Business Strategy: Prioritizing Older Employees Over Younger Staff

This essay presents an argument for why businesses should value older employees more than younger ones, emphasizing their experience, reliability, and potential for increased productivity. The essay uses a structure with arguments, counter-arguments, rebuttals, and evidence, drawing on sources to support its claims. It explores the benefits of older workers in terms of knowledge and experience, while also acknowledging counterarguments regarding potential challenges. The conclusion summarizes the key points and reiterates the importance of valuing older employees, while also mentioning the need to change negative perceptions of younger employees towards older workers. The essay uses sources like journal articles and online publications to support its claims. The essay concludes that while younger employees have their advantages, the knowledge and experience of older employees are crucial for organizational success.

BUSINESS SHOULD
VALUE OLDER
EMPLOYEES THAN
YOUNGER ONES

Table of Contents
THESIS STATEMENT...................................................................................................................3
Argument: 1................................................................................................................................3
Counter-Argument: 1..................................................................................................................3
Rebuttal: 1...................................................................................................................................3
Evidence 1...................................................................................................................................4
Argument: 2................................................................................................................................4
Counter Argument: 2...................................................................................................................4
Rebuttal: 2...................................................................................................................................4
Evidence: 2..................................................................................................................................5
Argument: 3................................................................................................................................5
Counter Argument: 3...................................................................................................................5
Rebuttal: 3...................................................................................................................................5
Evidence: 3..................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

THESIS STATEMENT
THESIS STATEMENT: 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.
Argument: 1
ARGUMENT: 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. However, other authors
argues 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.
Counter-Argument: 1
COUNTER-ARGUMENT: 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.

Rebuttal: 1
REBUTTAL: 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.
Evidence 1
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: 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
Argument: 2
ARGUMENT: 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.
Counter Argument: 2
COUNTER-ARGUMENT: 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.
Rebuttal: 2
REBUTTAL: 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 alcoholics 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.
Evidence: 2
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2019:
https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa39.htm
Argument: 3
ARGUMENT: 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.
Counter Argument: 3
COUNTER-ARGUMENT: 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.
Rebuttal: 3
REBUTTAL: 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.
Evidence: 3
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: Older employees vs. Younger employees, 2019:
https://www.testbig.com/pteacademic-essays/younger-employees-have-more-skills-knowledge-
and-more-motivated-older-employees-5
CONCLUSION
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
Books and Journals
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.
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/>