Equal Opportunities

The Difference between Equality and Diversity
Equality is where everyone is treated fairly and given the equal opportunity. It also identifies that the needs for others. For example equality within a work place would give a disabled person the equal opportunity to work as you would to a person without any disabilities. The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences.  These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, and religious beliefs. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond within each individual. Age legislation came into force in 2006, this impacts Employers because:

• Employers cannot for age including on the CV.

• The employer must only allow asking a reasonable amount of experience for a certain job role.

• Employers are not allowed to replace a member of staff because of their age for example replacing a 45 year old man with a 18 year old young adult.

• Clear orders of harassment are given for a workplace which is not tolerated against staff, including age discrimination. If an employee is feeling discriminated they are allowed to take legal actions.

• A business must plan interviews carefully considering the fact a young individuals parent may not be able to bring them to an interview in the morning because they may be taking their young children to school, so a business must give other times during the day for them to be able to make an interview successful.

Old People Stereotypes	Young People Stereotypes
Old person may not be able to work in a place that requires strength and hard work.	So not have enough experience to work in a certain role for example sales role may ask for a strong sales background for 5 years.
May not have knowledge on technology e.g. computers.	Young people are not as enthusiastic to work and therefore would take work less seriously.
They do not have the same education as now.	Young women may not have enough commitment to work as they might start a family.
May not be able to learn new technology skills, may find difficulties in learning how to use certain software’s.	Young individuals may rude and very immature not taking work as serious as they should.
They may not have the same enthusiasm to work as they did when they were young.	Young people may not respect other employees.
Have more experience in manual labour than office work.	Young people may not have the right intentions towards work.
They do not have the same enthusiasm or commitment and knowledge than a young person.	Younger people do not pay attention to society and what is happening to business.
May not be able to work alongside other ethnic individuals.	Are not able to make decisions for themselves so they will always be treated like children and told what to do.

 
 
How Organisations can attempt to change these attitudes

Organisations help change attitudes by bringing in diversity, making different age groups work within in the same role as each other, by doing this helps young employees to learn skills from more experienced staff.

Another thing organisations do is apply teamwork, making all age range workers to with each other and complete a task this helps the older employees and younger employees to interact and get to know each other, which would also help the older worker to get to know the younger worker having a different perspective about them to what they have been told.

British Airways Benchmark Practice in Relation to Equal Opportunities
British Airways diversity team launched a new Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which has the aims of ensuring everyone understands the importance of diversity and it should takes place throughout the whole business.

The Diversity and Inclusion Strategy supports being against harassment and bullying, this has become a positive impact which has led to more groups of organisations to empower diversity for example Employers Forum on Belief which is a multi-faith network that gives all religions prayer room inside the workplace.

British Airways also looks to their disabled staff to whether or not their services and products are accessible for disabled people, so to improve on this they also train all their employees to be aware of the disabled needs, giving the organisation a better understanding.

Conclusion
The terms equality and diversity are now spreading more and more around the world and especially within business giving everyone an opportunity to work and become accepted. Diversity not only bring other backgrounds of people together but it also helps business bringing different skills ideas to be used in business.  

References

BBC (2011) Miriam O’Reilly wins Countryfile ageism claim BBC [Online]. 11 January. Available From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12161045 [Assessed Date: 17^th February 2012]
British Airways (2012) Workplace – Responsible Colleague [Online]. Available From: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/csr-diversity/public/en_gb [Assessed Date: 17^th February 2012]