Employers are cutting their own throats in the long run by
discriminating against older ITers
Employers are exacerbating the IT skills shortage by saying "no" to
older IT workers, despite their extensive on-the-job experience.
After a decade of campaigning for the IT profession to employ
more older workers, most companies are still exclusively targeting
younger graduates.
The age bias is leaving an untapped pool of older talent, just
as the demand for IT and e-commerce professionals is about to
skyrocket, a new report from the Open University reveals.
The Open University, report, released exclusively to Computer
Weekly, shows that many employers may be unaware that they are
discriminating against older workers. "The problem seems to be that
firms don't know that older workers exist," said the report's
author, Philip Taylor. "They are graduates themselves, so they
recruit graduates."
Across Europe, the shortage of skilled IT and e-commerce workers
will grow from 13% next year to 18% of demand by 2003, according to
research by IDC. The shortage could stifle e-commerce growth.
Managers acknowledge that older IT workers make good problem
solvers, have the ability to start work on problems immediately and
take more responsibility than younger graduates. Yet their
company's human resources departments are exclusively geared up to
hiring and training younger people, the OU report, Mature
Professionals into IT, found.
Recruitment agencies have exacerbated the problem by ignoring
older workers, a practice that has forced some IT professionals to
omit their age from their CVs.
Companies worry that older workers will demand higher salaries
or they may not fit-in in a working environment of younger people,
said Taylor. In some companies, anyone over the age of 40 is
considered too old.
"There should be a national advertising campaign to make it
clear that the IT is not just a profession for young males," said
Taylor.
Government figures show that over the last 25 years there has
been a dramatic fall in economic activity rates among older
workers, despite the continuing rise in the average age of the
workforce.
What bosses think of IT veterans
Good points
- Start projects immediately
Bad Points
- Lacking in people management skills