Case study

Marks and Spencer

Age Positive Champion

We successfully removed our mandatory retirement ages and have seen the number of employees who want to work past the age of 65 increase significantly.

Age is a part of our equal opportunities strategy. By examining both ends of the age spectrum we are able to maintain real age diversity in our workforce.

Denise Keating, Head of People Proposition

OUR AGE POSITIVE GOOD PRACTICE:

We set ourself the challenge of attracting staff of all ages, with the following strategy:

• reviewed policies and made HR staff aware of age issues
• removed mandatory retirement ages
• increased use of flexible retirement and introduced flexible retirement policies
• carried out internal marketing to promote the changes in policies
• encouraged stores to carry out various local initiatives to target older workers.

We are members of the Employers Forum on Age and share our experiences with other employers.

BENEFITS OF OUR GOOD PRACTICE:

Since our Older Workers Policy was introduced, the number of M&S employees aged 65 and over has increased, and our youth policies have increased sales floor coverage for peak weekend trading. We have successfully added to the diversity of our workforce and retained high-performing members of staff. Also, we have enjoyed good press coverage, and we won Personnel Today's Age Positive At Work Award 2002.

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