#MakingaNoise in FEBRUARY 2021
The Age Diversity Forum is the Global Hub for age diversity in the workplace
LET’S CHAMPION AGE DIVERSITY TOGETHER!
As it is for LGBT, gender and BAME, it is wrong, unjust and illegal to discriminate against age. Join our Champion advocacy and achieve the values and benefits of an age diverse work-force for your organisation, and you will be making a difference to address the global age diversity challenges.
#MakingaNoise is the new campaign, led by the Age Diversity Forum, to ensure the values of age diversity can be achieved across all organisations whatever the sector, size, or location.
Join us on the journey!
CHAMPION AGE DIVERSITY!
WELCOME to our new International Journal!
The Age Diversity Forum is the global hub for raising awareness of age diversity in the workplace. However, we felt the conversation required a boost and uplift, as unfortunately, there continues to be challenges in breaking down barriers of age bias in the employment arena. So, we are very proud to launch the #MakingaNoise initiative, utilising this new monthly journal to inform, raise awareness, but above all to seek to drive change.
A GLOBAL MEGA-TREND
We initiated the #MakingaNoise campaign as Internationally accessible, as we see common challenges, wherever one resides.
But it is a global challenge.
The world has an ageing population….not exactly news…..yet commercial and social economies haven’t really grasped it yet. Many of the professional consultancies predict a demographic change over the next couple of generations. Some differ in their emphasis, but there is a common thread that the ‘working age’ population is decreasing in relation to an increasing older demographic range.
It is stated that around half of major company CEO’s are planning to increase headcount in the immediate future, and, that they do recognize the need to consider a range of strategies to attract and retain the skills they need.
Within our ‘Champion Age Diversity’ arena, we are very much aligned to practically support this approach, an approach also heralded by some Governments, including the UK, however, Governments, including the UK, still find it necessary to issue (and re-issue!) papers that demonstrate that employers are not putting their thinking in to practice.
When it comes to age diversity, many employers default and defer to a thinking and strategizing plane, as they haven’t grasped how important and inter-sectional, age is to their inclusion agenda and profile.
So, there is a requirement for practical action and implementation, or at least the mechanism to engage and connect the employment channels of retention, retraining and recruitment. It needs to be easily accessible and something that organisations can adopt and utilize to initiate and develop strategy….rather than endless strategy thinking, that results in a distinct lack of progress, that can lead to getting stuck behind myth and perception barriers. Such stalling is distilled and translated in to even more consideration, of areas such as skills gaps, education models, the link between education and business, and more think-tanks.
The increase in the ageing population potentially places a strain on economies…..a challenge….but it may also offer the solution….an opportunity! Some (relatively old now) UK research, already states the GDP benefits, if the largely untapped, more mature work-force demographic, was recognized and considered for employment. There are some global figures doing the rounds, and they all point towards a significant added value to a nations GDP, i.e. in the UK, at the time of the report in 2014, such employment consideration could add nearly £90 billion to the annual GDP, that’s over half of the work welfare budget. And we know that positive interaction at this level, creates a bow-wave of benefit through other welfare and social channels.
But, addressing the age mega trend, is also not just a question of the older demographic, it’s how a multi-generational work-force can offer a more productive and progressive working environment, that extends to benefits to social flexibility and integration.
So, let’s meet the challenge with the opportunity…..let’s link thinking and strategizing, to action and implementation….let’s instil and Champion Age Diversity in the work-place.
Join us on the journey!
Steve & Jim
IN CONVERSATION WITH……
Each month, we will be inviting the thoughts, insights and ideas from key industry and policy people. This month, Age Diversity Forum’s CEO, and US lead, Steve and Jim, discuss how age diversity challenges, are not attributed to any one location or sector.
Steve and Jim cover a range of subjects including:
+ Age diversity is down the priority list for many organisations who consider diversity and inclusion
+ The increasing change to overall population age
+ How COVID has highlighted increased unemployment for older workers
+ Struggles for over 50s seeking a return to work
+ The stereotyping and ‘myths’ of older workers
Click the pic above to watch the video.
use the hashtag #MakingaNoise
The High Cost of Ageism in the Workplace
At the Age Diversity Forum, we are very fortunate to welcome guest articles from a broad range of authors.
Each month, we feature a guest author article in this new international journal, and we are delighted to welcome Leah Kinthaert. The Age Diversity Forum’s CEO, Steve Anderson, together with other experts in the D&I field, worked with Leah on this powerful article. It highlights the plight of a growing demographic, but also, showcases the immense opportunities for employers.
In a New York Times article, Marci Alboher described the situation that many older Americans are finding themselves in: “I hear a lot from people over 50, even over 45, who are doing all the right things but still not finding successful mid-life transitions. Ageism is rampant – and internalized, with mid-lifers questioning our own ability to succeed in a world where youth is prized. And while there are many new offerings to help people make late-career transitions, moving into an encore career still requires an immense amount of creativity and persistence.”
It’s clear that institutionalized ageism is going to cause dire problems for a whole generation of professional people in their 40s and 50s, right now who are expected to work into their 60s or 70s. However, older professionals are not the only group who will lose – the brain drain that is ultimately happening, simply cannot be good for companies.
