Age Diversity in the Workplace: Facilitating Opportunities With Organizational Practices

Like most developed economies, the United States has been and is currently experiencing a major change in age composition. Data released by the United States Census Bureau indicate that older adults (aged 65 and older) represented 12.4% of the total population in the year 2005. That percentage increased to 16.4% in 2019, and it was projected to reach 21.4% in 2035 (United States Census Bureau, n.d.). Such a trend is clearly reflected in increasing workplace age diversity (i.e., a wider distribution of differences with respect to age among workers at the same workplace; Wang, Olson, & Shultz, 2013; Wegge & Meyer, 2020). Given the growing coexistence of multiple generations in workplaces, it is imperative to understand how organizations can maximize the benefits that can be derived. Drawing from research in human resource management and organizational science, we show five types of organizational practices (age-inclusive management, peer mentoring, participative decision-making, ensuring job security, and training to counter age-related stereotypes, with APPET as the acronym) that are most relevant to facilitating opportunities associated with age diversity. Depending on an organization's functional diversity and business strategies, one or a combination of these practices can be implemented, and a balanced configuration of these practices will be more efficient than intensive implementation of a single practice.