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Working and ageing
210 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

None the less, while the range of action triggers to be used has been
relatively well identified, avenues to progress can likely be found in relation to
work organisation. Generally speaking, companies do not take on this task at
the start, but once they do, often after having ʻused upʼ the options that appear
more natural to them such as individual workstation adjustment, it can turn
out fruitful for both employment maintenance and company performance.
Addressing senior employment in companies must be an opportunity for
organisations to change their thinking about work organisation and business
models. For the employment maintenance process to be effective, there must
be willingness to see the principles established within the organisation shaken
up and rebuilt on different foundations. This ability to learn, foresee situations
and revise the operating mode generally contributes to company performance.

11.4. Guidance and counselling practices
for ageing workers: lessons learned from
the study

First an overview of the types of systems observed will be given, before
describing in detail three significant approaches and explaining the lessons
learned from them. As a conclusion, some recommendations will be outlined.

11.4.1. Types of practices observed
Almost one third of the approaches considered in the sample involved
initiatives aimed, in various forms, to guide employees, particularly ageing
workers, on possible directions for their careers, and/or supporting them in
the change process. Table 11.1 offers an overview of the types of system
observed, the background to their inception and the population targeted.
Approaches mainly focused on two of the three factors concerned: skills
and professional commitment. In the approaches targeted on skills, the types
of systems involved are mainly support programmes for redeployment and
mobility, including career-reviews, training, or systems preparing experienced
workers to pass on their knowledge. In the approaches focusing on
professional commitment, the types of systems involved are career-end
management systems, including for instance later career-reviews. In most
cases, ageing workers were not the sole targeted population of the
programmes used. In some cases, they were a priority. But they did constitute
a large part of the measuresʼ benefactors.