Age discrimination

AGE DIVERSITY IN EMPLOYMENT
Name
Institution

Age Diversity in Employment
Various positive and negative changes usually occur in employment relationships as the population ages among increased work efficiency and output, but the vice versa is also true. Older employees are usually knowledgeable and possess higher experience in their areas of expertise.
As the population ages, there is a higher probability of loss of experience and potential as new unskilled workers will be recruited again. In case a company needs to change or fire the older employees then they should be given a chance to mentor and train the new generations. The productivity of companies and small business may go down as a result of an aging population. The work efficiency of the employees tends to decrease with age and once the younger generations come into play higher productivity will be achieved. Trying to discriminate an employee due to aging is against the federal law among most of the states (Kunze et al. 2013). Employees may seek legal redress against the company they are offering their services, and these will lead to loss of cash and time that would have otherwise be used for the betterment of the company. Workers may seek employment in other areas when they suspect that employee turnover is about to take place considering that their age has increased beyond the normal productive age (Dikkers et al. 2013).
The management of people of different ages is much complicated as compared to managing individuals of a similar age.

There exists better upward and downward communication between employees with homogenous ages because they are likely to share the same experience, and a particular set of symbols. More problem-solving skills and experience is needed in age heterogeneity because the employees will be needed to work in unison to accomplish a particular task (Backes‐Gellner & Veen, 2013). There will be more pronounced challenges in age heterogeneity due to rise in the rate of employee turnover. Absenteeism will also be a major challenge, and the productivity of the company in question will be compromised, and Cost of production will be exorbitant. Conflict is also another challenge because the older employees will always belittle the younger ones, and also they value things differently.
The differences related to age discrimination can be solved in a number of ways in an organization and these calls for excellent managerial skills. The employees with different ages will tend to have good customer service as they will serve clients across all the ages. An age diverse employee set up will show different values, preferences, and experiences. Similarly, these age diverse workforce will offer different strategies to solve different problems and hence the employer, and employee relationship will not be compromised (Boehm et al. 2014). The dominance of one age group is counteracted where we experience heterogenic workforce. Coordination among the age homozygous workforce is usually poor, and this negatively affects the promotion of the workers by the employers.

References
Backes‐Gellner, U., & Veen, S. (2013). Positive effects of aging and age diversity in innovative companies–large‐scale empirical evidence on company productivity. Human Resource Management Journal, 23(3), 279-295.
Boehm, S. A., Kunze, F., & Bruch, H. (2014). Spotlight on age‐diversity climate: The impact of age‐inclusive HR practices on firm‐level outcomes. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), 667-704.
Kooij, D. T., Guest, D. E., Clinton, M., Knight, T., Jansen, P. G., & Dikkers, J. S. (2013). How the impact of HR practices on employee well‐being and performance changes with age. Human Resource Management Journal, 23(1), 18-35.
Kunze, F., Boehm, S., & Bruch, H. (2013). Organizational performance consequences of age diversity: Inspecting the role of diversity‐friendly HR policies and top managers’ negative age stereotypes. Journal of Management Studies, 50(3), 413-442.