Recruitment

Advertising

Remove age limits from job adverts, so no-one is discouraged from applying because of their age.

Use language and pictures to appeal to wide age groups.

Avoid phrases like 'applicants should be 25-35 years of age', ‘young graduates’, ‘mature person’ - they are discriminatory.

Publicise your vacancies in ways most likely to attract people of a variety of ages – consider national and local newspapers, free papers, internet, jobcentres, community and business networks.

Be aware that older people increasingly make up a bigger proportion of the population. Ignoring this will reduce your choice of potential candidates.

Experience and qualifications

Avoid specifying a minimum length of experience such as 10 years, as this disadvantages younger workers. The quality and relevance of experience is important - not the number of years.

Avoid phrases like 'only people with GCSEs need apply'. That would rule out many older people who left school before GCSEs were introduced, even though they may have the necessary skills.

Application forms

Remove date of birth and put it on a separate monitoring form that interviewers don’t see.

Asking for age-related information on an application form could allow discrimination to take place. Remove the date of birth/age from the main application form and include it in a diversity monitoring form to be retained by HR/personnel. In addition review your application form to ensure that you are not asking for unnecessary information about periods and dates.

Monitoring

Check how effective your recruitment process is. Count the number of candidates of different age groups who applied; were short-listed; interviewed; appointed.

Graduate and specialist recruitment

If you have special recruitment Programmes for graduates or managers, make them open to all ages.

Recruitment agencies

If you use a recruitment agency, check that they don’t exclude people because of their age.

You need to be sure they act appropriately and in accordance with your company’s equality and diversity policies.

Indicators of good practice

A workforce which is age diverse.
Applications for vacancies are from all age groups.
Person specifications and job descriptions are objective, being based solely on skills, relevant experience and capacity to do the job.

Go to top of page

Go back to Good practice home page