Age Discrimination - are you prepared?

Small businesses risk facing legal action if they do not update their recruitment, training and retirement processes to reflect the changes being brought in under new age discrimination legislation.

In a recent survey, over 90 per cent of Business Link advisors felt that small businesses are not ready for the legislation changes that will come into force in October. The legislation will make age discrimination illegal in the workplace whether it is in relation to hiring younger or older staff, promoting or even choosing who goes on training courses.

Jonathan Hollow, Portal Editor at businesslink.gov.uk told Bytestart:

“Businesses need to make sure they understand the implications of this new legislation. There are a great many benefits to having a workforce made up of a wide range of ages. Employment issues can be complex, so managers should seek advice or support if they are unfamiliar with what their obligations are.”

The poll, compiled by businesslink.gov.uk, also looked at the benefits of employing older workers, with nearly three quarters of respondents identifying the amount of experience they add as the biggest advantage. As well as creating a more diverse work force (23 per cent), other benefits include being more reliable, less likely to be absent and helping to address skills shortages

A lack of awareness and understanding of the implications of the legislation was highlighted by nearly 80 per cent of the business advisors as the reason why businesses are not prepared. A further 20 per cent cited a lack of time.

Business Link is urging businesses to update their processes in preparation for the new legislation. To keep up to date on the age legislation changes and other regulations, visit Business LInk and use the regulation updates tool which is available here.

Top Tips avoid workplace age discrimination:

• Don’t make references to age in job adverts
• Use a mixture of young and old staff to help you interview and recruit new staff
• Make decisions to promote people for their ability and performance, not because of their age
• Make training accessible to all employees of all ages
• Base redundancy decisions on objective, job-related criteria and not on age
• Agree a fair and consistent retirement policy with employees and where possible, consider flexible working or phased retirement