Rampant ageism robbing ICT sector of talent: Computer Society

A new report from ICT union the Australian Computer Society has slammed the ICT industry and recruitment companies for widespread age discrimination, and called for a voluntary code to tackle the issue.

The Improving Age Diversity in the ICT Workforce report was produced by the Society's Ageism Task Force, with assistance from ITCRA, the Australian Industry Group, Monash University and others.

The Task Force was established on the back of successive ACS surveys that showed the vast majority of unemployed ICT professionals were aged 45 or over.

The report noted with irony that "employers have reported considerable difficulty in recruiting appropriately skilled ICT professionals during a time when mid-career and older ICT professionals have reported increased difficulty in obtaining employment".

While ageism existed in many industries, the report said, it was "particularly rampant" in ICT.

"Evidence suggests that industry [in general] considers the prime working age to be those between 25 to 45, although within the ICT sector, some reports put it at an even narrower band width of 25 to 35."

Recruiters, employers finding excuses not to hire older workers

Recruitment processes were frequently tailored to filter in younger candidates, and filter out older ones, the report said.

"Job advert wording and required personal characteristics are often used to convey an age expectation for applicants, with specific phrases and words used to target particular age groups."

The report said ICT employers and recruiters often justified not placing older workers because of the belief that their existing skills were obsolete, due to the rapidly changing IT landscape.

"However, the 'lack of skills' issue appears to be largely a red herring. The reality is that a competent, skilled ICT professional can learn on the job and rapidly become productive in the use of any new software or hardware technology within a relatively short time period," it said.

Even when older ICT staff took it upon themselves to undergo professional development and keep their skills updated, they were still regularly turned down for jobs.

"There appears to be a clear preference for hiring cheaper less experienced workers over more experienced, more expensive (and older) workers."

The report added that older ICT staff were more likely than others to be in part-time or short-term contract roles, and there was a belief that this was what they preferred.

Many organisations touted these sorts of roles as part of their commitment to flexible work, the report said, when in reality older workers often took such roles "because they need to remain in employment for financial reasons and have few options in the roles available to them".

Federal government solutions "hollow"

The report said the recent Intergenerational Report on skills and ageing, from the federal Treasury, simplified the issue and portrayed older people as "a fiscal burden".

"[The report's] call for greater participation of older workers... appears more motivated by a desire to cut government costs rather than any genuine concern for the specific employment needs of older workers and the problems they experience in gaining meaningful employment."

The ACS report went on to say that federal government policy and programs like the Productive Ageing Package were "largely hollow", since they didn't address the causes of age discrimination.

"These programs encourage participation and provide training when in reality there is simply little or no hope of obtaining meaningful employment because of prevailing negative attitudes towards older workers."

Recommendations for recruitment

The report recommended that ICT employers and IT recruitment companies re-evaluate their policies on recruitment to ensure that, in practice, they did not discourage or filter out older candidates. Companies should:

• signal in recruitment ads that people from all backgrounds and ages were welcome to apply;
• review job ads for language that could be interpreted as being age-specific;
• ensure an open and transparent recruitment process;
• be aware of a mismatch between the formal selection criteria and the day-to-day job content;
• establish an age-diverse interview panel;
• conduct periodic recruitment agency audits – request a list of all applicants who applied for a position and a summary of each candidate, whether their resume was forwarded, and why or why not.

The report also recommended that the ICT industry and the specialist IT recruitment sector should form a task force to address ageism in IT.

IT employers and recruiters should also develop a self-regulatory code of practice on age discrimination, it said, "and an ethical statement on addressing ageism and improving age diversity and transparency in recruitment processes".

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