Ageism is blocking older people in Australia from the workforce, according to survey findings by the Australian HR Institute and the Australian Human Rights Commission of HR professionals about attitudes to older workers.

The survey found one in six organisations will not consider hiring people aged 65 and above while only a quarter are open to hiring those aged 65 and above ‘to a large extent’. 

Over half, or 56%, of HR professionals say they are open to recruiting people aged 50-64 to ‘a large extent’ while 18% say either that they would be open to recruiting from the same age group ‘to a small extent’ or ‘not at all’. 

The research also showed that the age at which the HR community thinks being an older worker starts, has increased compared with the 2021 report.

Over a third (36%) of HR professionals believe that employees aged between 61 and 65 constitute the threshold for becoming an older worker, up from 28% in 2021, meaning the perception of this age group as older workers is stabilising. Meanwhile, more HR professionals consider the 66-70 years group as older workers than previous surveys, up to 23%. 

Consistent with the previous surveys, the four greatest advantages of hiring older workers are seen to be experience (85%), professional knowledge (71%), age diversity (41%) and reliability (25%).

The three greatest obstacles HR professionals say they face in recruiting older workers are a lack of applicants (32%), a perception that older workers lack the necessary tech skills (22%) and salary expectations that are too high (20%).

Australian HR Institute CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett describes these attitudes as ‘disappointing’ and says organisations are doing themselves a disservice by not considering older workers, particularly at a time when Australia is experiencing historically high levels of job vacancies. 

“ABS data shows there were 439,000 vacancies in February 2023 which is almost double the vacancies pre-pandemic, while two-thirds of HR professionals we surveyed say they are currently experiencing recruitment difficulties,” McCann-Bartlett said. “Our results show employment of older workers could help ease these shortages as there are too many workplaces where older workers are not being utilised to their full potential”.

The report also found that the reluctance by some HR professionals to recruit older workers contradicted the lived experience of employing them, with many reporting no difference between older and younger workers in terms of job performance, concentration, ability to adapt to change, energy levels and creativity. 

Respondents also recognised the advantages of older workers when it came to coping with stress, attendance, reliability, awareness, commitment and loyalty, while others highlighted younger workers’ physical capability, ambition and proficiency in using technology as positive attributes.