Equality and Diversity are used within a Business for several reasons. Kandola and Fullerton, 1998 described the reason for both. The reasons for Equal Opportunities are as follows:
- Removing discrimination
- Equal Opportunities seen as an issue for disadvantaged groups
- Equal Opportunities seen as an HR issue
- Equal Opportunities relies on positive action
The reasons for Diversity is described as :
- Differences can be strengths for the organisation as a whole.
- Focus on maximising individual employee potential
- Seen as relevant to all employees
- An issue that involves all managers
- Does not rely on positive action
The Age Legislation came into force in 2006. It is one of the most resent of the equality legislation acts to be put in place. Along with; the Equal Pay Act (1970), Sex Descrimination Act (1975), Race Relations Act (1976), Sexual Orientation (2003), Religion Or Belief Regulation (2003) and Disability Act (2004). These acts were put in place to minimise victimisation and harassment and to manage diversity within a company.
As an employer, the age legislation age no longer allows employers to employ staff based on their age.
The impact this will have on them will be huge. They will no longer be able to put in place a line of succession and some promotions may not be able to be given due to the positions being filled longer than expected. Staffs are no longer required to retire at a certain age and this may put strain on the manager if they are starting to find the employee not filling the potential of their role. New skills will also be harder to teach as the skills will be retained in the work place. No new information will be brought in if the older generation to not retire and stay on to work instead. This may also be a difficult process to handle in manual types of work. A person may not be as physically fit and able to do the work necessary in the job as they get older but the Age Legislation age prohibits an employer from dismissing an employee due to their age.
It was put in place to minimise stereotypical views being cast on young and old people. Some stereotypical comments can be seen from the photos below.
There are many reasons for focusing on diversity so recently, if we take a closer look and analyse we can see the key points:
· Demographic changes within the work place
· A wider customer base has opened up since new implements have been put in place to contact companies abroad and expand businesses.
· A shortage of higher level skills has taken place and more jobs need to be filled in order to get the work done.
· There is an increased number of women and part time workers in the work fore
· Changes in social attitude
· Globalisation
One of the more innovative practises would be to hire more young people. On the ASDA website, they make it their aim to create awareness for the ‘Young Retails Programme’. The website quotes:
“We're creating thousands of new opportunities and investing heavily in helping young people get their feet on the career ladder. From school pupils getting work experience in years 10 and 11 to graduates joining us after University… from our new Retail Apprenticeship scheme to thousands of Seasonal roles… we're opening the way into our amazing world of retail, where careers can be built and ambitions can be fulfilled.”
Their target is to hire more young people are create more opportunities for them to be involved in.
To conclude, it can be seen that equality and diversity is vital within a workplace in order to make every situation fair for every employee.
Referencing :
Kandola and Fullerton, 1998
L.J. Mullins Management & Organisational Behaviour (2010) 9th Edition.
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