Comedian and Television Presenter, Jason Manford, went out to social media this week, talking about his father who was made redundant. At 62 years of age and wanting to work, Jason’s father has found it impossible to find a new work opportunity.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith at BBC Radio Three Counties, decided to highlight this situation, and as a topic for his daily radio show this morning, asked the question, “Are employers prejudiced against older people.”

Our Founder, Steve Anderson, was invited to take part in the discussion, and talked live on Jonathans show about the challenges, and opportunities for employers to consider the older demographic.

Prejudice, bias….ignorance….whatever you’d like to call it….it does exist in the older demographic employment environment, and on many different levels. Whether it’s negative bias instilled at the recruitment agency level, whether it’s a poor internal personnel development programme, or a lack of prioritisation in the diversity and inclusion strategy…..there are challenges to overcome, in order to achieve a more balanced view of the work-force. Recent data and information confirms, that to achieve such a balance, will ultimately raise the values and well-being of an organisation, and improve performance.

Steve described the approach and solution from Prime Candidate…to mitigate and remove barriers to work, by engaging at both ends of the employment spectrum….with job seekers, and with employers.

For Job seekers, we provide services that include support and guidance to plan and implement the job search, but also a practical mechanism to find new work. Our approach removes the recruitment barriers for job seekers, as they know that the employers who advertise jobs with Prime Candidate, have a positive outlook to age diversity in the workplace, and will consider all applicants.

For employers, we offer a unique engagement programme where employers benefit from values and vision of the ‘Champion Age Diversity’ charter. An employer who becomes a Champion, adopts certain behaviours and criteria, that ensure retention, re-training and recruitment is available for the whole workforce, whatever the age group. Part of this policy, is again, a very practical solution, to showcase job opportunities to a wider audience. Quite often, traditional recruitment channels do not offer access to the broader demographic, but posting job opportunities through Prime Candidate, enables the employer to guarantee the broadest access to the best people for their role.

Diversity and Inclusion

We have some great Champions on board already, from different industries, across both the public and private sectors, including the likes of Barclays, William Hill, the RAC, as well as a number of regional authorities.

If you are an employer, or you work for an employer, where you want to achieve more….and make a difference….be a ‘Champion’…we’d love to hear from you.

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