Case study

Westbury Homes

Westbury Homes is a house-building service. Older workers are employed in a wide range of roles at all levels in the company.

Business benefits Older workers are an integral part of the organisation, valued for the experience that they bring to the job and are able to impart to other colleagues, and their ability to relate to the house-buying public.

HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES:

Age is included within the equal opportunities policy as one of the factors that staff must not discriminate on the basis of. The operation of the equal opportunities policy is monitored in relation to ethnicity, sex and disability but not explicitly in relation to age. However the fact that a quarter of all employees are aged over 50 suggests that the company has an age diverse workforce. The company is about to introduce a new personnel system, and that should enable it to monitor all aspects of the equal opportunities policy more effectively than has been possible to date.

HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES:

Recruitment

All vacancies are advertised both internally and externally and are open to all appropriately qualified applicants, regardless of age. Job applications are made on the company's own form with personal details contained on the back. Applications are accompanied by a covering letter describing how the applicant meets the requirements of the post.

Selection

The selection process is driven by the person specification and job description for the post. At the shortlisting stage all applications are scored against the key requirements for the job; at interview the focus is on the key competences required and the evidence that the applicant is able to produce at interview to show that they possess them. Applicants are scored on the extent to which they can demonstrate what is required to do the job.The applicant with the highest score is offered the position. The company's aim throughout the recruitment and selection process is to ensure that the basic steps outlined above are followed.

There is an understanding that if best practice is followed, then a rigorous and fair process will ensure that the best candidate is selected. To this end all those involved in recruitment are trained in the operation of the recruitment process. The company has not made specific efforts to target older workers in its recruitment activities. However, if the prescribed process is adhered to then older applicants will not be excluded from jobs on the grounds of age. The fact that a quarter of the company's workforce is aged over 50 suggests that this is what happens in practice.

Company culture

The company prefers to ensure that policies and practices that allow open access are developed and implemented on the basis that, if this is done successfully, then a diverse workforce should result. An 'Employee of the Month' award has been introduced with award winners and other nominees being listed in the in-house magazine. This helps to reinforce the notion that, despite regional autonomy, all employees are part of the Westbury Group.

Training and Development

All new staff attend induction, regardless of level or age. Training is provided on a 'needed to do the job' basis regardless of age - for example it takes 2 years to be fully trained as a sales negotiator. The company have taken on many older workers as sales negotiators even though their working life may be relatively short once they have completed their training.

The company sees itself as a 'people developer', regardless of age. All staff have a regular review of their performance on an annual cycle. The identification of individual training needs is part of this process. The training needs identified are then consolidated into regional and group training plans which are then approved by regional and group boards before being actioned by regional training co-ordinators. Where training requirements cannot be met, alternatives such as work shadowing and self-driven projects are looked for.

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Promotion

The company has formalised its approach to succession planning by introducing a Skills Review Workshop for individuals currently employed at manager level who have been identified by their line manager as having the potential to progress to senior management/director level. The emphasis of the workshop is on producing a personal development plan for the individual that together with mentor-support, will help them move forward within the company. Again the SRW process is open to all those nominated by their line manager regardless of age (one of the older employees we interviewed had been on an SRW).

More generally all vacancies are advertised internally as well as externally and age is not a bar to further development within the company. For example, one of the employees we interviewed had joined the company (aged 43) as maternity cover for a payroll clerk and progressed, through promotion and related training and development to Head Office HR manager. Another of our interviewees (aged 49) had been asked by the company to consider a promotion opportunity - ultimately they turned it down because they were happy in their existing job.

Flexible work practices and job design and ergonomic adjustments

The company tends to respond to challenges as they arise, regardless of age. For example, an employee whose job required a lot of driving was given a special car seat and head rest when they developed back problems to enable them to continue to work. Subject to operational constraints, there are opportunities to switch to more flexible hours, part-time working and/or job share arrangements.

Redundancy

Redundancy decisions are based purely on skills, experience and employment record - a scoring system is used. In a hypothetical situation, where two people scored the same, the older worker is more likely to be retained (financial considerations are likely to be an influence on the decision).

Retirement

It is a requirement of the company pension scheme that all employees retire at the state pension age. Reduced hours options are available for those approaching retirement, though there are few if any instances of this being undertaken. The company has introduced a system whereby site managers who are approaching retirement are moved to coaching/mentoring roles to provide support and impart knowledge to younger managers, prior to their assuming full responsibility for the role. One of our interviewees who was approaching retirement was expecting to be consulted about a mechanism through which she could impart her knowledge to younger employees.

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