Published On: 2020-03-28

• 33% of Indian employees have faced age-based bias at the workplace, found JobBuzz Survey of 1,942 employees working in different sectors
• 17% said they faced bias because of their physical appearance, 15% said they faced culture/religion-based bias, followed by 14% who said they faced gender bias
• Only 24% of employees stated that their organisation has LGBTQ or specially abled leader at the C-suite level

March 27, 2020: ‘Ageism’ is the new rogue at Indian workplaces, overshadowing prejudices like gender bias and even homophobia. About 33% Indian employees face/have faced age-based bias at their workplace, followed by 17% who faced bias because of their physical appearance and 15% others who faced bias on basis of their culture/religion, found a survey done by JobBuzz. Gender-based bias stood at the third pedestal with 14% claiming they faced prejudice because of their gender. 

JobBuzz, an employer rating and review platform by TimesJobs, surveyed 1,940 employees to understand the nuances of bias and Diversity at the Indian workplaces, and the responses indicated that ‘ageism’ i.e. ‘bias against a person because of his age’ is a bigger issue than gender-based bias at the Indian organisations. This comes as a shocker since the present mix of the workforce at most companies comprises of Baby Boomers, Gen X & Y and the Millennials. This demographic is going to change drastically as more Millennials join the workforce in the coming years, and the news of ‘ageism’ isn’t a great note for India Inc. 

Most respondents in this survey belonged to the IT sector (23%), followed by Manufacturing (20%), Healthcare (10%) and BPO (8%) sectors respectively. In terms of age group, most respondents belonged to 25-34 years. 

Going by the respondents’ profile segmentation and their responses, we can summarise that the young employees feel discriminated against because of their age.  

Here’s how employees rated the biases overall:

Commenting on these findings, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The notion that ‘Diversity’ is equal to women is long buried. Hence the JobBuzz survey touched on the finer aspects that define workplace bias and Diversity. The survey findings show that India Inc. is biased on age more than physical appearance, culture/religion, gender and race. These are the new areas where the HR managers and employers should focus their attention to. Earlier companies focussed on bringing men and women at par and a lot of work have happened there. About 79% of survey respondents said they weren’t denied a promotion because of their gender. And 62% of respondents pointed out that #Metoo movement made workplaces more sensitive towards women. Now the action should shift to the other areas pointed by the JobBuzz survey”.

No room for specially-abled or LGBTQ C-suite leader:

The JobBuzz survey asked employees of any of their C-suite leaders was LGBTQ or specially-abled, and most (76%) respondents said ‘no’. This indicates that the acceptance of these professionals is still at bay at the boardrooms. 

It’s a man’s world mostly at India Inc:

When asked the composition of the workforce at their workplace, most (62%) respondents said that it is ‘more men and fewer women’. Next 21% said that they have an equal number of men and women. The remaining 17% respondents – least in the survey group - said that they had more women and fewer women at their workplace. 

Employees say there is no salary gap between men v/s women: 

Though most media reports have been quoting that a gender gap between men and women still exists, the group surveyed by JobBuzz felt otherwise. About 73% of respondents said there wasn’t any salary disparity owing to gender considerations, and only 27% said that the salary gap existed.