Page 103 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

Increasing the value of age: guidance in employers’ age management strategies

peers as actors in guidance delivery. In the cases studied, peer guidance was
only found in settings where informing and some basic elements of teaching are
present.
An example of this is the Rabobank, where the entire guidance process is
developed and organised by employees themselves. Another form of peer
guidance can be seen at Eesti Energia, where personal stories of exemplary
older employees are collected during interviews and shared over the enterprise
intranet. The purpose of this intervention is to show that Eesti Energia values all
its employees, irrespective of age, and to set a positive example to other
employees, older and younger.
Mentoring programmes were found in many case studies. In some, the
mentoring programme is part of the general guidance structure. Two different
methods are used:
(a) a new employee is paired with a more experienced employee as part of the
introduction programme;
(b) every year several older employees have the opportunity to become a
mentor for a less experienced employee to stimulate knowledge transfer
within the organisation.

In some cases external actors provide guidance at individual or group level.
Whenever guidance is provided by an external party, the employer does not
seem to take any specific measures to ensure quality in guidance delivery.
Quality can be an implicit factor that the hiring party looks for, but it is not explicit
in the planning and decision process.
In most cases, an external guidance provider is involved during the
introduction of the age management strategy. Such providers help the
organisation in building the right skills and competences for further guidance
activities within the organisation. Structurally involved external guidance
providers were only found in large organisations.
None of the case studies had an explicit quality assurance framework for
guidance. However, some aspects suggest quality:
(a) an external actor (co)finances the development (and might therefore have
explicit directives regarding the quality of the chosen strategy, approach and
guidance);
(b) an external actor/expert is involved in the development and implementation;
(c) the basis for the approach is good practice or research, and quality is
embedded in this good practice (without any specific quality requirements
described);

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