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Ageism is not exclusive to the older generation

From 1 October, the Age Discrimination regulations make it unlawful to discriminate against employees because of their age. Many people have mistakenly drawn the wrong conclusion that this affects older employees only whereas in fact it equally applies to younger employees.
The DTI anticipates that there may be as many as 8,000 age discrimination cases brought to UK tribunals in the first year of the new legislation being introduced. Despite the publicity there are many organizations who are still confused and/or unable to interpret the legislation in a meaningful way i.e. how it impacts on their organisation’s policies, procedures and operations. From a management perspective many managers are also still unclear on how it affects them or the people they manage. The DTI has recently estimated that £700 million per year is wasted because UK employers are making age-based assumptions about their employees thus failing to capitalize on their potential, abilities, skills, knowledge and experience.
It is important to include training on this new legislation within any management training programmes, briefings or seminars so that managers can gain a much fuller understanding of the company’s and their responsibilities and liabilities. If the organization does not have the expertise to do this it is worth considering outsourcing to an organization such as ACAS or one specializing in HR advice and support or employment law.
In the meantime the following tips may be useful as there are some simple steps that companies can take to overcome age bias in the workplace:
• Recruitment advertisements – avoid specifying length of experience as this disadvantages certain age groups
• Application forms – ask for date of birth on equality monitoring forms only and use skills based forms
• Selection procedures – train managers to avoid stereotypes
• Training – make sure it is open to all employees
• Performance appraisal – set the same standards regardless of age
• Redundancy policy – review your policies: using length of service to select employees for redundancy is likely to be discriminatory
• Equality policy – add age to your current policy
• Pay and conditions- are younger people doing the same job as older and/or more highly paid people? You may need to re-look at your pay structure and reward, recognition or loyalty schemes.

If you would like any help, or are interested in attending a seminar on this topic then please contact us on 02380 695929.