The business case for age diversity

HM Land Registry – Engaging with Line Managers

The background – business drivers / imperatives

Age can be seen as the backbone or key issue in diversity. All of us have an age, can associate with age and age cuts across all other issues

Age profiling and feedback from local personnel managers on the age profile of recruits helped HM Land Registry (HMLR) realise that there was further research to be done and issues to consider.

What HM Land Registry did

HMLR wrote to key managers in each business unit about age – as part of an initiative to raise diversity awareness across the business. This approach was useful as it brought everyone together
A new diversity training programme using scenarios and acting is being rolled out – all managers must attend
An age profiling exercise identified a number of issues around recruitment and training (see EFA Age Profiling HMLR Case Study) and resulted in both reviews of the recruitment process and of appraisal mechanisms
Key competencies and performance indicators were reviewed to encourage managers to respond to the vision and culture of HMLR

What HM Land Registry learnt

Use staff and customer surveys to identify where you are and to measure effectiveness of programmes / initiatives and training
Diversity awareness training is most effective if it provides individual action points with time limits and is thoroughly integrated into management training
Awareness can be kept at a high level by ensuring that both Board and team meeting agendas include a regular item on diversity
Resistance to training take up from managers, can be overcome. For instance an invitation to senior managers to attend a session should ideally come from the CEO, indicating that a) she/he had attended and found a session useful and b) that she/he would like to know why they are not attending
Managers must be made accountable and measured, not just on targets themselves but how those targets are achieved. Aspirational targets can be set across the organisation and if these are not met, then procedures should be reviewed and help offered to improve performance

In future HM Land Registry will – what next – next steps

Measure the results / outcomes of the revised recruitment procedures and provide cost benefit analysis and evidence for the Board to encourage further investment in diversity
Improve monitoring systems to ensure they are robust, accurate and provide relevant information
Consider how to reward managers and staff who meet / contribute to the vision and not reward those who don’t
Ensure diversity has a clear link to operations and is not seen just as an HR function.

Benefits to the business

diversity of talent will enable HMLR to fully creative, productive and deliver the business – age diversity will contribute to the achievement of this aim.

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