Page 41 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

Finland (5.6%). Other surveys carried out in national contexts suggest the same
(such as Bender et al., 2009).
Older workers tend, nevertheless, to have a high level of undocumented
learning activities at work. Schalk and van Woerkom (2010), based on a sample
of more than 5 000 employees (average age 39.96 years) from seven countries
(Belgium, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK), working in
a diversity of sectors observed that older employees experience more on-the-job
learning opportunities in their job than younger employees.
This has a number of positive effects: they are more satisfied with the
organisation’s provision of learning opportunities to the worker, feel more self-
commitment to learning and developing, and feel less likely to change or quit their
jobs compared to younger workers. The same study revealed that this type of
learning opportunities given in the job are positively related to employability and
job satisfaction, and negatively related to the intention to quit. For older workers,
job satisfaction scores higher than employability.
The results also show that the group of ‘older workers’ is not as consistent
as expected and that there are large differences between the age category of 45
to 55 years old and older than 55 years. The figures for the group older than 55
shows a decline in the scores of most of the variables included in the study
(learning opportunities, provision of training and development opportunities,
employability, job satisfaction and intention to quit) compared to the group of the
45 to 55 years old.

3.3. Active age management in organisations

3.3.1. Few recruitment or retention strategies for older workers
There are few European statistics available on whether companies have
implemented active age management policies. Some evidence can be found,
although a little outdated.
A Manpower survey across 25 countries in 2006 (Manpower, 2006),
provides some insight into whether or not companies have adopted strategies to
recruit or retain older workers (Figure 6). Only 14% of employers reported a
strategy for recruiting older workers into their organisation and around one out of
five (21%) employers from around the world said they had a strategy for retaining
older workers over the standard retirement age.

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