An ageing workforce: diversity in recruitment

EffectiveHRM blog from the pen of Kate Jones

Recent statistics show (ONS) that long-term unemployment for those over 50 has doubled since the start of the recession and the ‘Managing an ageing workforce’ report published by the CIPD reveals that the job application is one of the most common areas for disadvantages to occur due to age. Having a diverse workforce inclusive of older workers carries a number of benefits for any organisation and that is why Effective HRM has created this handy checklist to help create diversity in the recruitment process.  

 

1.   Use a variety of media when recruiting. In order to optimise your talent pool, consider the different platforms potential candidates might use when searching for a job vacancy, such as, online recruitment agencies or newspaper adverts.

 

2.   Collect and monitor recruitment data. This can be achieved by including an equal opportunities form together with a job application (not to be used as criteria for the post). Analysing the collected data will allow you to monitor employees entering the organisation and provide opportunities to create a more diverse recruitment strategy in the future. Click here to receive a free equal opportunities template form.

3.   Review recruitment images. Images that are situated within job advertisements have the potential to portray certain signals to candidates. For example; placing a photo of a group of young people along side your advert could be perceived as a reflection of your organisation and might imply an attempt at targeting that age range.

 

4.   Train employees appropriately. According to the CIPD, Only 14% of managers state that their organisation could adequately deal with issues that might arise from older workers. Training employees who manage diverse age groups will provide the necessary core competences required to effectively deal with any queries that might arise. Outsourcing equality and diversity training can be a cost-effective option for organisations that do not have an in-house HR department. 

5.   Acknowledge the halo effect. This is a process where you form a perception of someone based on a favourable characteristic such us appearance or punctuality and more often than not this perception can be formed subconsciously. Using a standardised selection process can help illuminate bias that can occur. Psychometric testing is a strong indicator of future job performance and does not consider personal characteristics.

6.   Flexible working options. Having a flexible working policy for your organisation will allow you to broaden your talent pool by offering those who cannot commit to longer working hours (for example those who have childcare commitments) the opportunity to apply. If flexible working is not suited to your organisation consider other options such as part-time contracts or job sharing.

 

7.   Regularly update recruitment policies. It is important for organisations to update any policies on a regular basis in order to comply with regulations and to ensure specific procedures are correct and up-to-date.

Harnessing the power of social media inside your organisation

There are always two sides to every story.  How many times have you argued fervently for something you believe in, only to have your theories dashed to the ground and trodden on by another expert with an entirely different perspective.

This blog does just that.

Jacqui Malpass believes that organisations should embrace social media and capitalise on it for knowledge management, marketing and personal development.

Emma del Torto, whilst believing in the benefit of social media for marketing of businesses, has a more cautionary approach…….

In this blog we each put forward our point of view.  Look out for our next blog where we attempt to agree a way forward.

JACQUI SAYS:

With so much fuss being made in the news about social media use at work, is it time to look at how we harness the power of the social media generation for organisational benefit?

Imagine if there was a way to use social media as a branding tool for employees.

How much does your organisation pay in marketing, branding and PR? Some organisations pay millions to brand themselves and then discard the potential of employee branding. 

Whilst you may argue that employers have no control over how their staff are portrayed to the outside world and that they have no rights over how an employee presents themselves, I think organisations are missing a trick.

Personal branding that complies with corporate branding guidelines can only be good for the organisation.  We live in a digital world, instead of turning to Yellow Pages, most people look online first.  How often do you hear the response ‘oh just Google it’?

So whilst Googling you, they are also Googling your employees.  If, your employees are demonstrating expertise and professionalism through the way that they communicate viasocial media, it can only be good for you, can’t it?

As an example you could start by asking employees to register on LinkedIn and set up the company information to the branding guidelines set down.  Obtain testimonials and link to the company pages.  Join groups and start conversations with key contacts to maximise opportunities. 

How refreshing to have a well populated blog featuring case studies, news and updates from the MD and staff from a range of business disciplines. 

What about the idea of internal social media tools for capturing knowledge, know how, idea sharing, helping our peers, creating a news channel for effective communications and speedy response to problems.  The argument being, that if the staff are well versed in using Facebook and Twitter at home, they can migrate that learning and culture of sharing in-house.

Looking in from the global market place, imagine how your potential customers, funders, suppliers would feel when they discovered your blog.  A blog which demonstrates the combined knowledge and insight of team members at all levels of the business.  They would, I am sure, be impressed by such an innovative, modern approach.

Of course it requires work to curate and manage these new processes and systems, however, if we want to capitalise on our intellectual assets, isn’t it worth embracing social media?

EMMA SAYS:

Now I don’t want to be a complete killjoy or in any way dampen the enthusiasm of Ms Malpass. Giving employees access to social media to promote a business and to share knowledge is, in theory, not a bad idea.

However, it is quite simply a matter of control. Control of the employee and quality control of the material that goes out in the name of the business. This would include managing the content, tone and form and ultimately the result is managing the reputation of the business.

