• Workforces in the developed world are rapidly ageing.
• Older workers gain a boost in motivation when younger workers seek knowledge from them, but are the same benefits from collaboration seen when roles are reversed?
• And what can we do to make sure older workers remain employable in the face of a continuing onslaught of technological advance?

 Motivational interactions

Countries around the world are experiencing the beginnings of demographic shifts caused by an ageing population. For the first time in recorded history, there are now more elderly people than young children on the planet. The UN estimates that by 2050, one in six people will be over the age of 65, up from one in 11 in 2019.

As populations age, so do workforces, leading to increased age diversity in the workplace. Even as workers get older, many like to stay in work for a sense of purpose and for social interaction.

Older workers gain a boost in motivation when younger workers seek knowledge from them, a study from the University of Cologne has found. How can this information about collaboration be utilised to help workplaces adapt in the face of increasingly agèd workforces?

What does this mean for work?

As populations age, governments are legislating against ageist hiring practices, to ensure that the workforce is not denuded in the future. In Europe, new anti-ageist discrimination laws are being rolled out, making it illegal for employers to not hire, promote, and train people due to their age. With the abolition of a retirement age in the UK, it will become costly to fire an employee because of their age.

The new laws are needed as employers are traditionally wary of hiring older workers, despite their evident experience. With demographic trends meaning that workforces are ageing, and technological change ever swifter, companies will need to figure out ways to forge meaningful intergenerational collaboration.

There needs to be an exchange of skills and information regardless of age. When the experience of an older worker meets the tech-savviness of a younger co-worker, collaboration between older and younger employees can work techno-magical wonders.

Intergenerational exchange, all good?

When younger workers seek out information or training from an older co-worker, the older worker’s motivation gains a significant boost, found Professor Anne Burmeister at the University of Cologne. The study, published in the Journal of Organisational Behaviour, investigated the positive and negative effects of workers over 45 seeking knowledge from their younger co-workers. Knowledge seeking from younger co-workers contributes to older workers’ motivation to continue working, the study found, because it provides an important opportunity to offer value.

The study also investigated the consequences of older employees seeking knowledge from younger co-workers, something which, as we have seen, is more necessary now than ever. It found that knowledge-seeking from younger co-workers could leave older workers feeling shame and embarrassment. This is because societal norms dictate that the older workers should be knowledge providers. With quantum-quick technological advances a norm now, this simply is no longer true, and attitudes need to change.

The study found that if an older worker appreciated intergenerational interactions and thought of them as pleasant and useful, then the negative feelings associated with seeking knowledge from younger, more inexperienced co-workers were significantly lessened. In this case, the exchange led to higher motivation and workability.

“Old dogs can learn new tricks—in fact, older workers are more motivated at work when they can learn something new from their younger co-workers,” says Professor Burmeister.

Trading knowledge

Knowledge exchange between younger and older employees is essential to make sure that the benefits of age-diverse workforces are optimised.

One company implementing a culture of ‘continuous learning’ is the US telecoms megacorp AT&T, which offers courses to upskill employees on such subjects as virtual technologies and data, with employees earning nattily titled ‘nanodegrees.’ In doing so, AT&T is answering a very “modern corporate problem: what do employers do when the skills they once needed in their workforce become obsolete?”

If companies encourage cultures of lifelong learning, then older employees are more likely to find intergenerational interactions fulfilling and satisfying, leading them to seek them out more often.

“Creating opportunities for high-quality contact between employees of different age groups, allowing them to get to know each other and discover similarities can facilitate the development of higher levels of intergenerational affect,” says Professor Burmeister.

This is of great import. McKinsey has estimated that more than 70m workers globally may need to switch jobs by 2030 due to automation. By continuously learning new skills, older employees make themselves more resilient to shocks in the economy and lessen their need to job-hop or face redundancy.

This attitude is a double-edged sword, though. Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Alliance Manchester Business School, says in the FT, “Thirty years ago the psychological contract was if you [work hard] for us we’ll give you career development. Now the contract is that we expect you to be committed…?but we cannot guarantee future employment.” Older workers may take umbrage at corporate reneging on a good professional contact and resent corporate thieving of their time.

Manifesting motivation

There are signs that the world of work is changing and is getting used to an ageing workforce. Mental ability and agility do not start to decrease until late in life. In their sixties, a person only experiences very slight impairment to brain function and ability, and the ability to solve complex problems and a person’s productivity does not dip.

The invaluable experience older workers offer is being recognised. Some companies are adjusting their working hours and offering more holiday leave to older workers. This helping to fix the UK’s labour shortage. Some have found that multigenerational teams help to create a “stable, calm environment”. Research suggests that “mixed-age teams may outperform both exclusively young and exclusively old groups, making the bottom-line case for age diversity”.

While younger employees might take to IT training more quickly than the older, older employees can “process information and apply new technologies to workplace tasks in ways that younger people are not yet able to.”

Cutting back on cringe

Looking forward, there needs to be a broad and continuing shift in corporate culture to reduce embarrassment in order to promote intergenerational collaboration. The shift in attitudes should reflect the earthquake in the very tec(h)tonics of the workplace.

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