The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act….

As you all may know The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act was introduced on 1st October 2006, making it unlawful to discriminate against individuals on the basis of age in recruitment and employment.
We thought it might be useful to give you some pointers on writing your Job Descriptions – particularly if you are using job boards like www.workinproperty.com to advertise your vacancies.

Remember a job description is their to outline the duties required of the position along with the skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out these duties in a succesfull way.
Avoid any reference to the age group of the desired applicant or the age group of any colleagues that the successful applicant will be working with, e.g. ‘applicant needed to work with a young, lively team’.
Add the words ‘or equivalent’ next to any academic qualifications. Stating a specific qualification such as GCSE could be deemed as ruling out many older people who left school before GCSEs were introduced.
Avoid using words like ‘junior’ and ’senior’” or mature” in your description also be aware of the implications of using it in job titles.
Avoid asking for ‘x years experience’.

You may also it helpful to monitor how effective your recruitment process is by monitoring the number of candidates of different age groups who applied, were short-listed, interviewed and appointed.