Carmen López

Psychologin. Master in Human Resources.

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Companies that exclude job applicants on demographic and social grounds miss a great opportunity to recruit the talent they need for the company. Immigrants, over 50 and women have different skills that are difficult to find in other groups. 

 

One of the most important activities of a company is the hiring of capable personnel. Hired employees bring with them their education, experience and personality and use their talent to shape the company's future. "War for Talent", a concept invented by Steven Hankin in 1997, reflects today's difficulty in finding the best. 

 

Discrimination makes no sense

 

One way to find talent is to look where the competition is not looking. Below are three demographic groups that make a difference in comparison with other companies:

 

First, people over 50: people live longer and have better health. This enables them to be fit and work longer. People over 50 actually have skills their younger colleagues don't have. The "Cogito-Study" of 2010 (1) shows that the productivity of older people is more even than that of younger. Older people have a greater ability to concentrate on the task, are more predictable and balance the physical and mental changes of age with their experience. Peter Capelli, Professor at the Wharton School of Business, says: "All aspects of work performance improve with age. Discrimination against older people in the labour market makes no sense." 

 

Using the skills of immigrants 

 

Second, the immigrants: Globally, immigrants have a higher company-grounding rate than nationals of the host country (2). William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala of Harvard Business School show that immigrant businesses in the US are growing faster and are more likely to survive in the long run than those run only by natives (3). 

Immigrants have high adaptability, experience with different cultures, speak different languages and feel more comfortable with challenges. Companies can take advantage of these skills when hiring immigrants. 

 

Women as guarantors of success 

 

Three, the women: Having women in management positions makes an important difference in the economy. According to a Catalyst study, companies with more women on the board receive on average 66 percent more return on invested capital (4). Employees who work for a woman are more involved in their work (33 percent versus 27 percent) than those who have a man as their boss (5). 

 

Becoming competitive

 

Migrants and men and women over 50 have unique skills to succeed in business. The search for these demographic groups is an opportunity to build more competitive businesses. 

 

(1) Cogito Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2914582/
(2) https://www.gemconsortium.org/re- port/48545 

(3) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publi- cation%20Files/17-011_da2c1cf4-a999- 4159-ab95-457c783e3fff.pdf
(4) https://www.catalyst.org/system/ files/The_Bottom_Line_Corporate_Per- formance_and_Womens_Representati- on_on_Boards.pdf 

(5) https://news.gallup.com/business- journal/183026/female-bosses-enga- ging-male-bosses.aspx