Saga – supporting 'Generation Experience'
For Saga Group – which offers a range of products and services exclusively for over 50s – its customer focus directly informs the way it thinks about its workforce.
Top tips:
- We take care with the wording we use in recruitment advertising, avoiding language such as ‘energetic’ or ‘graduate’, which could introduce an age bias.
- We look to offer flexibility in hours and location, recognising that this can be valuable to people whatever age they are.
- To gain insight from colleagues about what’s working and where we could do better, we hold ‘Age Inclusion Forums’ – listening sessions on age – with members of our Executive Leadership Team.
Recruitment
“Our approach to being age friendly starts from recruitment and onboarding. We analyse data on the age of our colleagues, review how we can drive greater representation and translate this into our hiring practices.
“Wherever possible, we look to offer flexibility in hours, recognising that this can be valuable to people whatever age they are.
“We take care with the wording we use in recruitment advertising, avoiding language such as ‘energetic’ or ‘graduate’ which, although could apply to anyone of any age, could be more strongly associated with younger candidates and therefore introduce an age bias.
“When we select media to announce our vacancies, we deliberately include websites that specialise in jobs for older people.”
Flexible working
“We have many policies and practices designed to support older colleagues, recognising that it’s not just young parents who need flexibility in their working lives.
“We offer grandparents’ leave so that anyone who becomes a grandparent receives one week of paid leave, irrespective of length of service. This entitlement starts on day one.
“We have a menopause policy and have done a lot of work to change the conversation around menopause at Saga. We’re delighted that we’ve been accredited as a menopause friendly employer via the Menopause Friendly accreditation programme.
“It’s important to us that all staff benefit from training and development. This is particularly true of older workers, who are often overlooked for these opportunities in the workplace. We offer internal and external mentoring partnerships to all our people, ensuring there is a good representation of older colleagues on these programmes.”
Given the market we serve, we think it’s really important that all colleagues in the business really understand what ageing means.
Age inclusion
“To gain insight from colleagues about what’s working and where we could do better, we hold ‘Age Inclusion Forums’ – listening sessions on age – with members of our Executive Leadership Team.
“We’re delighted about the positive feedback that we receive. Older colleagues really feel the benefit of intergenerational teams. They feel valued for their experience and they say that Saga has a positive view on age. There’s no expectation about when you will retire, for example. Colleagues tell us that they have unfortunately often experienced ageism elsewhere and we’re pleased they find a much more supportive environment at Saga.”
Reflecting our customer base
“Given the market we serve, we think it’s really important that all colleagues in the business really understand what ageing means and we have delivered a programme of ‘Age Upskilling’ throughout 2022/23. Its aims include ensuring that all colleagues understand ageing and what it's like to age, and that we challenge negative perceptions around ageing and use more positive language.
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