Page 23 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

employment opportunities develop as younger workers become scarce. Further,
generous financial security (high pre-pension for example) will make it more
attractive to stop working at an earlier age, pulling people out of employment.
Situational challenges, arising from one’s situation or environment at a given
point, relate to a person’s life context, including the social, organisational and
physical surroundings. Empirical research shows that human resources
managers, executives and colleagues regard older employees as being less
adaptable to new technologies (Cedefop, 2010).
‘Prejudices about older workers remain a powerful barrier; employers
continue to suspect that [for older workers] being unemployed indicates
incompetence or lack of motivation’ (Cedefop, 2011c, p. 133). The 2012
Eurobarometer survey on active ageing confirms this picture and concludes that
‘workplace age discrimination is the most widespread form of age discrimination
with one in five citizens having personally experienced or witnessed it. […] More
respondents in the 12 new Member States compared to the 15 old Member
States say they have personally been discriminated against (15% versus 12%)
and have witnessed it (32% versus 25%)’ (European Commission, 2012a, p. 7).
Dispositional challenges are those related to attitudes, self-perceptions and
individual characteristics. ‘A particular challenge for guidance professionals is to
help people acquire the detailed labour market knowledge, career management
skills [and confidence] that they require (Cedefop, 2008a, p. 114).
The barriers are diverse and cannot be reduced to a single factor; in many
cases distinctions between the systematic, situational and individual barriers are
not easy to make. Nevertheless, the distinction appears to provide a useful
classification to address differences in types of barriers individuals face and
different types of outreach strategies providers-/policy-makers can, and should,
use to mitigate these barriers and to increase participation of older workers.

1.5. The role of guidance in active ageing

Increasing the age of entitlement to pensions should coincide with policies that
enable people to have better-quality working lives and be more productive up to
the existing pension age (Maltby, 2011).
The provision of career guidance to older workers could play an important
role in helping to overcome a number of the situational and dispositional
challenges that older workers face. For example, career guidance for older
workers could help individuals overcome low self-confidence, (self and hetero)
stereotyping, barriers to work and learning, barriers to making career changes,
and to find affordable training opportunities (Ford, 2007).

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