Overcoming ageism in the workforce through Job Coaching

• Employment and Skills

On average, it takes jobseekers over 50 twice as long to secure interviews and successfully land new jobs¹. Ageism in the workplace is a common barrier that older workers face, which affects a jobseeker’s confidence and their chances of successfully securing a role.

“When people hear that you are in your fifties or older, they tend to think that you are coasting towards retirement and therefore, you are no longer ambitious and that you do not have that many years left to get a real return on investment in training.” Job Coaching participant Erica explains.

Erica’s story

Erica is a highly experienced manager, who has successfully navigated many changes throughout her career. Last year her role was unexpectedly made redundant, with no suitable opportunities for redeployment in the business.

Erica set about looking for a new job but with high numbers of people in a similar position, she had a difficult experience job-hunting. She found it hard dealing with the ups and downs of the job search, the dashed hopes and the lack of actionable feedback from recruiters, which left her guessing about how she could improve and be successful. Erica felt her age was a barrier, which made her reluctant to disclose all her job history or the dates of previous qualifications, but she often had no choice, as certain companies made it a requirement to disclose this information. She believes this made it harder to secure interviews and meant she had to face many rejections.

How the Job Coaching programme supported Erica

After over a year looking for her next role, she was determined not to let the lack of success curb her enthusiasm and chances of securing a job. Erica decided to seek out one-to-one coaching to support her and was introduced to Business in the Community’s (BITC) Job Coaching programme, which is how she met Graham from NatWest.

Graham joined NatWest’s graduate scheme around 25 years ago and now works within the organisation’s Learning and Development department as a Curriculum Manager. His previous roles have been in aerospace engineering and the Scottish civil service.  

Graham jumped at the opportunity to take up the opportunity offered to employees at NatWest to volunteer as a Job Coach. It allows him to keep his existing coaching skills well-honed and he finds it interesting working with different people and learning about the challenges they face.

Graham always encourages his colleagues to participate: “The programme is thoroughly worthwhile. We are in the right place to support others. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

“The programme is thoroughly worthwhile. We are in the right place to support others. It’s a win-win for everyone.” – Graham, NatWest

What was it like working with Graham?

Erica felt that it was useful to connect with another person in the real world, rather than trying to tackle job applications alone.

Graham provided a useful sounding board for Erica and helped her think about how she could change her approach to job hunting. They also identified what else was important, weighing up different opportunities based on things like job satisfaction, time requirements, salary and benefits and impact on life outside of work.

Graham asked in-depth questions to help Erica express the breadth and depth of her skills, knowledge and experience and how these could be transferable to different job opportunities. Through coaching she was able to talk more about her transferable skills, free of imposter syndrome, which helped her excel in her interview.

As a result of this work together, Erica secured and has now started a new job. This next phase in her career will deliver social value, which is important to her. She is now focussing on the capabilities she wants to use and has a positive attitude to the future.

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References

¹ Over 50s take twice as long as rest of workforce to find new employment, study finds (peoplemanagement.co.uk)