1.

Identify the issues ANZ may face in managing a workforce made up of many
different age groups and identify how you would address these concerns.

Total 2000 words and 10 references!!!

The ‘age-diverse workforce’ case study has provided some insight into the problem
that is arising because of an aging workforce, both locally and globally. The issue for
organizations is how to attract and retain workers so that the skills possessed by experienced
people could be transferred to next generations, but more importantly, on how to increase the
workforce participation rate, thus resulting in later retirements. This section will address the
issues ANZ can face with a workforce consisting of different age groups and how to
overcome the potential barriers.
For ANZ to have numerous age groups in the workforce, various issues need to be
taken into account. The issues that ANZ can face include policies in regards to retaining,
attracting, training, development, rewarding, planning, quality of work life, remuneration,
managing change and technological advancements.
From the case study, both the companies and government are worried about the aging
workforce. In order to battle this, companies have offered better work life balance, work
options, while governments have used technology, immigration for short term solutions and
encourage companies to have flexible employment strategies. However, the Business Council
of Australia said that to increase the aging population’s involvement in labour, and
workforce participation rate would depend on the ability and willingness of older Australians
().
There are many barriers for managing an aged workforce. The most difficult one is the
way people think. The elder aged think that retirement is not very far away, and they are
more than willing to spend the latter of their life on their pension funds. Another similar way
of thinking is the early exit from the workforce by young couples. Governments have had
unsuccessful attempts to change this thinking by introducing age discrimination legislation
and employment subsidies (S. Encel 2003). The other side of this is changing the perceptions
of existing employees towards the aged who have created an “age stereotyping” (Chiu et al,
2001) by making them more open minded, aware and accepting.
The various age groups mean that the company has to cater to the needs of each. As such,
the company needs to re-examine its policies towards to its workers. This includes
performance management, training, being flexible, change the youth orientated organisational
culture among others will in order to extend the working age (Penny 2003). Furthermore, in
order to cater to the needs of each person, Feldman (1994) suggests using a decision-tree
frame which will help elder people to make more informed decisions by giving them an
insight on the process of whether to retire early, accept bridge employment or work in
another industry.
The human resource department must consider the limitations that age can put for
physical, digital work and adjust what they offer and to whom. Accroding to Wright (2006)
the older workforce represents as a crisis or opportunity, depending on how certain aspects
are handled. One of the ways, as suggested by Wright is to make the older people feel that
they are valued in the workforce. This can be done by creating a mentor program which will
be the person who connects the young and elder workers in an organisation. The mentor will
provide feedback and look into other aspects such as how to handle the generation gap
between two colleagues.
The other aspect that human resources need to deal with is the phasing out and retirement
of older workers and the new generation breed in the workforce. The key aspect is to phase
out the elder workers and ensure they have enough time in order to pass on information and
experience onto the new work force. For human resources to make the company succeed,
they key is championing in the transfer of information from older aged workers to the new
brred. One aspect of it is using a transitional period and gelling of the aging workers
(Dychtwald 2004). Another way to ensure the transfer of information is by using
On the other hand, recruiting highly skilled workers from the labour market has become
ever so difficult. In today’s world, the availability of skilled workforce has become an arena
for companies to battle in order to employ them. The suggestion is that the company needs to
offer interesting career development perspectives and an opportunity for self-actualisation
(Zack 1999; Davenport et al. 2002).
For the human resource department of ANZ to attract and retain a diverse workforce
means providing excellent work life quality and employment options. As the case study
explores, other companies such as Noni B have done so as well. The work life quality
includes workplace strategies, operations and environment that promote and maintain
employee satisfaction (Lau & Bruce 1998, p. 213). This has been discussed above, thus the
concentration would be in employment options.
The employment options offered will address the diversity in a workforce. Providing
employment options means breaking the traditional working hours of nine to five, five days a
week. According to “Europe ‘must be prepared to manage an ageing workforce’” (2007)
employers must adopt smarter work practices which will help in attracting, retaining,
providing an appealing work environment and perhaps even a more productive one. One
employment option that has been used in the case study is the work life balance. The different
generations want different aspect of work life balance. This is something the human resources
must have knowledge about. A policy used by both ANZ and Noni B of providing part time
work caters directly to the older workforce. ANZ has used other instruments for working
options including doubling maternity leave, access to childcare facilities, salary sacrificing
for childcare payments, and in the area of job practices they have used work sharing,
telecommunicating and work hours.
In order to further address the concerns above, ______ (Guidelines on workplace
diversity 2001) concentrates on three categories. They are planning, implementation and
evaluation.

