Clients - UK Discrimination Act
Don't forget that The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act was introduced on 1st October 2006, making it unlawful to discriminate against individuals on the basis of age in recruitment and employment.
Helpful Hints - Job Descriptions
When posting jobs on voovs.com, your job description should outline the duties required of the position along with the skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out these duties.
- Avoid any reference to the age group of the desired applicant or the age group of any colleagues that the successful applicant will be working with, e.g. 'applicant needed to work with a young, lively team'.
- Add the words 'or equivalent' next to any academic qualifications. Simply stating a GCSE requirement would rule out many older people who left school before GCSEs were introduced.
- The term 'mature' should be avoided unless it is made clear that it refers to attitude rather than age.
- The terms 'junior' and 'senior' should be used with caution and only when they can be objectively justified.
- Avoid asking for 'x years experience'. The quality and relevance of the experience should be important - not the number of years.
You may find it helpful to monitor how effective your recruitment process is. For example, you could count the number of candidates of different age groups who applied, were short-listed, interviewed and appointed.
Exceptions
In a small number of circumstances a recruiter may have a genuine occupational requirement that an employee is a certain age. If this is the case, it should be stated within the job description and justified so that no confusion arises.
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