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*		 The business case for age diversity
seizing the opportunity*

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Copyright ©2002
The Employers Forum
on Age

Tel: 020 7981 0341
Fax: 020 7981 0342

Overview | Reduced costs - increased profit | New markets | Employers of choice | Becoming more attractive to investors | Greater efficiency

By abandoning their prejudices about what makes a ‘younger ’ or ‘older ’ worker, smart companies are gaining competitive advantage and financial benefit:

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'Corporates are at another crossroads. Attributes that would make them ideal for the 20th century could cripple them in the 21st'

Business Week
July 2001

  
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employee -> market -> reputation

  • Employee
    • Reduced costs as a result of improved employee retention
    • Access to a wider labour pool
  • Market
    • Increased focus on new opportunities in their marketplaces
    • Opportunites to get closer to customers and reflect their interests and needs
  • Reputation
    • Exemplary corporate citizenship helps build commitment from all
      stakeholders...
    • ...and supports and encourages brand loyalty

'Prepare for change' would be a good motto for the 21st century, at a time when businesses are constantly reinventing themselves to cope with the fast-moving global economy.

In such an environment, where every opportunity for commercial advantage must be seized, age diversity would seem heaven sent as a means of coping with change.

Businesses that undergo periods of rapid and frequent evolution make rigorous demands on the people employed to make it happen: the workforce. Senior executives need to recognise opportunities for competitive advantage and to exploit them quickly and efficiently, while their employees must have the experience, flexibility and imagination to turn opportunity into reality.

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The age opportunity

Man sampling soil

Age diversity is just such an opportunity for gaining competitive advantage; the challenge for business is to recognise its potential.

A smart company will do this by eliminating age prejudice from its employment practices, as a first step towards building a balanced workforce for the 21st century economy. This section of the site explains some of the benefits of age diversity and how they can impact positively on a business' bottom line:

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