Ageism among US employers can prevent older workers from finding and keeping jobs, said Martine Ferland, CEO of the management consultancy Mercer.

But seasoned professionals are a valuable asset to the labor force.

Ferland said companies should be targeting older workers in their reskilling programs.

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DAVOS, Switzerland — The US labor force is aging rapidly. And many companies hesitate to hire older workers — or to keep them employed.

But in an interview with Business Insider editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Martine Ferland, CEO of the management consultancy Mercer, said ageism poses a major threat to the national economy.

"People are kind of sleeping at the wheel," she said, adding that executives across industries are just now starting to understand the business case for employing older professionals.

To put Ferland's warning in context: Federal data shows that the proportion of people aged 65 and older grew to over 18% in 2015 and 2016, from roughly 12% in the mid-1990s. Federal data also indicates the US labor force participation rate for workers age 75 and older is projected to surpass 10% by 2026. Meanwhile, an Associated Press poll from last summer found that around 40% of US workers under 50 thought that the graying of the US workforce was a negative development.

This increase is driven in large part by people's fears about running out of money in retirement. But older Americans often have a hard time finding stable work. Many employers assume they lack both the requisite technological skills and the willingness to develop needed competencies.

In reality, these assumptions are unfounded. Beyond the ethical implications of ageism, employers who overlook older professionals are missing out on a valuable asset to their workforce.

Older workers are prime candidates for reskilling programs

"What I'm losing sleep over," Ferland said, "is people not having enough money in their most vulnerable years."

Business Insider's Tanza Loudenback reported that the shift away from workplace pensions and toward defined contribution plans, like 401(k)s, means that Americans may have less money to retire on now than they did in the past. That in turn means they may have to work longer to make up for the savings deficit.

Ferland sees older workers as prime candidates for the reskilling programs that many organizations have implemented. Corporate giants including Amazon, Accenture, and PwC are collectively investing billions in retraining their workforces on the skills that will help them stay relevant through the digital transformation of work.

Older workers are an "under-tapped pool of talent," Ferland said. Right now though, they're "totally invisible when it comes to promotion, recruitment, reeducation, and reskilling." You're invisible, she added, "if when you talk, people say, 'Hey, Boomer. Shut up.'"

Overcoming ageism is "the next frontier for diversity," she said.

It's not just about finding the time and money to retrain and retain older workers. Ferland thinks it comes down to businesses shifting their mindset about older employees' potential, and reexamining their biases about job performance and ability.

Ferland clarified that individual employees also need to take the initiative to learn new skills on their own. That might mean simply listening to a podcast about coding during their commute. At the same time, employers can provide the curriculum focusing on relevant technological skills.

Retraining opportunities targeting older workers are rare. As Business Insider's Allana Akhtar reported, one such federal program exists, but only seniors who make below the poverty line qualify. And many companies that are actively recruiting older workers are hiring them to perform labor in low-wage industries, Akhtar reported.

Deloitte surveyed nearly 10,000 leaders around the world in 2018 and found nearly half said their organizations have done nothing to help older workers find new careers.

Ageist employers are overlooking a valuable asset to their workforce

A 2017 report by AARP describes the stigma older workers can face. At worst, they can be seen as disagreeable luddites who avoid change and can't use technology.

These judgments can make it harder for older employees to succeed at work. Studies described in the Harvard Business Review found that stereotypes about older people's ability to learn new tasks can interfere with the training they receive, at least in a lab setting. Even people's beliefs about what other people think of them can interfere with their work performance, the researchers write.

Yet the business case for employing older workers is strong. More seasoned professionals can be bastions of institutional knowledge and have seen their organization and industry evolve. One study by the decision-making tool Cloverpop found that business teams with a wide age range made more decisions with positive outcomes than teams with a narrow age range.

Ferland said the best way to address ageism and expand opportunities for older workers is to measure employers' progress on those fronts. Employers should be tracking their efforts to hire and promote older workers and the reasons why those workers leave.

As for companies that don't work toward these goals? Ferland told them, "You will be left behind."