Ask an HR Pro: How Can I Prevent Ageism in the Hiring Process?

In iHire’s 2023 Hiring and Job Search Outlook Report, we asked job seekers what they thought will impact their career and job search the most this year. A potential economic downturn was the top concern, but surprisingly, age discrimination was the number two fear. In fact, with 40.0% of responses, age discrimination was selected nearly twice as often as the next most-popular concern: stress/burnout (24.1%).

It's understandable why many people are worried about ageism affecting their job search. No one wants to feel like their age is the determining factor in whether they’re qualified for a job. And hiring biases like ageism can have detrimental effects for employers, too.

So, is it possible to alleviate job seekers’ fears and combat ageism when selecting candidates? In this Ask an HR Pro, we talked to Chrisanne Bowden, Senior HR Consultant at iHire, to get her tips for preventing ageism in the hiring process.

How to Prevent Ageism in the Hiring Process

“Age discrimination is treating an applicant less favorably because of their age,” Bowden began. “There are a lot of ways ageism can present itself in the hiring process, so you have to be mindful in order to prevent it.”

Bowden recommended these four DEI hiring strategies to help your team prevent ageism:

1. Remove maximum experience levels and age-related language from job postings
2. Use a blind hiring process
3. Predefine interview questions
4. Hire for culture add, not culture fit

1. Remove experience and age-related language from job postings

“If your job posting says the role requires ‘3–5 years of experience,’ it signifies that older adults who might have more experience won’t be considered, which enables ageism,” Bowden said. “Similarly, job descriptions that have wording like 'energetic' or 'strong' implies you’re only looking for younger talent. And definitely stay away from language like ‘this position would be great for college grads.’”

Instead of including these types of requirements, Bowden recommended that you focus on the reasoning behind the words. For example, if you truly need someone who is strong because they’ll be on their feet all day lifting heavy boxes, say that instead. As for experience levels, there are pros and cons when hiring someone considered “overqualified,” and you shouldn’t judge them based on that alone.

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2. Use a blind hiring process

“Blind hiring is a popular DEI hiring strategy for removing all kinds of biases, ageism included,” Bowden explained. “It entails removing any personally identifiable information from each candidate’s resume and application, which allows you to focus solely on their skills and experience.”

Some of the information you need to remove to make blind hiring effective includes the applicant’s name, address, age, education, and dates of employment. You can use software for this, or do it on your own before passing the resume to the hiring manager. Bowden also said conducting blind interviews by first calling the applicant instead of doing in-person or video chats, or asking pre-screening questions over email can improve the effectiveness of this approach.

3. Predefine interview questions

“Having a set of predetermined interview questions means you’re less likely to ask questions that can be considered discriminatory, or even illegal,” Bowden advised. “You can still ask follow-up questions, but they’ll be related to the approved questions and will keep you on track.”

Questions like, “How old are you?” or “When did you graduate from college?” are illegal and can open you up to lawsuits. Even innocently asking something like, “How do you overcome the challenge of keeping up with modern tools and tech?" can be problematic. Making sure to set a list of questions ahead of time mitigates these issues.

4. Hire for culture add, not culture fit

“The concept of culture fit sounds good on paper, but it may not be the best strategy for your team, especially when it comes to age discrimination and other hiring biases,” Bowden said. “It can have the unintended side effect of making your team too focused on hiring someone for superficial reasons instead of ones related to their job performance. On the other hand, hiring for culture add instead focuses on increasing diversity, creativity, and innovation. It can strengthen your talent pool and give you new perspectives that you might not have gotten otherwise.”

Not only can dismissing a candidate because they’re “not the right fit” lead to ageism, but it can also open your company up to blind spots and potentially damage future growth. Culture add is a more holistic approach to hiring, with numerous benefits.

Preventing ageism in the hiring process will benefit both job seekers and employers. If you follow the tips Bowden outlined above, you’ll source better talent, improve your candidate experience, and boost your employer brand. For more Ask an HR Pro articles, check out our Employer Resource Center.