Page 95 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

CHAPTER 6.

Age management guidance delivery

6.1. Introduction

This chapter describes the guidance process in more detail. Where the previous
chapter focused on ‘what’, the available guidance instruments in strategic
context, this chapter focuses on ‘how’ and ‘why’, the methods used to obtain and
provide guidance.
Section 6.2 looks at the start of the process: who can participate, what is
done to come to a selection of specific forms of guidance and why is this part of
the process structured as it is. The actual delivery of guidance is described along
the same lines: who benefits from guidance activities, what are the relevant
characteristics (level, methods, channels, quality control) and why are employees
engaged (having in consideration if participation in guidance activities is
voluntary, imposed or suggested by management). This main part of the process
is described in Section 6.3. It is followed by a concluding section (6.4).

6.2. Start-up stage

This section deals with the start-up stage of the guidance process. From the start,
guidance can be linked to a specific moment in time or to a specific person. A
variety of dimensions/characteristics is relevant.

6.2.1. Who participates in the start-up stage?
This will be described using several dimensions, also shown in Table 9. The
following dimensions are used to describe who participates:
(a) entitlement and/or obligation: who is entitled or obliged to participate? When
and by whom is such a selection made (if any)? Participation can have a low
or high level of obligation;
(b) actors involved (apart from the employee(s): are there internal and/or
external actors involved?
(c) the level/method of organisation: is this stage undertaken at an individual
level, standard or customised, or is it a group process?
(d) starting the activities: is it linked to a person or a moment in time?

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