Hiring. Firing. Retiring: EFA Awards, Celebrating Success And Inspiring Others
4 October 2007

The Employers Forum on Age Awards 2007: Winners Announced

In April this year, The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) launched a new annual awards programme to mark the first anniversary of the age regulations. The awards ceremony, held at BAFTA on the 2nd October 2007, highlighted the innovative ways employers are tackling age discrimination in the workplace.

In the six months since the award programme was launched, over 45 different polices and age initiatives were entered. Our judges were tasked with selecting winners not only for the success of the policy submitted, but also on the potential to inspire others. Eight truly exemplary organisations were given EFA awards at yesterday's ceremony.

The Co-operative Group won two awards, taking home the EFA Award for Reward and Retention and Best Private Sector Award. The judges said that "the Co-operative Group has shown outstanding leadership on the age agenda and has driven change across its many faceted businesses".

Sainsbury's Supermarket was recognised in the innovation category for its baking apprenticeship scheme; open to all ages, the scheme develops essential skills and equips apprentices with real, transferable qualifications.

Sam Mercer, Chief Executive of the EFA comments: "These awards are important on three levels; they give employers the recognition they deserve for tackling age discrimination, they set the standard for what others should be seeking to achieve and they demonstrate the breath and complexity of ageism in the workplace. This is the first year the EFA has undertaken such an ambitious award programme, and we were overwhelmed by the quality and variety of applications, so much so that these awards will now form part of our annual programme."

Other winners include:

• B&Q, still a beacon for the benefits of age neutral recruitment
• BT for its object lesson in how to operate without a retirement age
• Centrica for engaging its employees on age
• British Library for its comprehensive approach to updating all its policies
• Hertfordshire County Council as a leader on age diversity in the public sector