mployment policies that discriminate against older employees in several areas. First, in determining candidates that should undergo additional training, managers often pass over older employees. Viewing older employees as a depreciating asset that will not benefit as much from the training as younger employees, managers automatically exclude the former group solely on the criterion of age. Depriving older employees the opportunities to acquire and develop new skills has self-fulfilling ramifications. Older employees who are aware of their organizations' unfair training policy often become unmotivated in their workplace and resentful, thus affecting their productivity. By maintaining this type of training policy, companies can thus transform an experienced and productive employee into one who is bitter and unproductive.
Second, trainers who are hired to train older employees should be knowledgeable about the preferred learning styles and the facts of the aging process. Therefore, younger trainers should not impose their expectations of the learning process on older employees such as competitive approaches that are ineffective in helping them acquire knowledge. Rather, these trainers need to be flexible in adapting their instructional approaches to tap into the strengths of the older employees.
Third, employers should also adjust their employment policy on hiring and firing. Very often, employers will not hire older employees due to their age for various reasons. Employers believe that it is not worth their while to train employees who are close to retirement (compared to their younger counterparts) to perform the job. They also believe that it is not as easy to train these employees to perform the job, as with younger employees. Similarly, employers are also quick to fire older employees or persuade them to take early retirement in corporate downsizing and restructuring situations. In their decision-making process,...