Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Age discriminationRecruitment & retentionRetirement

Minority of employers monitor practices for age discrimination, poll finds

by Jo Faragher 1 Oct 2015
by Jo Faragher 1 Oct 2015

Around nine in ten employers do not monitor whether or not managers are hiring people older than themselves, research by Mercer has found.

Mercer’s Age-Friendly Employer research found that 87% of respondents carried out no checks on managers’ hiring practices for ageism, while the 13% that did discovered that more than half do not hire people older than themselves.

Age discrimination resources

Task: discuss retirement plans with an employee

How to work without a compulsory retirement age

Quick reference: age discrimination awards at tribunal, 2014/15

It also revealed that 92% of respondents in the recruitment industry had never run an analysis to determine whether or not their clients discriminated on the basis of age.

HR policies and procedures in relation to age also left a lot to be desired, Mercer found.

The majority of companies said that they referenced age in their diversity and inclusion policies, but most did so in relation to retirement only.

Eighty-four percent felt that they needed to change processes, behaviours or both in relation to age, in order to retain older workers in future.

Flexible working was shown to be the most prevalent age-friendly working practice, offered by 81% of respondents, whereas retirement programmes were offered by just over half.

And while 36% analysed absence by age to look at the impact of age-related health conditions, slightly fewer (30%) offered age-specific wellness programmes.

This was despite 43% agreeing that older age groups cost more in terms of health insurance provision.

Just under half (45%) of employers surveyed offered advice and support for those caring for ageing relatives, a growing issue as demographics change.

Yvonne Sonsino, Europe innovation leader at the consulting company, said: “A lack of monitoring around age-related recruitment biases not only means that companies are potentially breaking age discrimination laws, it also means they might be missing out on a wealth of experience and talent that could benefit the business.”

Mercer also found that there were limited examples of age equality checks in other key areas such as pay levels by age, performance grade distribution and training spend.

Active line manager engagement with employees, too, was shown to decline as staff reached their late fifties and sixties.

Sonsino added: “There is a direct impact on engagement and productivity at stake here, and those employers that do [age equality checks] already emphasise how effective they can be.”

Minister for Pensions, Baroness Ros Altmann, said: “This survey shows that there is still more work to be done to encourage recruiters to make the most of the talents of older workers.

“It is in the interests of individuals, employers and the economy to ensure older job applicants are not overlooked, as they have a wealth of experience and valuable skills that can benefit businesses.

“Ensuring mature applicants are considered on their merits rather than written off is vital, especially in our ageing population.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Mercer’s research draws on data from its own survey of 69 UK employers, figures from the TUC and recruitment company De Poel.

“For HR programmes to meet the needs of multi-generational workforces, recruitment, talent management and job design, retirement savings adequacy, employee education and training, as well as health and wellbeing programmes will need to be reviewed from a new perspective,” Sonsino concluded.

Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. Jo is also the author of 'Good Work, Great Technology', published in 2022 by Clink Street Publishing, charting the relationship between effective workplace technology and productive and happy employees. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Delivering an effective employee wellbeing strategy: why it matters
next post
Restrictive covenant review as the job market recovers

You may also like

How neuroscience can unlock employee recognition

22 May 2025

Workers ‘wait and see’ as companies struggle to...

16 May 2025

Tribunal finds need for degree in redundancy selection...

14 May 2025

TPT to launch multi-employer CDC pension scheme

12 May 2025

So what does the election of a new...

9 May 2025

Rumours during recruitment: how should HR respond?

9 May 2025

Teacher apprenticeship route to be tied to school...

9 May 2025

British Steel to resume recruitment

8 May 2025

M&S pauses hiring as it deals with cyber...

2 May 2025

Top 10 HR questions April 2025: increases to...

2 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+