Why older talent should be a consideration for today's inclusive leader

While ‘age’ has not been historically underrepresented in our workforces, creating longer, fulfilling working lives is now an economic imperative. Like with other forms of diversity, popular myths have seen leaders consistently undervalue the performance benefits of age-diversity. Daniel Jolles and Grace Lordan break down three persistent myths about older talent

Generational diversity is on the rise, and those embracing it are gaining a competitive edge

Major firms are experiencing a widening gap between their youngest and oldest employees. And frictions between people of different age groups are undermining the potential productivity benefits of generational diversity. Daniel Jolles and Grace Lordan write that the issue arises especially among younger workers with older managers. They suggest ways to overcome potential conflicts

How we can work better to support employee mental health

Companies are increasingly investing in their employees’ mental health. In an environment of labour shortages, the losses caused by workers’ mental problems have made mental health a priority. Employers may not always succeed in addressing the problem, but individual employees have a role to play. Yolanda Blavo, Nikita and Daniel Jolles discuss how we can take charge of our mental well-being at work and help create a supportive environment for others

Why people quiet quit

There has been a surge in interest in quiet quitting, when employees put in only the minimum effort needed to keep their jobs, not showing interest in much more than that. Odessa S Hamilton, Daniel Jolles and Grace Lordan explore the motivations behind this type of behaviour and list ways in which organisations can revert the situation and turn back the hands of time on people’s intention to quiet quit

Age diversity demands more than celebrating Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated

At age 81, American TV personality Martha Stewart graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine. As we live longer, these high-profile celebrity moments make us question our own aspirations regarding health, relationships and careers. Daniel Jolles and Teresa Almeida list ways in which leaders must focus their efforts to capitalise on the increased workplace age diversity that comes from these longer lives

Too old for the job? Investigating tools for increasing older adult participation in the workforce.

Despite an ageing workforce, older workers face significant challenges resulting from routine, and socially acceptable workplace ageism. Early retirements and employment barriers that result from this ageism are expected to place heavy pressures on labour supplies and social security systems in many countries over the coming years. This is especially unfortunate given the organisational performance benefits workplace age diversity can provide. Across three research streams, this thesis draws on social psychology and judgement and decision-making literatures to understand how we might create longer working lives, from employment to retention. The first stream examines if a choice bundling intervention shown to increase gender diversity can successfully increase age diversity in selection decisions. Across four preregistered experiments (N = 2,624), I evidence bias against older job candidates in hiring decisions and demonstrate that choice bundling shown to be effective in increasing the selection of women candidates, fails to increase the selection of older candidates. The second stream explores the role of competition-based incentives on hiring decisions. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 800), I investigate if competition moderates age discrimination in selection decisions. The results show limited evidence that competition affects bias in selection decisions. In the third and final stream of research, I aim to understand the relationship between the intergenerational diversity climate perceived by older workers in their organisation and their retirement intentions. In two pre-registered studies of workers aged between 40 and 75 years (N = 375), I find that older workers who perceived a more positive intergenerational climate at their workplace had lower intention to retire early, but not greater intention to continue working beyond retirement age. I discuss the theoretical implications and the need for greater understanding of age as a diversity characteristic to support the design of interventions that meet the challenges of an ageing workforce

The three biggest workplace anxieties of 2023

The year 2023 has brought great anxieties to workers, with rising inflation and threats from artificial intelligence. What can leaders do to calm these anxieties and get the best out of their teams in 2024? Jazzy Jasiulek, Daniel Jolles, Nikita, and Grace Lordan asked over 1,400 professionals about their top anxieties and share how leaders can address them and create more resilient and productive teams in 2024

Too Old to Be a Diversity Hire. Choice Bundling Shown to Increase Gender-Diverse Hiring Decisions Fails to Increase Age Diversity

Past research has shown that people are more likely to make the decision to hire candidates whose gender would increase group diversity when making multiple hiring choices in a bundle (i.e., when selecting multiple team members simultaneously) compared to making choices in isolation (i.e., when selecting a single team member). However, it is unclear if this bundling effect extends to age diversity and the selection of older candidates, as older workers are often the target of socially acceptable negative stereotypes and bias in recruitment, leaving them unemployed for longer than their younger counterparts. Across five preregistered experiments (total N = 4,096), we tested if the positive effect of bundling on diversity of selections extends to older candidates in hiring decisions. We found evidence of bias against older job candidates in hiring decisions but found inconsistent effects of choice bundling on the selection of older candidates across experiments. An effect of bundling was found in two of five experiments, with no meta-analytic effect found across the five studies. Making older candidates more competitive and introducing a diversity statement aimed at increasing their selection both significantly increased older candidate selections, but failed to activate the bundling effect. We discuss the theoretical implications for choice bundling interventions and for age as a diversity characteristic to support the design of interventions that meet the challenges of an aging workforce

Who will I be when I retire? The role of organizational commitment, group memberships and retirement transition framing on older worker’s anticipated identity change in retirement

Retirement is an eagerly awaited life transition for many older workers, but some may anticipate their exit from the workforce will result in loss of meaningful work-based activities and social interactions. For older workers more committed to their organization, retirement might represent a threat to maintaining a consistent, positive identity. Across three pre-registered studies of US adults aged 49 to 75, we investigated the relationship between organizational commitment and anticipated identity changes in retirement. Studies 1 and 2 (N = 1059) found that older workers largely anticipated positive changes to their identity in retirement. In Study 2, we divided older workers into two conditions and used a framing manipulation to present retirement as either a ‘role exit’ or a ‘role entry’. In the ‘role exit’ condition, older workers less committed to their organization anticipated more positive changes when they held more group memberships compared to those with fewer group memberships. Those in the ‘role entry’ condition anticipated significantly more positive changes to their identity in retirement than those in the ‘role exit’ condition, but did not anticipate more positive changes based on organizational commitment or group memberships. More group memberships, but not lower organizational commitment, was associated with more positive anticipation of identity changes in retirement. Study 3 (N = 215) surveyed older adults after they had retired, finding that identity changes experienced post-retirement were less positive than those anticipated by older workers. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of these findings for older workers’ retirement decisions and wellbeing

Cultural and Linguistic Adaptation of a Multimedia Colorectal Cancer Screening Decision Aid for Spanish-Speaking Latinos

As the United States becomes more linguistically and culturally diverse, there is a need for effective health communication interventions that target diverse and most vulnerable populations. Latinos also have the lowest colorectal (CRC) screening rates of any ethnic group in the U.S. To address such disparities, health communication interventionists are often faced with the challenge to adapt existing interventions from English into Spanish in a way that retains essential elements of the original intervention while also addressing the linguistic needs and cultural perspectives of the target population. We describe the conceptual framework, context, rationale, methods, and findings of a formative research process used in creating a Spanish language version of an evidenced-based (English language) multimedia CRC screening decision aid. Our multi-step process included identification of essential elements of the existing intervention, literature review, assessment of the regional context and engagement of key stakeholders, and solicitation of direct input from target population. We integrated these findings in the creation of the new adapted intervention. We describe how we used this process to identify and integrate socio-cultural themes such as personalism (personalismo), familism (familismo), fear (miedo), embarrassment (verguenza), power distance (respeto), machismo, and trust (confianza) into the Spanish language decision aid