Article written by @Marga G. Balbín, Training Director at MRC International People Training.
Today, we find ourselves working in teams that are increasingly diverse — especially in terms of generational differences.
Diversity, in all its forms, is one of the most critical factors for team innovation. Homogeneous teams rarely generate diverse ideas, and their conversations often lack mutual enrichment.
However, when you bring together people from different disciplines, ages, and cultures, you open the door to multiple perspectives — and with them, the kind of innovation that drives real progress toward shared goals.
On one hand, we have young professionals who face the frustrating loop of:
“You don’t have experience, so I won’t hire you. And since you don’t have a job, you can’t gain experience.” Despite this, many of them eventually find opportunities through talent programs, internships, or graduate schemes.On the other hand, we have senior professionals, who are often excluded from the workforce due to ageism and a lack of corporate willingness to integrate them.
As leaders and business owners, this is a question we often ask ourselves.
Here are some practical recommendations to include senior talent in teams and innovation processes:
- Develop reverse mentoring programs: Just as senior professionals can mentor younger colleagues in decision-making, emotional intelligence, collaboration, or communication, younger employees can help seniors adapt to new technological tools and digital environments.
- Explore alternative work relationships: When maintaining an employment contract is no longer viable, roles such as advisor or external consultant can help continue the collaboration between the company and the senior professional.
- Recognize the strategic value of senior insight in product and service development: Seniors are the only demographic group that is growing quantitatively today. Many companies are already creating specialized units to serve this silver economy. Having senior professionals in your organization provides a competitive advantage — ensuring your products and services meet a growing market demand.
- Identify roles where experience creates significant added value: In some cultures, senior citizens serve as tour guides in local information centers because their accumulated knowledge and lived experience enrich the role far beyond what a theoretical manual could offer. In your organization, identify positions where experience brings extra value. A clue: any role involving problem-solving benefits from seasoned professionals.
- Apply the same inclusive practices used for other forms of diversity: Just as we work to reduce micro-sexism, we can also reduce micro-ageism in our language. For example, instead of saying someone is “old,” you can say they are “experienced.” And just as we ensure gender diversity on event panels, we should also seek generational diversity in representation.
What will you do to include the senior members of your team in your company’s innovation process?