The Policy Ladder: Understanding Organisational Policies for Multigenerational Workplaces

All business organisations, including our case study organisations, operate within a set of policies generated by government laws and regulation, and in the case of Australia, industrial awardsAward and enterprise agreementsEnterprise agreement. In addition, they also have their own internally generated policies, both formal and informal. There is often a connection between the externally set policies and the makingPolicymaking of organisational policiesOrganisational policies. This connection is well researched in the broader scholarship around work and family policies but less so when it comes to policies affecting older workers. We begin the chapter by introducing the concept of the ‘policy ladder’ to show the connections and how the different rungs shape the policy architecture of an organisation. We next outline the employment relations system in Australia, noting the potential importance of government regulation and awards and enterprise agreements in setting organisational policy. This is followed by describing the findings of the policy reviews undertaken in our case study organisations, organised by reference to seven areas of policy on the policy ladder rungs. The chapter identifies the strengths and weaknesses in the policy architecture for older workers in Australia, identifying areas for improvement for organisations, and sets the scene for closer examination of specific policy areas and practice in the following chapters of the book.