Page 47 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

people have, nevertheless, indicated in surveys that they would like to work
longer.
Sources in some countries also claim that many companies show little
interest investing in strategies for promoting education for all ages, and in
particular for workers over 50; the benefits are not seen as proportionate to the
costs. In other cases, adult workers avoid training and retraining because they
are unwilling to change old habits, or do not trust the general purpose of the
learning activities.
Despite general low awareness of age management issues, there are a few
examples of companies that successfully incorporated comprehensive systems
and organisational solutions in their management strategies and everyday
operations. In Denmark, for example, the trade union HK reports that one out of
three members were covered by an age management strategy in their last job.
For those formerly employed in the private sector, almost 80% were not covered
by a senior scheme.
A survey among training enterprises in Germany, carried out in 2008, also
shows a more positive picture, reporting that 67% of enterprises which provide
continuing vocational training to their staff take the age structure of the workforce
into consideration. Of these enterprises, 36% were aware of government funding
programmes and 35% feel that continuing vocational training targeted for older
employees is a good idea.
The differences in awareness of this subject are also influenced by the fact
that in some countries, especially the new Member States, active ageing is a
relatively new concept. For example, although statistics are not available there
are reasons to believe that most Estonian enterprises have not implemented any
active age management policies, since the whole concept of active ageing and
everything related to the subject is quite new and awareness is rare. This type of
deduction is not supported by objective data, rather being derived from anecdotal
evidence in interviews and conversations during fieldwork.
The economic crisis generally had a negative impact on age management
policies, receiving less attention than in previous years. A concrete example was
reported in Italy where government funding cuts drove a number of enterprises
which developed interesting practices in age management to interrupt these
practices (ASPA, 2010). Similar reports were found in Spain, from national
experts, suggesting that this could also apply in most of the EU.
National level information also suggests that age management seems to
follow a pattern in terms of the size of the firms. When practices are in place they
are developed either by the larger (multinational) organisations or, at the other
end of the spectrum, by small family firms. This suggests an association between

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