Half of Australian IT professionals believe age discrimination exists in the IT industry, according to research by IT recruitment firm Greythorn, a ManpowerGroup company. That figure rises significantly for respondents over the age of 50.

The survey begs the questions, is age the real elephant in the room when it comes to discrimination? It appears the extent of the bias against mature workers is widespread. Almost two-thirds (61%) of respondents believe that they had either personally been discriminated against due to their age or knew someone who had experienced age discrimination.

The majority (80%) of those over the age of 50 respondents that they or someone they knew had suffered discrimination on the basis of age.

Unfortunately research shows that age discrimination starts early.

Equality Opportunity Commissioner Kate Jenkins stated in 2014: “Age discrimination starts from about 45 and is pretty systemic and accepted.”

Respondents commented that the rapidly changing digital age requires IT workers with a different skill set than those who were born pre-1980. Those who were born before this time are seen to be out of touch with modern technology, particularly when it comes to the advances of the last five years. Whether this is true or not, the perception exists.

When respondents were asked if their company had adopted practices to discourage age discrimination, only 16% stated yes.

Richard Fischer, Managing Director of Greythorn Australia, commented: “Australia is set to embark on its biggest structural change in decades with the slowdown from a mining-based boom to a more services-based growth economy. Currently there is a real lack of skilled workers in modern technology, in particular security, mobility, data analytics and cloud based software.”

“Unless significant retraining is undertaken, IT projects will struggle. With this in mind, Australian businesses would be wise to consider mature workers for upskilling or risk project failures due to a lack of available candidates.”

Respondents were asked what the industry can do to change the status-quo of perception towards older workers. Overwhelmingly the results showed a shift in culture is needed in addition to further training and upskilling.

Companies are missing out on the wealth of experience mature workers can bring. The benefits of hiring mature workers are well documented – older workers are five times less likely to change jobs compared with workers aged 20-24, reducing recruitment and training costs (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2015), and have lower rates of absenteeism (NSW Government, 2015).

With Australians now living longer than ever before, it is predicted that there will be 40,000 people aged over 100 by 2055 (NSW Government, 2015). This figure points to a significant ageing workforce, with a substantial amount of the population still working when aged over 50. Unless companies address this situation with the same level of commitment as gender discrimination, review their hiring processes and instigate age-positive changes to their culture, the IT industry looks set to bear the cost.