Signing the Age-friendly Employer Pledge – one year on

It's been just over a year since Osborne Clarke signed the Age-friendly Employer Pledge, so it's a good time to report on our progress, and how signing the Pledge has given us increased focus and made us accountable for our actions in relation to Age diversity and inclusion.

Ageing workforce report(s)

Whilst not directly impacting our own people, a key achievement this year has been the publication of our report Providing for tomorrow today: understanding an ageing workforce (July 2023) and its accompanying sector research and findings (Nov 2023). This report, and the follow up, aim to help businesses design and build stronger cross-generational workforces for the future. And, whilst both are written for clients, they are very informative about why it matters to be age inclusive, what organisations can do and the impact age inclusion can have on individuals – so therefore the information is relevant to all.

Age friendly hiring

To benefit from the experience that older people bring, and to provide equality of opportunity, our recruitment team is working with 55Redefined to promote our roles to over 50s who are looking to work in age inclusive workplaces. We will share more on this in 2024.

Creating an Age-friendly culture and environment

Providing an age friendly culture and environment complements our age friendly hiring strategy, both to attract and keep talent across many generations.

An early session in our Inclusion Allies Programme, focused on age diversity and age allyship. In the session our inclusion allies discussed the benefits of a multigenerational workforce. Reflecting on age bias and stereotypes, attendees learnt about practical actions to demonstrate effective age allyship for colleagues of all ages.

We also welcomed Lucy Kellaway, formerly of the Financial Times and now a teacher and founder of "Now Teach" for an internal event hosted by our Age Network. Lucy discussed how age discrimination is widespread and goes largely unnoticed, from our turns of phrase to our assumptions and biases.

Our wellbeing strategy (2023) aims to tackle the work-related causes of poor mental wellbeing and create an environment where positive wellbeing is built into all our ways of working. As part of our wellbeing strategy there is the range of health and wellbeing resources available to all our people.

Specifically age related, is the increase in the upper age limit for our Income Protection Scheme from 65 to 70 years (April 2023) and the introduction of our Fertifa menopause offering introduced in 2022.

Being an age friendly employer for colleagues of all ages is an important pillar in the firm's approach to diversity and inclusion. The Age Network is open to our UK colleagues of all ages to get involved and help drive progress. Just as we have been held accountable since signing the Pledge last year, so we continue to be held to account for the future.

Supporting the Centre for Ageing Better

We are also working closely with the Centre for Ageing Better charitable foundation, which is a National Lottery Funded body whose aim is to create lasting change for the better for those aged 50 to 70.   In 2024, the Centre will be launching a national campaign to target age discrimination in order to create more ab better employment opportunities for this age group.