Equality and Diversity!

The difference between equality and diversity..

Equality

Equality or ‘Equal opportunities’ helps to prevent people from being discriminated against on the grounds of their sex, race, disability, sexual status, religion, culture, age etc. It is all about creating a fairer society through the workplace, or just out at the park. Employers have certain legal regulations to which they must stand by in the fair treatment of any employee; this creates a fairer workplace with no discrimination.

Diversity on the other hand is ‘the recognition of individual differences and that people are not homogeneous. It focuses on the multiplicity of visible and non-visible differences among people’ (Mullins 2010).

The age legislation act came into force in 2006. As an employer of a business, you cannot target people of a certain age for positions that you advertise, and it is not permitted that you refuse to employee someone due to their age. In advertisement, no age preference is permitted and business must be cautious of this fact.

Younger and older people alike tend to have a lot of specific stereotypes about them. Many people hold these stereotypes in and out of the business world and it is unfair to stereotype a person especially for a job role.

Stereotypical views of these generations:

The Younger’s	The Older
·         Unreliable ·         Don’t take job seriously ·         Mess around ·         Liable to have time off ·         Arrogant ·         Rude/obnoxious ·         Slag language used	·         Slow ·         Not efficient enough ·         Rude ·         Cannot work as much as a business may require

Young and Old

Companies should change this attitude especially internally due to the legislation. By employing people in these categories a business can train them in their own rules/ethics so that the there is an equal chance to all, and so that the attitudes towards these younger or older people can be a more positive one. As it is unfair to stereotype and discriminate companies need to emphasise the idea of equality and equal opportunities as the younger person may have an adapt set of skills, and the older person can use good experience of the workplace.

Sainsbury's carried out an extensive recruitment drive in 2005 before the age legislation became law, by making 10,000 full time jobs available for the over 50's. This was a good idea as the older generation were given opportunities to fill these jobs and bring their experiences to Sainsbury's. This also promoted equal opportunity and diversity.

Equality and diversity is important in anyone organisation, the legislation put in place is a positive move as employers should not discriminate anyone. There should be a fair chance to any person, and employees of the business should be treated in the correct manner.