Work performance and the older worker Assignment

BUSINESS SHOULD
VALUE OLDER
EMPLOYEES THAN
YOUNGER ONES

NUMBER OF WORDS – 1250
ESSAY SUBMISSION DATE - 17th May, 2018

INTRODUCTION
The essay is going to argue that businesses needs to value older employees over younger
ones because they are more experienced, beneficial and reliable for the organisations. However,
in employment, wages are improved by older generation because of the wage disparity that can
exist in various age groups of the younger employees between the age of 22 to 28. The report
will provide arguments and counter arguments on both sides. Although, the argument is going to
the reason for which companies should value older workers between the age of 50 to 65 than
younger ones. It will explore that why employing the younger employees is much better than
retaining the older ones, as older workers have less potential to execute their roles as well as
responsibility as compared to young workers in context of technology. Along with it, the report
highlights the importances of keeping the older employees than younger ones and the younger
employees than older ones. Also, the advantage and disadvantage of both of them.
ESSAY
As per the view of Anitha (2015), an organisation should hire more old workers as they
have experience and they might contribute to the increase in productivity of firm. The author
also have stated that older employees are more productive as compared to younger workers.
However, it has been critiqued that, appointing the older workers lead to the discrimination at
workplace and further might give rise to ethical or legal issues. According to the opinion of Ertas
(2015), an older workers have knowledge and experiences which can be helpful in bringing
positive and drastic improvement at workplace. It has been argued that appointing the older
workers can give rise to the increase in grievances by younger employees. It can also lead to Job
insecurity and high level of dissatisfaction in young workers. According to the view of Kerr
(2015), older people have more potential to work for long time. The author also states that skills
as well as abilities of older workers are not declining as increase in age. He also stated that Smart
workers have knowledge about the techniques which can be applied in order to gain advantages
of change in their strengths. However, it has been argued that Lincoln (2015), older age workers
might face difficulty in performing some function which can have adverse effect on the routine
business activities. It has also been argued that speed of information processing information and
episodic memory declines with increase in age. According to the opinion of Zwick (2015), the
other functions such as speech, semantic memory and language which older people utilised for
performing their routine roles as well as responsibilities at workplace. Training is more prevalent

among the young workers, there is significant training amongst older workers. In addition to this,
older people, as they are experience can provide training to young workers and they can also
assist them in dealing with high level of stress. Older employees by providing training to young
people can support them in development of additional skills and core competencies.
According to the investigation conducted by scholar Branine (2017), result of which
reveals that older workers are more productive in terms of speed, working memory and episodic
memory as compared to younger people. However, as per critique younger people perform more
consistently as compared to older workers. According the survey conducted by author Glover
(2017), outcome of which reveals that Performance of the old workers are more stable and less
variable in context of routine activities as compared to younger employees. The author also
states that it is the experience which assist older employees in compensating for physical as well
as mental changes which is further accompanied by ageing. According to Aruna (2015), it has
been as the employees which are older are more likely to be off sick from work. Today, younger
employees are health conscious and they tend to take care of themselves. It keeps them fit and
the organisation in which they are working into work with the full potential. It is one of the best
opportunities for the organisation to achieve better employment and growth by hiring younger
employees. Although, younger employees are health conscious but they often fall sick due to
their partying lifestyles and patterns of sleep. They tend to drink and smoke more than older
people. As per the National institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, between 80 to 95
percent of alcoholic’s smoke cigarettes and 43% of the young people across the world smoke
tobacco. The explains that these people tend to get sick early and take more leaves than the older
people.
Older employees in the organisation are the individual who have been through very phase
of organisation regardless of changes in business environment and personal life of the
individuals. The individual is dedicated to work and are not reluctant to business and its
situations. Old employees of firm own experience and knowledge over internal and external
industrial changes which helps the management in managing systematic change alterations.
However, young employees in the organisation requires training and mentoring for adjusting and
learning over business. In accordance with this it can be said that company should prefer old
employees in firm instead to new employee because the individual have proved their loyalty and
came long way for the managing success of firm. Further, old employees are also responsible

