I was an ageist recruiter....

They say age is just a number, but as a young recruiter I don't think I believed that to be true.

My recruitment career began at the age of 25 at a time when recruiters would line up at the fax machine to fax resumes to clients or send them via bike courier.  In other words, last century!

As a young recruiter, I would find myself meeting with experienced Financial Controllers and Senior Accountants who might have been twenty years older than me, although I suspect now that the age difference was not as great as I thought at the time.  In my mind, anybody approaching the age of 40 was ancient!

Looking back, I have no doubt there was an age bias against older candidates.  The rock star candidates were the young up and comers, these were the candidates’ clients wanted to hire.  It was rarely said, but it was understood, that hiring managers did not want older candidates than themselves or with broader experience. As recruiters we gave them what they were looking for, the irony being that when these managers went looking for a new role, they would often be overlooked for that younger up and coming candidate.

Thirty years later, not surprisingly, I no longer have an age bias when I am recruiting.  The perception that older workers will be difficult to manage, won’t be flexible, won’t work as hard or have the energy of younger applicants, no longer applies.

As a Facet5 practitioner and a recruiter, I believe Facet5 can help organisations make better informed recruiting decisions for all age groups.  As our population ages and people are working longer, we now have five generations in the workplace.  Organisations that can access talent across all age groups have a competitive advantage.

Facet5 can provide an objective report on a candidate’s innate strengths and areas for development regardless of their age.  It allows hiring managers to better understand their personality, preferred working style and, how best to lead them.

Older workers sometimes face challenges, real or perceived when integrating with younger teams or adapting to a new workplace culture, especially if the environment feels geared towards a younger demographic. Facet5 can provide deeper insights into how older workers might best navigate these dynamics and provide a common language between workers of different generations, especially if all team members have their own Facet5 profile.

If you’re thinking about how Facet5 could be help to broaden your talent pool, and manage intergenerational teams, please get in touch for a chat.