Although age bias is still the norm, the value-add of longtime, experienced workers is beginning to take shape.
On the outskirts of Macclesfield, in northwest England, a branch of the UK home-improvement retailer B&Q quietly overturned one of corporate life’s most persistent assumptions. Faced with high staff turnover and uneven customer satisfaction, the company tried a simple experiment: In 1989, it staffed the store largely with older workers.
The results were striking, according to one study. Profits rose 18 percent. Staff turnover fell to a fraction of the company average. Absenteeism dropped sharply. An experiment that started more than 30 years ago reshaped how the retailer approached age inclusiveness and led B&Q to open training to all ages and feature older workers in advertising, treating experience as an advantage rather than a cost.
In 2007, BMW began implementing 70 ergonomic, low-cost improvements in a specialized assembly line in Dingolfing, Germany, to provide better conditions for its many older and middle-aged workers. Key changes included adjustable-height workstations, improved lighting and specialized stools, resulting in a 7 percent productivity increase.
Evidence suggests that similar age-performance dynamics are not limited to the quirks of retail or to the factory floor and are increasingly relevant as declining birth rates and artificial intelligence investments reduce the inflow of entry-level workers. A white paper from Bank of America’s Workplace Benefits group argues that recruiting and retaining older workers is becoming increasingly important as populations age, framing age-inclusive benefits not as accommodation, but as a driver of organizational performance, especially for roles where judgment, experience and decision quality matter most.
“The retention of these older workers is an idea that is becoming much more well-received,” says Cynthia Hutchins, Bank of America’s inaugural director of financial gerontology. Hutchins has been involved in implementing a workforce longevity policy that includes hybrid schedules, financial planning benefits, menopause support, grandparents’ leave and sabbaticals. “It’s almost a business imperative to institute those types of benefits” to retain older workers and attract younger ones, adds Hutchins.
Yet initiatives such as these are rarely framed as strategy or as signals of a deeper shift. Most corporations continue to design careers as if effectiveness peaks early — as if speed, stamina and innovation belong exclusively to the young. If experience improves outcomes, why are so many organizations structured to push people out just as their value peaks?
If experience improves outcomes, why are so many organizations structured to push people out just as their value peaks?
The Albatross or the Wise Man
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