Page 87 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

is subjective and diverse not only among countries but also among organisations.
Enemærke og Petersen offers regular health checks to employees older than 45
and ‘senior conversations’ and ‘annual senior conferences’ are offered to
employees older than 55.
In some cases, older employees are not the only target group of the age
management strategy. Management engagement can be important, especially
when it needs to:
(a) be informed and advised about the age management strategy;
(b) be trained in the instruments to be used;
(c) change its own (negative) perception of older employees.

Younger workers can also be targeted by age management strategies, either
because the firm has a lifelong career development perspective for its employees
or because it aids knowledge transmission from more experienced, older workers
to younger colleagues. Guidance activities aimed at younger employees can help
them in:
(a) changing their perception of age in the workplace;
(b) their own career development possibilities;
(c) learning the job at a faster pace;
(d) finding better ways of cooperating with older employees.
Mentorship programmes are an example of policy where older and younger
employees are both targeted by the same approach.

5.3.2. Guidance activities
The many potential guidance activities can be seen in the table below which
summarises those identified in the case studies and classifies them by frequency:
(a) used very often (found in 15 to 20 case studies);
(b) often used (found in 10 to 15 case studies);
(c) limited use (found in 5 to 10 case studies);
(d) very limited use (found in zero to five case studies).

Table 7. Presence of guidance activities in cases
Used very often Often used Limited use Very limited use
signposting advising teaching/training sampling
informing feeding back assessing enabling
counselling following up advocating
mentoring managing
innovation/system change
Source: Authors, based on Cedefop (2015).

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