The pandemic has exacerbated the impact of age bias, according to Paul Irving, chairman at the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging. “Older workers have had the experience of being reemployed later than others, and oftentimes, not successfully being reemployed at all.”
WorkingNation sat down with Irving at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2021 in Beverly Hills as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard interview series. With Charting a New Course as the guiding theme, thought leaders and innovators shared ideas about the changing economy, worker development, education, tech, philanthropy, and more.
“We have a real issue to tackle. AARP has some very recent data that suggests that the ageism—anti-older age bias—was really at its highest levels in something like 20 years,” says Irving. “At the same time, we know that that older people want to work longer in general, need to work longer, both for financial reasons and for reasons of challenge and ongoing stimulus. We know that they need to be able to have flexible work lives and employers just are not responding quickly enough to those needs.”
Irving says that the idea that older people are unable to learn new skills is unfounded. He notes that employers should be willing to invest in continued learning for the older workforce, not just young employees. Additionally, with lower birth rates and increased longevity, Irving says the multigenerational workforce is “a beautiful thing.”
“I think any advanced employer, any employer thinking about competitiveness as the century progresses, has got to think about the potential of combining young people and older people,” says Irving.
“It gives us the opportunity to capitalize on the skills, talents, and attributes of people of all ages – the combination of the risk-taking characteristics, creativity, and innovative thinking of young people and the wisdom, judgment, experience, the ability to navigate complex business environments, understanding the possibilities of multi-sectoral problem solving that really only comes with the wisdom of age.”
He says as people move through life, it’s important that they are contributing to their financial wellness. “Ensuring that older adults, and frankly, just as important, young people preparing for older age are in reasonably good shape financially.”
Irving says age is a universal denominator. “The fascinating thing about conversations – unlike race, gender, religion, or political affiliation – aging is the thing that we all share. We all have in common.”
Click here to learn more about Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.