Am I Too Old for This? Age-based Stereotypes & Older Job-Seekers

Abstract

Older people will continue to comprise a substantial, growing portion of the professional workforce. Organizations’ capacity to attract and acquire the best talent will drive the success of companies in their strategic staffing practices. Evidence indicates age-based stereotypes, the stereotypes about older workers, factor into organizational decision-makers’ evaluations of candidates, often to the detriment of older employees. But recruitment and selection are each two-party processes, involving the company and the applicant. The current research approaches recruitment and selection from older workers’ perspectives and it uses two studies to explore how age-based stereotypes may pose boundaries to older workers’ chances at successfully acquiring the jobs for which they are qualified. In the first study, we demonstrate the extent to which actual recruitment messages contain age-based stereotypic content, especially related to the worker traits and job tasks involving technology and virtual work characteristics. Study 2 provides support that age-based stereotype threat can affect older job applicants encountering hiring tests. Together, our results pose implications for staffing practices in light of the future of work—where (a) older workers will comprise a larger portion of the talent pools organizations rely upon and (b) work demands and requirements increasingly involve technology and virtual factors.