Sometimes the most useful first step isn’t finding the answer, it’s asking the right questions.
Over the past few years, our conversations with employers have changed. There is greater recognition that age belongs within the inclusion conversation. Organisations are also becoming more aware of longer working lives, multigenerational workforces, changing career patterns and the need to retain skills and experience.
But recognition creates another question – Where do you start?
For an organisation that has never specifically examined age inclusion, moving immediately into policies, programmes or measurement can feel like a considerable leap…that’s why the Age Diversity Forum has created Discovery.
A place to start, rather than a test to pass
Discovery is a free resource designed to help organisations begin thinking about age inclusion in a simple and accessible way.
It isn’t an accreditation, it isn’t an audit, and it isn’t intended to tell an organisation whether it is “good” or “bad” at age inclusion. Instead, Discovery provides an opportunity to stop and consider some of the questions that can otherwise remain hidden within everyday organisational practice.
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What do we already know?
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What are we less certain about?
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What does age inclusion actually look like within our organisation?
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And where might it be useful to look more closely?
That distinction matters, because before an organisation can decide what it should do, it first needs some understanding of where it is now.
Age inclusion is often present without being visible
One of the interesting things we’ve learned through the ADF’s work is that organisations rarely start from nothing. Flexible working arrangements may already help people at different life stages, and learning programmes may provide opportunities across age groups. Recruitment processes may already contain inclusive practices, and managers may be supporting career transitions, caring responsibilities or changes in working patterns without necessarily describing any of these things as “age inclusion”.
Equally, organisations can have well-developed inclusion strategies while knowing surprisingly little about how employees of different ages actually experience recruitment, development, progression or working life.
That is why Discovery begins with reflection rather than prescription. The purpose isn’t simply to identify problems. It is also to make existing strengths visible.
From instinct to evidence
There is another reason we think this starting point matters. When age does enter organisational conversations, it can very quickly become a conversation based on assumptions.
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We might assume younger employees want rapid progression.
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We might assume people in mid-career prioritise stability.
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We might assume older employees are thinking about retirement.
Real working lives are considerably more complicated.
Two people of the same age can be at completely different career stages. Someone can be relatively young but have considerable organisational tenure, someone joining an organisation later in life may simultaneously be an experienced professional and a new employee.
Age matters, but it interacts with life stage, career stage, tenure, opportunity and individual circumstances. Good age-inclusion practice therefore begins by becoming curious about what is actually happening within an organisation rather than relying on what we think ought to be happening.
Discovery before diagnosis
Discovery also fills an important space within the way the ADF now works with organisations. For those wanting a much deeper understanding, our Age Inclusion Benchmark Diagnostic examines organisational practice systematically across eight dimensions, combining assessment with evidence to identify strengths, gaps and priorities for action.
But not every organisation is ready to begin there. Some are only starting the conversation internally, whilst others need to build understanding among colleagues or senior leaders, and some simply want a way of testing whether age is an issue they should explore more seriously.
Discovery provides that earlier step, and there is no requirement to progress further, but if the exercise prompts a useful internal conversation, highlights something previously unseen or encourages colleagues to look at an existing practice differently, it has already served a purpose.
For organisations that do want to understand more, however, Discovery can naturally lead to a more evidence-based examination of age inclusion through the Benchmark.
Six questions can open a much bigger conversation
We have deliberately kept Discovery short…that is not because age inclusion is simple, quite the opposite…it is because starting the conversation should be.
A small number of carefully considered questions can reveal where confidence is high, where evidence is limited and where different people within the same organisation may have very different perceptions.
And sometimes the most interesting response isn’t yes or no, it is…“We’re not actually sure.” That uncertainty is useful, as it tells us where curiosity should go next.
Making age visible
Ultimately, Discovery is part of a wider ambition at the ADF. We want organisations to become better at seeing age, not as another group requiring a separate initiative, but as something that runs throughout working life.
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It is present when somebody applies for their first role.
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It is present in learning and progression.
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It is present when careers change direction.
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It is present when responsibilities outside work change.
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And it is present when someone begins thinking about how, when, or whether, they eventually leave work.