Walk into most boardrooms today and you’ll hear the same refrains about hiring: “We need fresh thinking.” “We’re looking for someone dynamic.” “We want digital-first talent.”
All valid. But quietly, beneath the surface of this language of “modernisation,” a subtler bias has been creeping back into the workplace, ageism. And according to recent data, it’s not just anecdotal; it’s on the rise.
A Growing, Often Overlooked Form of Discrimination
Ageism prejudice or discrimination based on age now tops the list of workplace bias complaints in the UK. Research from the Centre for Ageing Better shows that more British adults report experiencing age-based prejudice than any other protected characteristic.
A 2024 survey found that 37% of professionals in their 50s and 60s have felt age discrimination at work within the past year. And in recruitment, the numbers are equally stark: nearly half of UK recruiters reportedly view 57 as “too old” to hire.
Meanwhile, employment tribunals are seeing the effect. Age discrimination claim payouts have jumped by over 600% in a single year, suggesting both an increase in cases and a growing recognition that age bias carries financial and reputational risk for employers.
The irony? We’re living longer, working longer, and expected to retire later than ever before. The workforce has never been more multi-generational, yet opportunities for older professionals are quietly shrinking.
The Subtle Ways Ageism Shows Up
Unlike overt prejudice, ageism often hides behind coded language or assumptions that sound reasonable on the surface:
- “We’re looking for someone hungry to prove themselves.”
- “They might not fit our fast-paced culture.”
- “We need someone who lives and breathes digital.”
- “Would they really want to roll up their sleeves again?”
Each of these statements, consciously or not, can sideline experienced candidates. And it’s not just the over-50s who feel it. Younger employees, too, often face bias in reverse: assumptions about immaturity, job-hopping tendencies, or a lack of resilience.
But for older professionals, the cost of ageism is compounded by fewer opportunities for progression, reduced access to training, and a perception that their skills or energy levels have diminished.
In truth, the data tells a different story: older employees are more loyal, more productive over the long term, and often possess stronger problem-solving and relationship-management skills than their younger peers.
The Commercial Case for Experience
Beyond ethics or fairness, there’s a powerful business case for hiring experience over cost.
- Strategic depth and pattern recognition: Senior professionals bring decades of accumulated knowledge, the ability to recognise patterns, navigate ambiguity, and make judgment calls under pressure. In an age of AI, automation, and data overload, human judgment has never been more valuable.
- Cultural stability and mentorship: Experienced hires often become the anchors of an organisation, those who steady the ship during change. Their presence helps develop younger talent, sustain culture, and reduce churn.
- Client confidence: In service industries like marketing, consultancy, or B2B tech, clients often buy confidence as much as capability. Having leaders who can speak the language of C-suite stakeholders, anticipate pitfalls, and negotiate from experience is an asset that drives revenue not cost.
- Cost isn’t what it seems: Hiring a more seasoned professional might look expensive on paper, but turnover is the silent killer of productivity. Replacing an under-experienced or mis-hired manager can cost between 50% and 150% of their annual salary. Stability and strategic competence often prove cheaper in the long run.
- Diversity of thought: Organisations talk endlessly about diversity, yet often overlook age diversity, a key driver of creative thinking and balanced decision-making. Teams that blend generations are proven to make more resilient and innovative choices.
Why Age Bias Is Rising Again
If the evidence for experience is so clear, why are so many businesses unconsciously turning away from it?
A few key forces are at play:
- Tech transformation: The relentless pace of change in digital industries can make employers conflate “new” with “young,” despite the fact that adaptability has little to do with age.
- Economic caution: With tighter budgets and pressure to control salary costs, some organisations default to hiring “junior”, viewing experience as a luxury rather than an investment.
- Perception gap: Many leaders underestimate how age bias creeps into their language and processes from job descriptions using words like “energetic” and “digital native” to unconscious stereotypes about learning agility.
- Cultural fear: In some sectors, there’s a misplaced assumption that older professionals might struggle to “fit in” with a younger team or adopt new working norms. The reality is far more nuanced, adaptability is an attitude, not a birth year.
The Real Risk: Losing Institutional Memory
Perhaps the most under-discussed consequence of ageism is the erosion of institutional memory. As experienced leaders are edged out or overlooked, companies lose not just knowledge, but continuity, the hard-won insights into clients, markets, and internal dynamics that can’t be captured in a handover document.
Younger talent may bring energy, but when experience walks out the door, so too does much of the company’s strategic muscle. In sectors where relationship equity and judgment underpin growth, like B2B marketing, consultancy, and tech, that loss is commercially significant.
Building Age-Smart Leadership Pipelines
Forward-thinking organisations are already realising that age diversity equals business resilience.
They’re building multigenerational leadership pipelines, pairing emerging talent with seasoned mentors, investing in cross-generational learning, and designing inclusive hiring processes that value adaptability and results over years served.
For recruitment and leadership consultancies like Jefferson Locke, the role is twofold:
- To challenge clients when unconscious bias limits their candidate pool, and
- To advocate for the value of seasoned leadership, not as a cost to control, but as an engine of stability, foresight, and cultural strength.
A Closing Thought
The quiet rise of ageism may feel inevitable, a by-product of a fast-changing market, but it doesn’t have to be.
In reality, the most future-ready businesses are those that combine the wisdom of experience with the energy of innovation. They recognise that transformation isn’t driven by youth alone, but by teams who can bridge generations, translate change into strategy, and keep human judgment at the core of progress.
Because in business, as in life, experience still pays the best dividends.
