| | By Mick James
If you were at a
social event and said
your consultancy would
never recruit black or
female staff, you’d
probably be asked to
leave. If on the other
hand, you said you
wouldn’t employ anyone
under 50, not an eyebrow
would be raised.
To say that age
discrimination is rife
in consultancy is to
understate the case—it’s
so imbued that most
people aren’t even aware
of it, until they find
themselves at the wrong
end of it. Putting an
upper (or lower) age
limit on new hires, or
having a compulsory
retirement age that’s
just common sense, isn’t
it?
Unfortunately this
sort of attitude is
about to become
seriously illegal, and
by “seriously”,
“expensively”. Age
discrimination
legislation which is due
to come into force in
October 2006, will put
age discrimination on a
par with racial or
sexual discrimination in
the workplace. This
means it will be illegal
to recruit, train,
promote or retire people
on the basis of age,
without an objective
justification. Even
asking someone their age | |
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| | to comment. Meanwhile
the main practices seem
to be carrying on as if
nothing was happening.
I was recently
contacted by Geoff
Lezemore, currently
contracting but looking
for permanent programme
manager roles, who
forwarded this email to
me: “On review of your
CV unfortunately we are
unable to consider your
application on a
permanent basis due to
the fact (consultancy
name) has a retirement
age of 60.”
“In the last 18
months I’ve had two
other examples of major
international companies
declining to pursue the
interview when they
learned my age, on the
grounds that they have
mandatory retirement at
60,” he says. “The
message that gives out
to the marketplace is
that they are not
looking for the best
people for the job—if I
was a shareholder in
those firms I’d find
that unacceptable.”
What’s annoying
Lezemore is that he’s
perfectly happy to have
an upfront discussion
about any age-related
problems, but is always
assured initially that
age is not a
problem—pretty much the
public stance of all the
major firms.
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Barrie Dennett,
senior partner of
ADD-Resources, a premier
retained search
specialist in the
consulting sector, says
he knows a lot of people
in a similar position,
particularly people who
lost their jobs in 2002
and are now finding it
difficult to get back
into consultancy.
However, he believes the
situation may be
improving.
"It used to be the
case that the older you
were, the less likely it
was that you would get a
job in top level
consulting, but the
story has changed," he
says. " .experience is
now much more valuable
and this comes with
maturity.
I see consulting
skills on a spectrum at
one extreme there's the
highly analytic and
business problem solving
work, which requires a
high degree of intellect
and creativity and
arguably little
experience of an
industry sector, at the
other end there's the
experientially-based
work. There has been a
marked shift in the last
few years towards the
more experience based
consulting which is seen
by clients as likely to
deliver practical
results rather than | |
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| | theoretical solutions."
However, Dennett
says, there are
structural issues with
consultancy that will
inevitably lead firms to
enforce an age profile:
"Consultancy careers
are linear in a way that
you won't find in almost
any other profession,"
he says. "Most firms say
they don't practice
up-or-out anymore, but
to put it bluntly, if
you don't take people
out at the top, you
can't put them in at the
bottom."
From next year firms
will need to
“objectively” justify
these practices or face
a blizzard of
litigation. If you feel
like you need some more
help the government has
a very helpful website
here:
www.agepositive.gov.uk.
It might even persuade
you that adopting an
“age positive” approach
could be a way to steal
a march on your rivals
in an increasingly
competitive recruitment
market. After all,
according to government
actuaries, by 2026 half
the UK population that
is over 16 will also be
over 50. Can you build a
successful business
ignoring half the
working population (and
where have we heard that
before?) | |
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| | will be out let alone
putting an age limit in
a job advert. Not
offering training to
older staff or insisting
they move to “lighter
duties” at a set age,
compulsory medicals will
all be out as will
compulsory retirement
before 65.
For the consultancy
industry this means a
major shake-up in the
way they manage the
staff, particularly
those who are due to
retire in a couple of
years. I’ve had a lot of
trouble getting comment
from the industry on
what they’re doing about
it, apart from Deloitte
which has flexible
retirement for staff,
but retains compulsory
retirement for partners,
who are technically not
employees and thus
outside the legislation.
IBM are preparing a
major announcement on
flexible retirement this
month, which we will
keep you posted on.
I suspect that most
HR departments are
frantically working to
get their ducks in a row
on this and aren’t ready | |
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