Introduction: for this blog I am required to explain the
difference between equality and diversity, and what impacts age legislation has
on an employer and what stereotyping we tend to hold about younger and older
people and suggest two ideas about how organisation’s could attempt to change
these attitudes, and also visit one organisation’s website and see which benchmark
practices they use on equal opportunities, and explain the most innovation
practices.
Difference
between equality and diversity:
Equality is about having equal rights and
opportunities regardless of an individual’s ethnicity, disability, gender or age, whereas diversity on the other hand
embraces a wide range of characteristics which tend to be unique to an
individual such as their education, work experience, or religious beliefs etc. The
difference between the two is that equality is about being treated fairly
within the workplace whereas diversity is about recognising and respecting an individual’s
culture, beliefs and experiences.
Age legislation Act (2006):
Age legislation
came into force in 2006, as an employer this might have an impact, as they cannot discriminate against a person despite
their age, and cannot force anyone to leave employment regardless of their age.
Also employers would need to be aware of direct discrimination for e.g. ageism,
treating an individual differently and less favourably than how they would
treat others and indirect discrimination for e.g. Imposing a policy that puts older people at a
disadvantage. Another one could be harassment where an employer violates an
individual’s dignity and also victimisations this is where a person suffers as
a result of making a formal complaint for e.g. employment tribunals. As an
employer you are expected to ensure that the working practises comply with the
Age Legislation Act 2006, and try to minimise the time and expenses of defending
any claims being made.
Stereotypes we tend to hold about younger and older people:
The stereotyping
we tend to hold about younger people is that they lack experience, knowledge,
and skills of working and will therefore need more training and are unlikely to
have much experience required for the job role. However younger people tend to
learn things quicker and faster as opposed to older people. With older people
they lack experience of using new technology and software, such as computers
and tend to have poor hearing and eye sight and tend to adapt to changes slower
than others. Two ways organisations could try to change these attitudes is by
stop labelling younger people as being inexperienced and give the job to
individuals that have the right skills, qualification and experience regardless
of their age. Another way could be for organisation’s to look beyond stereotyping
and labelling individual by their age as it does not tell you much about how
they are like to work for.
B&Q Equal Opportunities:
B&Q’s
most innovative practices towards equal opportunities are that B&Q values
diversity. B&Q state that respecting their people and their diversity is
central to their success, their reputation and believe it is crucial to their
organisational culture”, (Bell, L). B&Q employs the most talented
individuals to help them reach their full potential. B&Q believes that
having a diverse workforce creates a mix of talents and that makes them a
successful business. B&Q eliminates discrimination and promote equality of opportunity
within the workplace regardless of age, gender, culture, religion, disability
etc and provides training for staff at all levels to help embrace value of
diversity, and ensuring working
practises are flexible to ensure staff balance work life with other
commitments, and also by ensuring that their customers shop with confidence
within the stores and are treated fairly with respect by staff. B&Q employs
people aged 16+, more than 1,200 of their employees speak 60 different
languages, the business has a diverse recruitment policy which aims to reflect
the communities it serves, and have made their store layouts more effective for
people with disabilities under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Below is a print
screen taken from B&Q website, showing the commitments as a business and what
they have achieved so far:
Conclusion: overall equal
opportunities has to be taken into consideration by employers as they cannot
discriminate against age, sex, gender etc under the Age Legislation Act 2006,
if employers are found to discriminate then they could be taken to court and if
found guilty they would have to pay a fine, also diversity and equality is
important for an organisation as it ensures that employees within the workplace
are valued, motivated and treated fairly. B&Q shows excellent equal
opportunities within their company as they employ people aged 16+ and have a
mixture of people with different culture, nationality, sex, etc and store
layouts that adapt to people with disabilities, and provide structured training
to all employees regardless of what level they are at and provides flexible
working practices. There are benefits of having diversity within the workplace,
it tends to attract and retain employees, and it also tends to have lower
labour costs, recruitment turnover and training and therefore is beneficial to
companies.
References:
[1] Mullins.
L, (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour 8th ed. Harlow:
Prentice Hall
[2] Simpson,
M (2012) PowerPoint.
[3] Age
Legislation Act [Online] Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/1031/regulation/3/made
[4] B&Q
Equal Opportunities [Online] Available from:
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/corporate/content/environment_ethics/ethics/respect.jsp [Accessed 16th
Feb 2012]
