AGE DRIVER
About the Age Driver
The Age Driver is a self-assessment tool that puts the spotlight on the issue of age diversity in the work place. It is designed to enable you to conduct a structured self-assessment of what you have achieved so far in respect of age diversity and to help you identify opportunities for improvement. The Assessment is based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence model, which is widely used by major UK and European organisations as a means of reviewing performance against internationally recognised best practise.
Responding to age diversity priorities will take you beyond the requirements of legislation; you will be taking action not just because you have to, but because it makes business sense to do so. The self-assessment helps priorities actions that can make the greatest impact. It helps to start the process of continuous improvement with regards to the performance of your organisation on age diversity.
The concept of continuous improvement is nothing new, we are all used to looking at how to improve performance and build upon best practice. A continuous improvement strategy provides a mechanism through which performance can be measured and reviewed and actions to improve performance can be determined. By adopting a continuous improvement approach to the ways we manage diversity we should all benefit from making the most of the talent that is available across all of our community.
This approach to achieving continuous improvement is designed to help you to look systematically at how effectively the organisation fulfils its diversity objectives and to highlight key improvement areas. Once completed, it will show you where your strengths are so that you can build upon the good practice that already exists and it will give you a clear indication of those issues which are important for you to address.
The Age Driver helps you to make an assessment of where the organisation stands on diversity issues. It is aimed at organisations in the public, private or voluntary sectors that take stock of their current position on age diversity before embarking on developing strategic action plans. It is also useful as a way of reviewing progress.
How does it work?
These are the steps that are normally taken:
- Discussion with a facilitator – helps agree how, where and when the assessment will be undertaken, and how the assessment team is to be selected. The assessment team consists of 10 – 15 people brought together for this purpose. Ideally they should represent a cross section of the organisation – reflecting levels, type and location of work, as well as the balance of age and ethnic origin of staff where possible. They should also be volunteers.
- The assessment team receives a briefing – either in a meeting, or in a written briefing on a draft provided by the facilitator.
- The assessment workshop is held – This should take no more that 4 hours. The workshop produces lists of strengths and areas for improvement with agreed priority areas for action.
- An action plan – is agreed following the workshop. This will identify proposed activity priority areas, and who is responsible for each area of work.
- The action plan is implemented and progress reviewed at regular intervals.
- The self-assessment is repeated on an annual basis and more frequently if there are significant changes.
For further details Tel: 0113 262 2789 or email Fair Play Partnership (link to email)
