Toolkit: Hiring a Multi-Generational Workforce
According to the AARP Global Employer Survey 2020, over 80% of employers believe that creating a more multigenerational workforce would drive their success and growth. In fact, these executives highlight age as a top area of workforce management that requires the most improvement. Yet despite executives’ good intentions, a recent UC Irvine study found that qualified older applicants are extended 40% fewer offers than their younger counterparts after in-person interviews.
This creates a major opportunity for employers who pursue a key business strategy to unleash the potential of a multigenerational workforce. Hiring an age-diverse team is the first step in this strategy, so this toolkit is packed with resources to help your organization adopt best practices.
1. Explore Our Comprehensive Hiring Guide
This comprehensive guide has what you need to create a more age-friendly hiring practice. You can share it broadly throughout your organization.
Actions To Consider
Whether you are a recruiter or a hiring manager you can use this guide to build teams with employees across a range of ages and career phases. Full of practical resources as well as data to help you make your case, this guide walks you through each step in the hiring process through the lens of generational inclusivity.
From sourcing to onboarding, use this guide for an age-inclusive hiring process with customizable templates and team activities.
Throughout the Hiring Guide we’ve included exercises based on best practices to help you increase your awareness of the potential for ageism at all stages of the hiring process. The full set makes it easy to engage your team when you host a dedicated training session.
These exercises, which you can do alone or with your team, help you recognize and prevent age bias in the hiring process.
No need to recreate the wheel! These editable templates map out key steps in the hiring process. All you need to add are the job description for the role you’re hiring, the key skills/areas of acumen needed to succeed in the role and the interview questions you’ll use.
The best practices embedded in these editable templates help reduce age bias, but also are likely to reduce other forms of bias.
2. Bring It to Your Team
AARP’s free resources make it easy to train your talent acquisition team and all team members involved throughout the hiring process.
Actions To Consider
This 1.5 hour workshop is designed to prepare HR team members to then lead 1 hour trainings for all employees involved in the talent acquisition efforts of the organization, including hiring managers and interviewers. It translates research-backed best practices to hands-on activities for all members of a hiring team to play with during the workshop, then apply in their daily work when recruiting and hiring new employees.
All HR team members working in talent acquisition
Leader of talent acquisition team
Free
3 hrs planning, 1.5 hrs hosting
Steps and Resources
-
01DRAFT PROPOSAL
Secure approval to offer this workshop using this draft proposal
View -
02SLIDE DECK
Facilitate the workshop for your talent acquisition team using this slide deck, which is based on AARP’s Say This, Not That: A Manager’s Guide to Age Inclusive Hiring. You can print worksheets from the guide for your team’s use during the workshop (or to integrate into your other work).
View -
03MARKETING ASSETS
Now that your talent acquisition team members are prepared to facilitate the workshop with employees, ask them to lead the workshop for all hiring managers they support. To get the invitations out, use these marketing assets
View -
04SURVEY
At the end of the workshops, ask participants to fill out this sample survey
View -
05DRAFT EMAIL
Follow up with participants after the workshop using this draft email
View -
06DRAFT EMAIL
Update the leader(s) who approved the workshop using this draft email to highlight wins and learnings from the completed workshop.
View -
07SURVEY
Help AARP improve the workshop resources by completing this short survey.
View
Request an AARP guest expert to join your Talent Acquisition team and/or hiring managers to deliver a free, live, virtual workshop on Hiring a Multigenerational Workforce. Fill out this form and we will get back to you.
Resources
1. Explore Our Comprehensive Hiring Guide
From sourcing to onboarding, use this guide for an age-inclusive hiring process with customizable templates and team activities.
These exercises, which you can do alone or with your team, help you recognize and prevent age bias in the hiring process.
The best practices embedded in these editable templates help reduce age bias, but also are likely to reduce other forms of bias.
2. Bring It to Your Team
Use this draft proposal to secure approval to offer the Age Inclusive Hiring workshop in your organization.
Facilitate the Age Inclusive Hiring workshop for your talent acquisition team using this slide deck.
Once your talent acquisition team members are prepared to facilitate the workshop, use this to invite hiring managers to join.
At the conclusion of your workshop, please invite employees who joined the workshop to complete this brief participant survey.
After hosting the Age Inclusive Hiring workshop, be sure to follow up with participants after the workshop using this draft email
Update the leaders who approved the workshop using this draft email to highlight wins and learnings from the completed workshop.
After you have hosted a workshop, help AARP improve the workshop resources by completing this short survey.
If you have any questions about how to use these resources or want to share a story about how your organization uses them, reach out to us at employerpledge@aarp.org.