Globalisation is most commonly defined as the growing interdependency of the world’s economies, cultures and populations. This is often caused by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, investment, people and information. A big impact of globalisation has been many businesses moving to developing countries, starting with China and India but now branching out. This has had many impacts on the workforces of developing countries including potentially increased redundancy, but we want to focus on the consequences globalisation has and might have on age diversity in businesses and if it has an effect at all.

With businesses moving abroad to developing countries to exploit cheaper and younger workforces, this means that they have to let go of staff back in the origin country to keep costs low. Whilst this already has several drawbacks in general, it can also be the perfect foundation for age discrimination. Often, when a business needs to let go of labour, they will prioritise offering redundancies to older workers – following the mindset that it may be more “beneficial” to keep younger workers because of unfair stereotypes. Furthermore, it is important to consider that with businesses moving abroad, they may take some of their current UK labour with them. This is more likely to be the younger workers who may not have families or responsibilities that tie them to the UK.

“multi-generation workforces are the strongest workforces”

Another way this can occur is through improvements in technology brought about by globalisation. AI is an ever-looming threat to the workforce as it develops and becomes more and more able to replace humanity in tasks. Again, stereotypes may play a part in this with a perception that younger workers are more “tech-savvy” and therefore have a higher likelihood of keeping their jobs as they will be able to work alongside the technology more seamlessly. It also depends on the roles technology and AI may be put into. Businesses are likely to move a lot of their manufacturing to developing countries which means that those jobs are lost to the developing countries. This leaves “higher-skilled” work. Roles surrounding Finance and HR are more likely to be kept in the developed country and the main office. Finance is seen as a young industry so stereotypes would play into that. However, HR has seen an increase in technology being used. This presents many issues that we have touched upon in previous editorials and also means that older generations are more likely to lose their jobs in those roles.

Another way in which globalisation may affect age diversity is through increased immigration. The majority of migrants coming into the country to work are much younger people, trying to grasp the opportunities that a developed country may offer them that their home country may not. This increases the number of younger workers in the potential pool. These migrants come in two forms, those with higher educations and those who don’t. Either way, this can cause struggles for the UK workforce, with graduates struggling to find jobs post-university and older generations struggling to feel secure in their positions or trying to re-enter the workplace, this increase can mean that it is even harder to find a career. It is important to note the benefits of other forms of diversity such as ethnicity, however, the number of young migrants is much higher than older migrants (diagram). This therefore leads to a disproportionate amount of young people in the pool of workers.

But why is this such a concern? As we have mentioned previously, multi-generation workforces are the strongest workforces to have because of the mix of experience from older generations and also the fresh, ready to learn attitudes of their younger counterparts. Furthermore, the older generations bring their ideas from past experience whilst younger generations (in particular graduates) bring their ideas primarily from what they have learnt in their studies – this leads to more depth in decision making. With a multi-generational workforce, you’d also have a wider understanding of different types of consumers. To have a well-rounded multigenerational group of workers, you need sufficient diversity in ages including both older and younger generations. With more young workers entering the workplace or AI potentially replacing human labour and older generations at the highest risk of being let go, it means that businesses may continue to lean more into having younger workforces.

Is there any way globalisation that can help improve age diversity? In terms of older generations, it is unlikely. However, in the developed world, the populations are ageing due to changing expectations in society. Women are choosing to prioritise their careers and people are having fewer children, causing there to be a lower birth rate. This following the post-war baby boom means that the UK has a large portion of 50-60 year olds. In developing countries, such as in Africa, there are far more children and young adults. Migration will and does play a massive part in potentially diversifying developed countries’ populations from an age perspective, mainly through increasing the number of young people and slowly bringing the average age down. Whilst this helps in terms of general society, as we have spent the last few paragraphs discussing, it does not lead to improvements in age diversity for businesses.

To conclude, globalisation does not offer itself useful to increasing age diversity within businesses. However, much of it has to do with businesses’ perception of workers and the long-held stereotypes that younger workers are more useful to keep. With the movements of offices, an increase in technology and immigration into developed countries, it can be argued that globalisation can be seen as a young person’s game. What can be done to try and encourage the merit to keep older workers in the face of AI and cheaper labour from the developing world? Is there any way to encourage older migrants?

 

Sonya Knight | ADF Comms Team

Read our previous editorial here

To respond and/or for more information, please contact the ADF Comms Team at: [email protected]