Does the workplace organisation have a policy on social media? And I don’t just mean one that sits in a handbook somewhere gathering dust or on the intranet unread. I mean a policy that everyone is aware of, understands and knows the implications of and the consequences of not adhering to the policy.  Most SMEs will not yet be on top of this.

I have recently had to advise a business where an employee set up a Facebook group for other employees who were all engineers working remotely. The name of the group had the name of the organisation in it. It was originally set up with the best of intentions, to share knowledge and to give a sense of belonging to a team of employees who were all essentially loneworkers. The employee who set it up became disgruntled and the content of the postings then became a forum for venting anger about the employer. This of course had a very negative effect and left the employer with no option but to consider disciplinary action against that employee.  

However, managed well and controlled by the organisation, an on-line group could be really helpful for knowledge sharing and employee morale. And in this case the risk was minimised because it was a closed group that did not include contacts, prospects and customers.

The risk to employers of employees speaking badly of their employer is now more serious than the disgruntled employee going down the pub and mouthing off about his or her manager. Putting something on Facebook, for example, can be seen by a much wider audience than the local public house. Often an audience that the employee had forgotten was there. For example, it has been a fairly common occurrence  over the last few years to have to advise the business whose employees have called in sick, only to post on Facebook that they were off to the races, having a duvet day, were off on an all day drinking session....you name it. There is a blurring of the lines between private and public lives that is unprecedented. The employees forget that their clients/customers/manager/colleagues may also be reading what they are saying.

What it calls out for is training for the employees who are to be allowed to blog, Facebook, Twitter etcetera in the name of the business. They need to know how to do it properly and also the potential consequences of not doing it properly.

So, yes, embrace it by all means.....but do so with your eyes wide open. A bit like embracing a tiger who you have been assured is a cuddly, fluffy, tame and friendly beast. Watch out for those sharp teeth and claws, because there is no doubt in my mind that social media is a very wild animal!

Is it better to say nothing? Some food for thought...

In  the recent High Court case of McKie v Swindon College the employer decided to dismiss the employee following a damaging e-mail received from a previous employer. The e-mail effectively made damaging, but unsubstantiated, allegations about the employee and referred to concerns of 'safeguarding issues'. The Judge commented on the power of these allegations in current times and made clear causal links between the email and the resulting dismissal of the employee. It was of course relevant that the industry sector in question was education. 

Briefly, the facts were that the HR Manager at Swindon College sent the email on hearing that McKie was newly employed by the University of Bath. Swindon College contracted with the University of Bath in the delivery of a number of courses and in McKie's role he would have had to attend Swindon College to deliver the courses. Essentially, the HR Manager said in the e-mail that this was not acceptable due to their 'safeguarding' concerns. The reference that Swindon College had provided for McKie 6 years earlier had been glowing and all the evidence from ex-colleagues supported the fact that the email was without substance. McKie successfully sued Swindon College for negligent misstatement.

There are a couple of noteworthing points arising from McKie. First, an employer has to be wary about what is said or written about an ex-employee and not just limited to the reference. Employers also need to think carefully about how they deal with departing employees when there are genuinely serious concerns (this especially effects sectors such as healthcare and education and is not limited to the public sector - we only have to think about nursing homes and day care nurseries to put this into perspective).

This recent news from the High Court reminded me of some wise advice from my mother, "Better to say nothing, if you have nothing nice to say."

But I wonder if that is really true in a situation where an employer has to deal with genuine concerns about an employee. All too often it is easier for employers to not deal with proper concerns in relation to employees  and dispatch them with a reference, whilst being grateful that they had off loaded a problematic employee. T

The upshot of McKie v Swindon College is that if an ex-employer provides foreseeably damaging and false information about an ex-employee (even though not even strictly in the form of a reference), then the ex-employer may be in breach of a tortious duty of care such that, if the ex-employee sustains loss as a result, the ex-employer may be liable in damages for negligent misstatement.

If you want to read the case here is the link : http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/469.html

The simple things...

I am constantly reminded how the simple things, or rather the failure to deal with the simple things, can get an employer into hot water.

The simplest thing when you take on a new employee, be it on a permanent or temporary basis, is to give them written terms and conditions. It is so simple in fact, that the law says you have to do this within 8 weeks of an employee starting work. The danger of not giving an employee such a letter is that an employee could take issue with this and bring a claim to a Tribunal. An Employment Tribunal has the power to award between 2 - 4 weeks salary for a failure to provide an employee with their written particulars. A harsh slap on the wrist for something which is seemingly so simple!

It does not need to be a fancy contract, drafted by a snazzy lawyer, costing you a lot of money to prepare, and does not need to be printed on watermarked paper. It need only be a single page setting out the basic "who, where, what, why, when and how much".

It is surprising how many employers following recruitment fail to put this in place. This can be for a number of reasons and usually it has to do with time. Recruitment is often usually done out of need and sometimes has to be done quickly. Another reason is that it is a job that has been delegated to "someone else" and "someone else" has failed to carry out that task. Oops.

The easiest way is to have a template letter pre-prepared on the office computer and ready to print out to give to a new starter so they know the terms that they are working under. The template could even be printed out and the gaps filled in by hand if there is any technophobia or simply no one to delegate the task to.

