Workers age 55 and older make up 6.8% of the IT workforce — compared to 11.7% of the entire working world — according to a study by the Information Technology Association of America.

Is it because of bias? Not necessarily. In IT, compared to many other jobs, workers don’t stay in the field as long. That could be by choice, or it may have something to do with companies’ hiring preferences.

Given the ever-changing nature of technical work and many tech managers’ desire for creativity and innovation, IT departments can sometimes lean too far to the younger workers.

HR can help by training IT hiring managers and giving guidance in the hiring process to make sure the most qualified applicants are hired, regardless of age.

Also, companies could retain older, more experienced workers for longer by providing training to help them keep their skills up-to-date.

And the IT department was way too small to keep up with all the maintenance and monitoring involved.

Besides, they knew there were plenty of savvy users out there that could get around the filter if they tried hard enough.

So the company decided to change its Internet security approach.

To give employees what they needed to work – and to save a lot of hassle for us – IT removed the filter.

Instead of blocking behavior, they started educated users on security. And they held a company-wide meeting to go over our technology-use policy. Employees got basic reminders –- use the Web for work only, beware of attachments and pop-ups, etc.

Managers followed up with periodic e-mails if they saw a specific problem.

Also, IT now works closely with supervisors and team leaders. They let the techies know if someone’s breaking the rules, then monitor behavior.

Otherwise, their teaching does the trick.

And it’s worked. There have been a few incidents, but no more than we had when the company used the filter.

(Tim Olig, IT Leader, Mid States Aluminum Corp., Fond du Lac, WI)