individual who helps the management in providing training and mentoring to new people which
is necessary to maintain ethical and responsible environment in an organisation. As per the views
of Smedley, 2017, implication of legislation at workplace is to help employees to cope with
demographic change according to which it is important for the organisation to provide new ways
of working together. Employment laws helps the management in setting equal workplace
environment for younger and older employees to work across generations which helps in
establishing age inclusive culture. Virtually every human resource issue is related to the ageing
employment pool, which is must-have resource for anyone involved in human resources,
employment planning, training and development as it helps in establishing stable and continuous
learning environment at workplace.
As per the understanding of Sargeant (2016), younger employees are more dedicated to
the work and they also are better in team work, learning and development etc. They have all the
doors open for their new understandings and learning opportunities whereas older employees
tend to work as per the set of skills and knowledge they have acquired overtime. The
organisation tends to feel problems when older employees are not ready to do the team work and
are not able to learn new skills. The younger employees are more intelligent because they are
taught with skills which are new and required in the current scenario of the world. It explains that
the younger generation is more towards growth and success rather than just being focused in
their regular work routine. Along with it, they become intellectual from the scenari and
technology they have been brought up with. According to Zwick (2015), older employees tend to
have more knowledge as their experience of working and employment is huge. They do not need
to learn new skills because the skills which they hold is enough to take the organisation further
and achieve its set goals and objectives. Also, they might be not active in the physical team work
but they are more active in team work which requires intellectual abilities. It explains that older
employees are more capable than younger ones. Along with it, older employees tend to develop
the potential where they can work with a calm manner and with an equanimity for the
organisation. It can help the organisation to reach new level of development and achieve new set
of growth. Younger employees are better in physical abilities of performing team work but they
are not as intellectual as the older people. Also, older people are more experienced which allows
them to make use of better set of skills and knowledge in order to achieve set growth and
development for the organisation which they are a part of. Along with it, it tends to make the

organisation reach new level of success when it is having employees which are able to make
decisions fast and are capable of taking it's towards success because of their skills and
knowledge.
CONCLUSION
The argument explores the reason for which companies should value older workers than
younger ones. It concluded that employing the young employees is much better than retaining
the older ones, as older workers have less potential to execute their roles as well as responsibility
as compared to young workers in context of technology. In addition to this, other reason for not
retaining the older employees is that there are high chances that people or employees are prone to
sickness which can have negative effect on the routine activities of firm. But at the same time, it
can not be denied that older workers are more valuable, as they have depth knowledge as
compared to young people. Knowledge of the older people can be applied in order to drive an
organisation towards success. Also, it is concluded that there is a requirement to change the
negative perception of younger employees towards older workers for that the changes in
legislation are required to be done.

REFERENCES
Aruna, M. and Anitha, J., 2015. Employee retention enablers: Generation Y employees. SCMS
Journal of Indian Management. 12(3). p.94.
Ertas, N., 2015. Turnover intentions and work motivations of millennial employees in federal
service. Public Personnel Management. 44(3). pp.401-423.
Glover, I. and Branine, M. eds., 2017. Ageism in work and employment. Routledge.
Kerr, S. P., Kerr, W. R. and Lincoln, W. F., 2015. Skilled immigration and the employment
structures of US firms. Journal of Labor Economics. 33(S1). pp.S147-S186.
Sargeant, M., 2016. Age discrimination in employment. Routledge.
Zwick, T., 2015. Training older employees: what is effective?. International Journal of
Manpower. 36(2), pp.136-150.
Smedley, K., 2017. Age Matters: Employing, Motivating and Managing Older Employees.
Routledge.
Online
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 2019. [Online]. Available through;
<https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa39.htm/>
Older employees vs. Younger employees. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.testbig.com/pteacademic-essays/younger-employees-have-more-skills-
knowledge-and-more-motivated-older-employees-5/>
Older workers can be more reliable and productive than their younger counterparts. 2016.
[Online]. Available through: <https://www.recode.net/2016/10/18/12427494/old-aging-
high-tech/>
Evidences
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2019:
https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa39.htm
Older employees vs. Younger employees, 2019:
https://www.testbig.com/pteacademic-essays/younger-employees-have-more-skills-
knowledge-and-more-motivated-older-employees-5
Older workers can be more reliable and productive than their younger counterparts, 2016:
https://www.recode.net/2016/10/18/12427494/old-aging-high-tech