2. Outline a HR policy (including all the critical HR activities) that could be used by an
organization wishing to increase diversity within its workforce.

One of the first steps for increasing diversity in a company is by having a company policy
which embraces diversity. It should at the least be part of its statement, and can be extended
to the company’s philosophy and its DNA according to Des Benton from IBM (reaping
benefits from diversity). The company can have diversity in each and every part of its
operations. So much so that for companies diversity underpins what a company does.
Examples include ANZ (case study), IBM, Jaguar Land Rover, Scope (reaping benefits from
diversity) among others. For the human resources department, in order to consider diversity it
needs to create a foundation first. This can be done by concentrating on planning,
implementing and evaluating.
Planning considers the current pool of talent the organisation has. This is the starting
point and is to be used as a tool for comparison. From here, the organisation needs to see how
can it become more diverse in its operations. In this place, every thought is just conceptual.
This is also where the company must decide on how to use diversity as a tool in their
programs, where they will use it, how to measure its success.
Have formal, informal recruiting methods
Look for old, young, male, female

Guidelines on workplace diversity 2001)

Job analysis
Human resource planning
Recruitment
Selection
Performance appraisal
Human resource development
Career planning and development
Managing diversity
Health and safety
Employee motivation
Compensation and benefits
Employee relations and/or industrial relations.
Employee relations focuses on workplace relations, and deals with employee attitudes and behaviour
and the relationship between the organisation and its employees.

Dear Carolyn,

My name is Shanay Chodhari. I am taking HRM at Curtin, and I had a question with regards to the
case study. The question I had is that in our answers to the case study, do we need to look
internationally, or only in Australia. Another question is that can I use sources or comments on the
aging population from another country, and are newspapers good references. Lastly, what format
should this assignment be in, report, essay. 

I am sorry for troubling you with so many questions.

Thanking you.

Kind Regards,

Shanay Chodhari

References
2007. "Europe ‘must be prepared to manage an ageing workforce.’" Manager: British
Journal of Administrative Management no. 57: 7. Business Source Premier,
EBSCOhost (accessed August 18, 2010).

De Valk, Penny. 2003. "Ageing workforce issue now a matter of extreme

S. Encel 2003. AGE CAN WORK: The Case for Older Australians Staying in the
Workforce

Chui, W. C. K., Chan, A. W., Snape, E. and Redman, T. (2001) Age stereotypes and
discriminatory attitudes towards older workers:
An east-west comparison. Human Relations 54(5), 629–661.

Feldman, D. (1994) The decision to retire early: A review and conceptualization. Academy of
Management Review 19(2), 285–311.

Dychtwald, K., Erickson, T. and Morison, B. (2004) It’s time to retire retirement. Harvard
Business Review 82(3), 48–57.

Zack, M. H. (1999) Developing a knowledge strategy. California Management Review 41(3),

Lau, R. S. M., & Bruce, E. M. (1998). ‘A win-win paradigm for quality of work
life and business performance’. Human Resource Development Quarterly,
9(3), 211-226. (http://www.macquarieinstitute.com.au/sci-articlelibrary/WP73.pdf)

Hedge, Jerry W.: 

658.300846 HED

International human resource management :from cross-cultural management to managing a

658.3 INT
Essay, with ¾ headings!
Answer both questions at once!
Word count without referencing