Age Discrimination Issues in Modern Companies - Essay Example

This report sheds light on age discrimination issues that are present in different organizations. The Act A19 has been evaluated critically,and it is found that this act was forced to implement in order to meet the financial constraints solely. It is about indirect age discrimination; it is a requirement for meeting financial challenges. The importance of people management is being discussed, and ways through which organizations can manage their challenges in tight budgetary conditions with fewer workforces have been disclosed such as technology use, public policing, and collaboration. Contents ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION 4 CRITICAL ANALYSIS 5 CONCLUSION 8 References 10 INTRODUCTION Age discrimination can be defined as the unfavorable treatment due to age factor. Age discrimination in any phase of employment is an unlawful act that includes the job description, hiring, interviews, job postings, salaries, merit increase, training, job assignments, evaluation, promotion, benefits, demotion, layoff and employment termination (retirement). Any step that is taken by the employer that affects multiple employees above age 40 called discrimination. One issue regarding age discrimination at work place is that the high-age people considered as an expense in the organization - due to their higher salaries, cost benefits, and pensions – as compared to young employees. Two types of age discrimination exist in all organizations one is direct and second is indirect age discrimination. Direct age discrimination involve dismissing someone, not promoting, refusing them to give training, and giving them adverse terms and conditions just because of their age. Indirect discrimination includes benefit rules of employment, selection criteria, and policies these sorts of age discriminations are unlawful. However, if organizations have policies regarding promotion or retirement of employees at some limit of age then it is lawful and justified (ACAS, 2011). The objective of this report is to evaluate the age discrimination issues that are present in all organizations. Critically analyze the retirement act A19 that is being used in police organizations as cost cutting tool and presenting diverse people management approaches for tight budgetary conditions in the police sector. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Employees are the biggest assets of any organization, and people management is the most challenging task for managers. Managers are liable to motivate, lead, inspire, train, and encourage them. Hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, retirement, training, and evaluation are some other functions of managers and successful managers are liable to integrate these functions in a way that they can produce a productive workforce. When it comes to police sector then responsibilities performed by police manager are always must be seen in the political context, under economic development, and societal circumstances. Police sector with other lawful agencies is dependent on government for financial requirements. Government due to the financial crisis has limited funds for numerous competing priorities. Therefore, police sector has to face budgetary pressure (Veneziano, 2010). Therefore, Police managers are responsible for providing justifications for operating and capital funds required for delivery of public safety services and for meeting long-term strategic goals. It is encountered in different sorts of organizations that old workers have rigid behaviors and are not willing to respond to change, have medical issues, lack of productivity, fear of new technologies, not quick adopter, and expensive because of higher wages, and unable to stay for a long time if asked. All these issues are real scenarios that are present with high-age people in all organizations (Edwards, 2011). By taking all these aspects into consideration, the importance of A19 law cannot be avoided. This act is dealing with all these problems at the same time. Authorities are asking people for retirement who have completed their 30 years of services and are below the rank of the chief officer. This means that if a person is asked to retire at the age of 48, and if they are not able to upgrade their posts by giving appropriate efforts they must be asked for retirement for the organizational efficiency because these employees have less time in workforce and investment on such people will not be a significant step. However, scrutiny of efficient workers who are about to reach at the rank of the chief officer should be done by managers because increments and promotions are the motivational factors that force employees to give their best in all conditions. Moreover, if people who are about to get promote will be fired or forced to resign, will cause to devastate the motivation of others to perform at their best level and this step will be the failure of managers. However, Authority’s purpose behind this law implication is solely the reduction of budget-cost and increases the efficiency of the organization, which is lawful but, not an appropriate reason (BBC, 2013) and sustainable ways of running effective and efficient workforce. It is indirect discrimination because the cause of retiring people is saving cost, not their age of retirement. It is not the right solution to always ask for retirement of the employees in order to manage the financial problems and issues. This strategy could result in high turnover of employees and it would be difficult for the employees to retain employees. Moreover, employees are meeting all of their required targets and giving their best performances (Michelson, 2006), when will be asked to leave the institution will cause to damage the morale of other employees and this step can increase the turnover that will cost the organization more than ever. However, managers must analyze the profile of each worker and in case of gaps identification they should do the remedial actions and if not find progressive than managers should ask such