Click the pic below for Leah’s article.
INSIGHT & INFORMATION
At the Age Diversity Forum, we endeavour to provide insight and supportive information too aid with strategy and implementation planning.
Each month, we will feature items of data and research, that provide a basis to determine how organisations can benefit from the values of age diversity in the workplace.
We work with organisations and institutions from a broad spectrum, including Government bodies, Universities and specialist think-tanks.
This infographic displays many of the benefits that can be achieved with consideration for a multi-generational working environment. These can be applied wholly and/or in a progammed release…talk with us to find out how your organisation would benefit from such interactions.
Click the pic for a larger view.
THE ADF ‘POSTCARD’ SERIES
This is an episode from our ‘Postcard’ series, where we highlight values and benefits of an age diverse workforce.
There are many positive reasons to pursue and engage an age diverse workforce, where there is a mix of maturity, experience, enthusiasm and freshness.
Businesses have found that it encourages creativity and innovation, provides for a greater understanding of their customer base, and improves the reputation of the brand (whether that’s local, regional, national or global).
It also sets an opportunity for mentoring to support colleagues’ personal and professional development. And importantly, it promotes a positive and happy company culture, where all staff are valued, and have the same opportunities for training, progression and development to improve their skills, regardless of their age and experience.
Keep ’em peeled each month, for more in our ‘Postcard’ series.
Click the pic above to watch.
CHAMPION SHOWCASE
We are delighted to showcase one of our Champion partners, and this month we introduce you to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Our Customers and our Diversity
We wouldn’t be able to understand our customers and the society we serve if we weren’t so diverse.
To make financial services work better for everyone, we need to be able to understand what lies behind the complaints people come to us with, and the wider issues they bring to light.
Without our diverse workforce, that would be much harder. And we’re always looking for ways to make the most of the range of individual experience, knowledge and backgrounds that our employees have.
Leadership and learning
We aim to always listen to and learn from our people. We’re working to create an open culture where people can talk about their experiences – and be heard.
Listening helps our leaders make better decisions, and all our staff to learn from each other. Our many employee networks, events, mentoring circles, and our reverse mentoring scheme, are among the ways we are continuously learning, including how to promote diversity at senior level.
Equality, Inclusion and Wellbeing
We want our people to be healthy and motivated, so we’ll help you to look after your physical and mental wellbeing, and promote your learning and development. To look after your mental health, we have a group of staff who are trained as mental health first-aiders, and we have employee-led networks and support groups available to everyone.
Being a diverse organisation makes us a better employer and benefits our customers. We have a wide range of policies and guidelines to support peoples’ different needs at different times of their lives and throughout their career with us.
We want to recruit the best people from the widest range of backgrounds, to help make this a great place to work. So we have policies in place to remove barriers and promote diversity and inclusion at all levels of our organisation. We’re committed to increasing the age diversity of our staff and we’re signatories to the Women in Finance charter, which over 350 organisations have signed to commit to improving gender diversity at senior levels in the financial services sector.
Visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk to find out more.
CELEBRATE ‘CHAMPION AGE DIVERSITY DAY’ ON JUNE 11th!
The Institute of Coding Team supporting Age Diversity in the Workplace day on June 11th this year
CHAMPION AGE DIVERSITY DAY – JUNE 11th 2021
The Forum is the global hub for age diversity in the work-place, and is a practical approach to ensure that organisations achieve the benefits and values of an age diverse work-force.
The business case for diversity is more prominent, but unfortunately, there continues to be challenges in breaking down barriers of age bias in the employment arena. Whether that is in the form of: negative bias, unconscious or otherwise; a lack of opportunity for employers to access key skills and talent; poor retention and retraining programmes; or for policy support requirements.
No industry sector is immune to these challenges, and none are restricted by geography. We are a unique organisation with a vision for inclusion, to remove barriers through an application of practical service and best practice, achieved together with our ‘Champions’.
We are raising the awareness of the values and benefits that an age diverse work-force can bring to organisations, of all size and sector. More companies now recognise the improved performance impact, and are seeking to establish themselves as a committed employer for diversity, demonstrating those values, both for their internal landscape, as well as to external partners and wider communities.
As it is for LGBT, gender and BAME, it is wrong, unjust and illegal to discriminate against age. Join our Champion advocacy and achieve the values and benefits of an age diverse workforce.
We are celebrating Age Diversity in the work-force on June 11th. Please use the hash-tag hashtag championagediversity to raise awareness. We would also love to hear from you, whether it’s to highlight an employment barrier or a positive message of how you and your organisation value an age diverse workforce. This information is important to help the purpose of removing age bias from the employment environment.
Record a short video on your phone and send it to us, or download and print one of the signs below and send the photo in to us. Please send your comments/stories/pictures/videos to [email protected] .
For more information, please visit our Champion Age Diversity Day page.
There is significant value to being awarded Champion’s status as you will be recognised as an employer who values age diversity. We look forward to welcoming you as Champions for Age Diversity.
Please email [email protected] for more information
#MakingaNoise
#ChampionAgeDiversity