Too old at 45 - that's how picky HR managers are despite the shortage of workers

The labor shortage reached a new high in August. This is the result of a new calculation by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB). In times of a shortage of skilled workers, every qualified applicant is desperately needed - one might think so. But a new study paints a different picture: HR managers focus particularly on young workers.

Even applicants over the age of 45 sometimes feel unaddressed or even disadvantaged. WELT takes a look at the study results and explains what opportunities are increasingly being offered to older workers.

According to a survey by the IAB, 1.9 million jobs were unfilled in the second quarter of this year. In an emergency, you really aren't picky. But in view of the increasing shortage of workers, the need does not seem to be too great. Because more than a quarter of all interviewees from the HR department find candidates over 60 years of age generally too old for their company.

This is the result of a recent study that the job platform Indeed created together with the market research institute Appinio. According to this, 20 percent of HR managers still consider the over 55s to be too old. And at eight percent of the companies, those over 45 who are interested have no chance of being hired.

This is not without consequences, because older workers are aware of the selective search of companies. The study showed that the feeling of being disadvantaged in job applications increases with age. While 15 percent of employees over 45 very often feel disadvantaged because of their age, 21 percent of those over 55 share this impression.

The reason for this sometimes lies in the wording of the job advertisements. Because according to the study, 43 percent of HR managers state that they use phrases with "young" in their job advertisements (e.g. in: "we are looking for our young team..."). According to their own statements, 19 percent of the companies even use this term for every job advertisement.

More than two thirds of those surveyed over the age of 60 do not feel addressed by such job offers. However, HR managers do not only alienate older workers: significantly more than half of the 45 to 54 year olds do not refer to such job advertisements and feel excluded from them.

The cohort of older generations is more important for companies than it has been for a long time. On the labor market, employees between the ages of 50 and 65 currently form the largest group with 11.6 million employees.

Their importance is likely to grow for other reasons as well. In order to cushion the burden on social security and pension funds, there are repeated calls for a higher retirement age, as most recently in June by the President of the employers' association, Stefan Wolf.

Annina Hering, economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, considers the focus of many HR managers on young workers to be alarming: “I am shocked that 60 percent of HR managers have some form of age limit in their heads.” Age discrimination has no place in the labor market, she says Hering, after all, all employees should have the same opportunities.

Because of demographic change and the shortage of workers, it could no longer be justifiable for companies to differentiate based on age. The economist explains the focus of many HR managers, particularly on young candidates, primarily through a certain belief: Anyone who starts young in a company will remain in the workforce for a long time.

But in view of the current employee market, many HR managers are now experiencing that even long-standing employees are more frivolous in resigning than may have been the case in previous years.

Older employees have many years of professional experience and routine, but are perhaps less physically resilient. Apart from the extent to which the latter is of different importance depending on the industry, Hering does not think much of playing off the qualifications of the generations against each other: "The most competent teams are above all diverse teams."

"Diverse" in the sense of social background, gender, origin - but also age. It is therefore advisable for companies to bring young, old and middle-aged workers together and benefit from their different perspectives.

In the course of the labor shortage, a slight rethinking of companies can also be seen. According to the Indeed study, 14 percent of HR managers specifically target older workers in order to win them for their company. More than half of the companies even give older candidates a chance more often in the application process - for younger candidates it is only 44 percent.

Annina Hering observes that there has also been a rethink on another point: Many HR managers are no longer specifically looking for “the perfect candidate”, but for a suitable basic profile that can be adapted to their own requirements through further training.

Last but not least, the group of older workers in Germany will continue to grow over the next few years due to demographic change. Companies will therefore not be able to avoid changing the application processes in such a way that they actively win over this target group, says Holger Resack, founder and managing director of HR Recruiting Services.

The company advises companies across all sectors on how to optimize their recruiting processes. In addition to the often high level of expert knowledge and experience of older employees, Resack also emphasizes the importance of networks and contacts, which young employees are rarely able to bring with them in this breadth.

In order for employers to take advantage of mixed-age teams, companies should offer part-time models, tandem and support programs for older workers wherever possible. The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) already sets narrow limits when selecting applicants according to age groups.

According to Resack, it is now important for the company to make the wording in the job advertisements more open. If adjectives like "young" mean character traits like "open" and "adaptable", that's well meant. "However, if the majority of older candidates do not feel addressed by this, then that is not effective," says the recruiting consultant.

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