unproductive employees to leave (retirement) by giving them proper justification. Changing world of crime is demanding change in people management in police sectors and world crisis are restricting organizations to work under tight budget scenarios with less workforce, which is challenging. According to the United States department of justice 2008, financial crisis had considerable influence on policing, and it has tight budgetary conditions, world had to face great unemployment. Despite of all challenges US police did things differently. Organizations asked people for voluntary retirement, and new hiring were freeze in order to balance the operational budget and this step prevented organizations from facing any negative issue. They involved community to deal with increased crime rate with fewer workforces and achieved their targets. By making partnership with community, instead of reacting they have become able to prevent problems from occurring. This novel approach has been used to cut the operating budgets by managing people efficiently in the organization despite providing services in traditional manners. The second option is the combined efforts of diverse organizations that are reason to maximize the available resources, information, and training in the case of maintaining services with less and fewer resources (COPS, 2011). These are some new approaches towards people management is being used currently not in United States. However, in United Kingdom too and worked as a crime-fighting tool for an organization. Use of technology is adopted to meet the challenges with lower workforce such as cameras have been placed on sensitive areas that allow police to respond quickly to the problem instead of waiting for public calls and this evidence based policing enhance the capabilities of organizations (Johson, 2011). Technology helps management to make decisions that were organizations’ limited resources are needed to deploy (Accenture, 2012). These integrated policing system, automates analytics engines, and high quality data provide organizations considerable savings and increases the police officers’ efficiency (Accenture, 2013). Therefore, instead of firing people or asking those for early retirement organizations should freeze the hiring process, layoff the unproductive staff instead of retiring all of them, and keep motivated, change adaptive and creative people in the organization. CONCLUSION People management is ever been a critical chapter in all organizations to manage their work effectively and for the attainment of targeted goals. Moreover, managing workforce with tight budgetary conditions is another challenge for organizations that have been performed effectively and efficiently by numerous authorities. Asking people for retirement at a right age is a lawful act and not age discrimination; it is a strategy of managing organizations with less operational cost and employees. However, asking the whole workforce for departure who has completed certain time in an organization is not a good idea; and will cause to lose some specialty and experienced workers that cannot be replaced by new hiring. In such cases, organizations must adopt some strategic approaches through which they can retain productive employees and layoff unproductive. Technology can be helpful for organizations in a number of ways. For instance, technology is helpful in cutting down the operational cost, collecting and maintaining the database of all criminal activities. Moreover, with the help of technology this database could have been shared with different departments. Organizations should do the collective efforts that will maximize the less available resources, training, and information. Public policing is the best step that is taken by the United States and United Kingdom’s police for the people management; these approaches enable authorities to respond quickly and require less cost. By engaging private sectors, organizations can improve outsource administrative functions, share back office services, and improve support services. They can also cut the cost and non-policing responsibilities. References Edwards, S. (2011). Age Discrimination in The Workplace: Is It Ageism or Your Attitude?. Forbes, Available at http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneywisewomen/2011/03/02/age-discrimination-in-the-workplace-is-it-ageism-or-your-attitude/ [Accessed April 24, 2014] Michelson, R. (2006). Preparing Future Leaders for Tomorrow: Succession Planning for Police Leadership. Police Chief Magazine, Available at: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=904&issue_id=62006 [Accessed April 24, 2014] ACAS. (2011). A guide for employers and employees: Age and the workplace. Available at: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/e/4/Age-and-the-workplace-guide.pdf [Accessed April 24, 2014] Veneziano, T. (2010). The Business of Policing: Managing for Value. Police Chief Magazine, Available at: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2110&issue_id=62010 [Accessed April 24, 2014] BBC. (2013). Force police retirement about efficiency. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-21659171 [Accessed April 24, 2014] COPS. (2011). The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies. Available at: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e101113406_Economic%20Impact.pdf [Accessed April 24, 2014] Johson, K. (2011). Police tap technology to compensate for fewer officers. USA today, Available at: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-24-police-crime-technology-facebook.htm [Accessed April 24, 2014] Accenture. (2012). Preparing police services for the future: Six steps toward transformation. Available at: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Preparing-Police-Forces-Future-Six-Steps-Towards-Transformation-Transcript.pdf [Accessed April 24, 2014] Accenture. (2013). Preparing police services for the future: Six steps toward transformation. Available at: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Preparing-Police-Services-Future.pdf [Accessed April 24, 2014] Read More