If you want to be able to delegate all HR tasks to an effective and efficient "someone else" who knows about HR, but you cannot justify employing an HR manager within your business - consider outsourcing this job. Don't forget that our outsourcing packages start for as little as £50 per month!

If you have read this and thought, "I need to get my hands on a template like that and pronto!" Drop me an e-mail and I will send you a template free of charge.

emma@effective-hrm.co.uk

working into our 70s and beyond...

Employees will need to continue to eat their apples in order to keep healthy and work longer.


On 6 April 2011 the default retirement age of 65 was abolished. This means that employers can no longer simply retire an employee on the basis that they have reached the age of 65.

What does the law say?

Unless employees who are already 65 or over or who will be 65 on or before 6 October 2011 have been given the requisite notice before 6 April 2011, it will be unlawful for employers to retire those employees for reaching the default retirement age of 65.

The law refers to ‘transitional provisions’, which mean that certain retirements will still be lawful, but the conditions of this are that (i) that the notice of intended retirement has to be issued on or before 5 April 2011, (ii) the employee to be retired has to have reached the age of 65 on or by 30 September 2011 and (iii) the statutory retirement procedure needs to have been followed.

What is ‘objective justification’?

Employers intending to retire an employee must be able to justify the reason for the retirement.  Potential reasons would be succession planning or for health & safety reasons. The downside of getting rid of the default retirement age is that employers may well need to turn more to capability procedures when considering how to fairly dismiss employees who might not be able to carry out their role.

What does this mean for in practice for employers?

For employers it means that there is a risk that any dismissals made from 6 April 2011 onwards will constitute direct age discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010).

This essentially means that where employers have given correct notification to employees due to turn 65 or who are already 65 within 6 months from 6 April 2011, the transitional provisions will apply.

During the last three years of the current recession the Employment Tribunals have seen a huge increase in claims to the Tribunal for unfair dismissal arising out of redundancy. No doubt the statistics are largely attributable to the economic climate and the sheer numbers of redundancies that businesses have had to make, however, more employees are aware of their rights and there is also an increase of “no win no fee” businesses offering to conduct Tribunal claims for dismissed employees. It is likely that there will be a rise in age discrimination claims brought to Tribunal.  

How can employers try to safeguard against potential Employment Tribunal claims?

With a growing awareness and increased claims culture, it is even more important for employers to have really good Human Resource management systems in place. Simply put - aggrieved employees bring claims. Employees handled well are less likely to bring a claim.

Many claims can be avoided by ensuring that the policies and procedures in place specifically relating to retirement, but also in all HR related general, are followed correctly and explained clearly.

What should employers do now?

It would be good practice to write to all your employees to inform them of how you intend to deal with retirement in the absence of the default retirement age. Employers may decide to amend employees’ contracts of employment to change the wording relating to retirement. Remember that the usual provisions in relation to changing contract terms will apply and employees will need to consent to any variations in writing. No doubt the retirement policy in the staff handbook will also have to be amended.

Other implications to consider : as a result of the change to the law on retirement, employers are allowed to withdraw or not to offer insured benefits to employees who are aged 65 or over.

Got a question about retirement or any other HR query?

Drop me an e-mail on emma@effective-hrm.co.uk and don't forget that our monthly HR support and advice retainers are available to businesses to keep the business up to date and compliant! start from as little as £50 per month!

Healthy HR management

Welcome to my blog. My mission is simple. My objective is clear. I am on a mission to make small to medium sized businesses aware of the necessity of having sound HR policies and practices in place. It is not difficult and the best way to do it if you have less than 100 employees is NOT to hire a full time human resource manager, but to outsource the HR responsibility to an expert provider of that service.

All too often I have to deal with a situation where I am actually digging the employer client out of a problem that would never have occurred if they had operated good policies, practices and procedures.  But then, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

It is never to late to start to apply good practice and to get the foundations of good employment law & HR infrastructure in place, whether you are a small start up company or a business that has been trading for over 20 years and managed to date without issuing your employees with so much as an employment contract. Now is the time to professionalise your operation and take the headache of HR away.

We all remember the addage that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away". Think of good HR management as the apple that ensures that you keep, not the doctor, but the lawyers (and hefty legal fees) away from your business!

Some top tips to consider when looking at the HR aspects of your business:

1. make sure your employees have employment contracts (or at least a written statements of terms)
2. make sure you have a relevant and compliant staff handbook
3. try to keep up to date with relevant changes (don't miss our next blog on significant changes in employment law from 6 April 2011)  
4. be in charge of your business by knowing the boundaries of what you can and cannot do as an employer
5. consider outsourcing the HR function to an expert, thus freeing up the office manager, the financial director or the owner manager to do the job that they are best qualified to undertake. You will be surprised at how cost effective outsourcing can be!

Effective HRM offer a free health check. We will give your business documents a once over for free and give you our expert prognosis on what you need to do to improve your health!  http://www.effective-hrm.co.uk/

Our monthly retainer packages start from as little as £50 per month.

e-mail me today on emma@effective-hrm.co.uk