Too Old To Hire? Ageism 'Must Be Addressed' To Get Britain Working

When the investment firm Canada Life took on and trained a group of over-50s at its Isle of Man investment headquarters recently, managers had three concerns: the new recruits turned up to work too early, they dressed in suits and they peppered their bosses with questions.

- Heather Stewart

Once persuaded to adopt a slightly more casual dress code, however, the older workers became valued employees.

Lyndsey Simpson, of consultancy-cum-campaign group 55/Redefined, had worked with Canada Life to tackle persistent recruitment challenges, by turning to a neglected talent pool: local fiftysomethings looking to change jobs or return to the workforce after a break.

"The first block was the hiring managers. They would say: 'Why am I looking at the CV of someone who's been a taxi driver for 30 years?'" she said. But Simpson said: "If you can train a 21-year-old, you can train someone in this age group. And once you get intergenerational teams, that's when the magic happens."

Despite the success of experiments like this, the hiring managers' initial reticence is backed up by recent research for the website Totaljobs that suggested 46% of recruiters believe a 57-year-old candidate would be "too old" to hire.