Page 89 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

When older employees are informed about the active ageing opportunities,
the next step in the process is to help them interpret the information: this is
advising, which is used less than signposting and informing. This is because
there are age management strategies that rely on the initiative of the employee
(self-help), so that the employee can decide what kind of approach suits him
best.
The advising activities presented in the case studies are mainly aimed at
helping employees to understand the opportunities created in the age
management strategy and their relevance. The following subjects are part of
advising activities:
(a) helping older employees get a better grasp of the effects of retirement, for
example on their income (as in UCLH in the UK);
(b) helping older employees in understanding the relevance and opportunities of
knowledge transfer an (important aspect of the mentorship programmes
featured);
(c) helping older employees create a healthy lifestyle (as, partly, in Enemærke
og Petersen);
(d) helping older employees work on their CMS (as at the career centre at the
Kronoberg County Council).

Teaching and training activities are found in nine cases. In most these are
job-related, apart from UCLH where they aim at teaching CMS.
Assessing is also limited in the cases but is done in three situations:
(a) in teaching and training activities, to be used as input for defining training
possibilities (as in Kronoberg County Council and the Crédit Industriel et
Commercial);
(b) in mentor programmes, to assess the skills of the older employee to be
transferred (as in Rossimoda);
(c) as part of a personal development plan in which the current skill level and
ambitions of the employee are laid down, and can be used for an employee
and his direct supervisor to monitor the development of the employee (the
most interesting examples of this are the Czech Society for Quality and
Achmea).
The presence of sampling, enabling and advocating in the case studies is
limited; only the community of (older) employees created at the Rabobank are
involved in advocating. The formal objectives of the community Wij(s) Rabo are:
(a) promote the employability and the effective redeployment of older
employees within Rabobank;
(b) enforce and promote knowledge and experience transfer, including coaching
and mentoring, especially for junior staff within Rabobank;

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