EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND DIVERSITY
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
The terms diversity, equality and equal opportunities are often used interchangeably, yet they refer to very different approaches and strategies.
Equality is about treating other people with respect. When someone is not being treated right, they will feel undervalued and end up leaving an organisation. Legislation, which makes it illegal to discriminate or harass someone, supports equality. Legislation covers areas such as: sex, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic background, age and disability. There is a collective approach used, which may mean treating certain groups of workers e.g. women or disabled people, the same. Overall, equality is about creating a fairer society where everyone can contribute and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
On the other hand, diversity means difference; it recognises and values people’s differences. Differences might exist in terms of race, gender, disability, education etc. Diversity tends to take an individual approach rather than a collective one. In addition, it goes beyond the legislation, which supports equality. The aim is to treat each person as an individual and involves strategies for the varied individuals to work together to become a dynamic workforce.
An organisation with a focus on equality will be concerned with ensuring that an equal opportunities policy is in place and that its workforce is made aware of it, as well as making sure it is acting within the law. An organisation which focuses on diversity will still need an active equal opportunities policy but may go further on and look at what similar organisations are doing rather well and try and emulate them. Firms that plant their focus on equality and diversity will be able to harness the framework of the law to positive workplaces policies and practices. In fundamental nature, an organisation may be very diverse but with an over-representation of minority ethnic staff employed in unskilled sector jobs; or an organisation may be very equal, but tend to employ mainly males.
AGE LEGISLATION ACT 2006
In October 2006, a new act was passed on which protected employees from being discriminated against their age while working for an organisation. As this legislation came into force in 2006, it covered employment and vocational training. The impact age legislation has on employers is:
· It is crucial that right training is provided to employers so that they are aware of the requirements of the age legislation. Moreover, it is important to bring the right policies and procedures in the workplace to avoid discrimination.
· Companies can gain from businesses employing an age-diverse workforce. Every person is unique and therefore attains different abilities and skills. By employing people from different backgrounds and origins there would be a higher retention rate, greater flexibility, a wide range of skills and higher motivation overall.
· Creating age diverse workforces employers can attract employees within the range of age recruiting and developing both younger and older workers by offering them the right kind of training.
STEREOTYPING AGAINST THE YOUNGER PEOPLE:
They are inexperienced
They tend not be interested and can be lazy
They don’t use self initiative and have to be told what to do on a regular basis
They have no interest in anything that may be important.
STEREOTYPING AGAINST THE OLDER PEOPLE:
Working pace is rather slow and cannot carry out hard work.
Their education or qualifications may be out of date
They are not familiar with modern technology and various modern methods
May get easily stressed
WAYS ORGANISATIONS CAN CHANGE SUCH ATTITUDES
One of the main ways in which organisations can change their attitudes toward the young and old aged employees is by treating both groups of workers equally. Both sets of workers need to be treated with respect, which eliminates stereotyping and results in a better age-diverse workforce. Another way is to look at what the young and old aged employees have to offer to the company. Both sets of workers bring different skills into the working environment. While the older employees have experience and excel in what they do, the young employees bring in more knowledge and ideas which can be taken into consideration and could result in higher retention rate. In addition, organisations can also offer training in areas they are not familiar with and have no experience. This will enable to carry out more work and motivation will be high creating a more diverse workforce. The young employees can learn vital things from the older employees and vice versa.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES PRACTICE AT BRITISH AIRWAYS
“In British Airways we are constantly working towards creating an inclusive culture that understands and respects the individual differences of our employees. In addition we seek to deliver a service which reflects and responds to the diverse range of customer needs. We aim to drive and integrate diversity into all aspects of our service to ensure that we remain competitive. As a company which operates globally, we need to attract and retain talented individuals to reflect the diversity of our customer base. Employing a mix of people from diverse backgrounds leads to potential new ideas and innovation.” (British Airways, 2011)
BA values a diverse workforce and thinks equality and diversity are equally vital to their success and this is a reason why they play a huge part in ensuring they achieve equality of opportunity. BA values everyone equally and has since developed an equal opportunities policy to help eliminate any discrimination that may exist in their company. One of the policies BA cover is:
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations- Prior to the legislation, British Airways ran focus groups to assess employees’ opinions on the changes. There was a broad range of responses, most people felt that the age legislation was a positive step and that flexibility was the key to working for longer. Following those responses, British Airways built a robust programme to encourage age diversity in all areas by challenging stereotypes linked to age as well as considering flexible working options prior to retirement.
To conclude, it is important that organisations take into consideration what abilities different employees have and what they bring to the business; everyone is unique and tend to have their own method of carrying out work. By recruiting people from different ethnic origins will create a dynamic workforce enabling them to getting the job done more efficiently and also higher retention rate. Every organisation must ensure they have an equal opportunities policy in place to rightfully correct any discrimination that may arise in the workplace.
REFERENCES
Mullins, L. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 9th ed. England: Prentice Hall
M.Simpson (2010) PowerPoint presentation.
Business link (2011) Employing Older Workers [online] Available from: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073858787&topicId=1082249786&r.lc=en&r.l2=1079568262&r.s=tl
BAA (2011) Equal opportunities policy [online] Available from:
BAA (2011) The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations [online] Available from:
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