‘Ageism’ is the new rogue at Indian workplaces, overshadowing prejudices like gender bias and even homophobia. About 33 percent Indian employees face/have faced age-based bias at their workplace, followed by 17 percent who faced bias because of their physical appearance and 15 percent 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 percent claiming they faced prejudice because of their gender. 

Most respondents in this survey belonged to the IT sector (23 percent), followed by Manufacturing (20 percent), Healthcare (10 percent) and BPO (8 percent) 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 summarize that the young employees feel discriminated against because of their age.  

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. Earlier companies focused on bringing men and women at par and a lot of work have happened there. About 79 percent of survey respondents said they weren’t denied a promotion because of their gender. And 62 percent of respondents pointed out that #Metoo movement made workplaces more sensitive towards women. 

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

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