Equal Opportunities

Diversity and Equality

In businesses equal opportunities are set in place to make sure that discrimination is kept to a minimum, allowing employees to feel safe and comfortable. Organisations now days have such a diverse group of people working for them they need to make sure that people are aware of others culture and beliefs and by integrating diversity with equality businesses can make sure that employees are happy at work

Article

In an article from the Times newspaper Margret Mountford was interviewed on how she felt about sexism in the workplace. Throughout the article it can be seen that she feels very passionate about women working their way up the career ladder are reaching the top of the business. She believes that women should be given the same opportunities as men as they are working just as hard for them.

She highlighted the face that in many industries women are give certain roles mainly because the business has to have a equal work balance so having a board full of men would be seen to be sexist, but the fact that this is not fair on women who have been working hard or men who are just as able and willing to do the job.
In the article the problem between a woman’s work and family life can be seen as some women may find it hard to climb the career ladder while looking after children and may just settle down with a job that is easier to cope with
Age legislation impact

This legislation has affected businesses in many different ways, it has lead to businesses no longer being able to discriminate against people of a certain age group such as students and lady and older workers are slow and un-efficient. A few positives for businesses that have came out of this legislation is that now they are more open to different age groups they will be able to get employees who will bring more and new skills to the business as well as a fresh pair of eyes. Another positive of the age discrimination act is that employees feel safer within their jobs as older employees may have felt that they could have been made redundant and replace with a younger worker.

To reduce the amount of discrimination when employing new people the businesses should not look at the age of the person and take a wild guess at what they are like because of stereotypes, but look at what the person has achieved and done previously.

Equal opportunities within businesses

Marks and Spencer’s place a lot of emphasis on their equal opportunities policy and set out a number of rules that they abide by such as promoting a working environment free from discrimination, harassment and victimisation on a number of different basis.

Another company that takes equal opportunities and diversity very importantly is Sainsbury’s who have created a programme for all its employees which states what is need for the job allowing the job to be open to all employees

Conclusion

Equal opportunities are extremely important within businesses as without them employees would be de-motivated, in a an environment which does not feel safe and ultimately result in high staff turnover, good equal opportunities also make the business look better and improvers their brand image with customers, employees and competitors.

References

Marks and Spencer’s Ltd (2010) Equality of opportunity for everyone. [online]. Available from http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/mscareers/careers_about/our_diversity [Accessed on 30th April 2010]

Sainsbury plc (2010) Corporate responsibility. [online]. Available from: http://www.jsainsburys.co.uk/cr/index.asp?pageid=25 [Accessed 30 April 2010]