Baby boomers fear Wanted: Staff for immediate start age discrimination
Almost three-quarters of New Zealand and Australian baby boomers report being discriminated against in job interviews, according to a survey by recruitment firm Robert Walters.
That was despite the survey uncovering remarkably similar attitudes to work and new technology across the generations.
The survey of 1500 workers was carried out last month, at about the same time the Government unveiled plans to raise the superannuation age to 67 by 2040.
The superannuation change will rely on acceptance by employers and co-workers of older people remaining at work for longer.
Robert Walters New Zealand country manager Shay Peters said employers were soon likely to find themselves managing a workforce whose ages ranged across ‘‘six or more decades’’.
Most age discrimination was likely to occur before candidates got interviews and was hard to identify and prove, he said.
That meant the survey finding that 74 per cent of boomers reported facing discrimination at interviews should probably not be taken literally.
Rather, it was more likely to reflect their general suspicions about discrimination during the overall recruitment process, he said. ‘‘The perception of being discriminated against starts with whether they get a job interview or not.’’
Although it was tough to tell when discrimination was at play, he believed it was not as widespread as boomers suspected.
‘‘Would 74 per cent of recruitment processes have been skewed because of age? Absolutely not.’’
The ‘‘very encouraging’’ finding was that attitudes to technology Prefer to try new ways of working: I couldn’t function without technology: and collaborative working were almost identical across the generations, he said.
‘‘Younger workers and older workers share more in common in terms of working styles and career aspirations than previously thought.’’
All were more motivated by meaningful work than money.
Eighty-four per cent of boomers said they preferred to try new ways of working over ‘‘tried and trusted methods’’, versus 81 per cent of those in Generation Y.
Sixty-six per cent said they preferred collaborative working, versus 60 per cent of Gen Ys.
Boomers were defined as people born between 1946 and 1964, and Gen Ys as those born between 1980 and 1994.
The ‘‘bygone’’ stereotype of older workers waiting for a pension cheque was a false one, especially given the prospect of the superannuation age rising, Peters said.
‘‘What we are seeing from the data is people from the baby boomer generation are just as keen to seek development and to add value to businesses as any other generation.’’
One option for older workers who were worried they had hit a brick wall was to consider contracting.
But even in permanent roles, employers were increasingly open to taking people with a ‘‘two- to three-year mindset’’, he said.
‘‘That could fit in very well for a baby boomer.’’
About a third of Gen Y and Gen Xers also felt they had been discriminated against, but in the former case that was more likely because of youth.
While Robert Walters was unable to break out the New Zealand responses from the Australian ones, Peters said there was no reason to think the responses would have been different. OPINION: In the next week or so we should know how popular the latest scheme to attract people with special skills to Wellington has been. That’s when sorting begins on applications for the Edmund Hillary Fellowship.
It’s a programme that offers 100 foreign innovators a platform to incubate global impact ventures and contribute to our innovation scene. At last count it had received 500 expressions of interest from 87 countries.
Three weeks later, 100 successful applicants arrive on ratepayer-funded air tickets as part of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency’s LookSee scheme, which matches overseas IT professionals with employers. It attracted more than 48,000 applicants.
These are examples of the drive to fill jobs and boost the knowledge base that we can’t from our resources alone.
Though Wellington is producing more graduates with IT and other skills than ever, it takes time to create the experience our fast-growing companies need.
The Wellington ICT Graduate School is up and running and set to produce the most graduates of any centre in New Zealand this year – more than 50 – and many already have internships and placements. The need is greater than the supply.
It’s the same with skills across other industries. When the Government said it was stiffening immigration criteria, some said that businesses could fail, dairying in the South Island would collapse, and the Christchurch rebuild could grind to a halt.
Though that’s a little over the top, it does indicate how much our economy relies on immigration.
The other side of the argument says the record number of migrants is why there is huge
‘‘The perception of being discriminated against starts with whether they get a job interview or not.’’ Shay Peters, Robert Walters NZ New Zealand has had a skills shortage for decades. Some of it’s because our education system hasn’t produced enough people with the right attitude.
pressure on housing and infrastructure, and why wages for unskilled workers remain low.
The latest statistics show that in the March year, 71,900 more people arrived than left.
Of the arrivals, 31,995 were Kiwis, 6124 were Australians, 23,900 were on student visas, 16,800 were on residence visas, and 43,700 were on work visas.
It seems a lot, but if we’re letting too many in, where would we make the cuts that many want (but won’t specify)?
We can’t stop the Kiwis and Aussies. We could turn off student visas, but in 2015-16 they brought in $4 billion (our fourth-biggest export earner) and supported 32,000 jobs. So that can’t happen.
That leaves residence visas and work visas.
Residence visas are not the easy pickings some believe. They are designed to entice entrepreneurs, investors, and those with special talents, and to retain those on the long-term skill shortage list.
Some are part of the Samoan quota, while others are dependents of people we need to keep.
That leaves work visas. New Zealand has had a skills shortage in various sectors for decades.
Some of it’s because our education system, for whatever reason, hasn’t produced enough people with the right skills or the right attitude. Some is because people won’t move to where the jobs are.
We certainly have enough people: more than 60,000 between the ages of 15 and 25 are unemployed, as are a further 38,000 under 40. All the while vacancies rise and Wellington businesses tell us it’s harder to find good staff.
As long as we are short of workers with the right skills then we have no option but to look to immigrants and rely on schemes such as the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and LookSee.
We need to keep a close eye on immigration numbers, but we need to keep in mind the skills the economy needs.
It’s a matter of getting the balance right because we can’t afford for our businesses to have uncertainty about access to skills.
Being able to hire someone who can walk in and start immediately is essential for business to maintain momentum, and that’s good for the economy.
John Milford is the chief executive of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.