workers are important. He calls it E3-
employment, education and economic development – which together form a strategy
to use this untapped labour