Page 98 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

Guidance is mostly linked to a specific moment in time. Large organisations
with a more formal structure are likely to have a selection process for age-related
guidance embedded in the age management strategy. When an employee
reaches a certain age, additional guidance is offered within the context of generic
human resources instruments. The level of communication between the
employee and the direct supervisor stays the same, but specific emphasis is
placed on the last stage of the professional careers of all older employees.
Another dimension of involvement is the degree of employee participation
obligation. Some approaches are compulsory. This more directive orientation of
guidance is linked to a specific person: that person is identified and seen by the
management as someone who requires (or is entitled to) additional guidance.
This is the case for several of the mentoring projects among the case studies,
though the practice is not so prevalent as the link to a specific moment in time.
In some situations, an individual is labelled as someone who has much
knowledge that must be transferred to ensure that the organisation does suffer a
knowledge gap when that individual retires. This sounds more directive than it is.
For this kind of approach to work, extra attention must be paid to stimulating the
individual to participate; such programmes require a high participation of relevant
older employees.
In smaller organisations, processes are generally less formal and
institutionalised. Age-related guidance is customised at the initiative of either
employee or manager. Such non-formalised start-up guidance stages also occur
in large organisations because of the influence of the organisation culture. When
an organisation has a less formalised way of working and has a less hierarchical
structure, a more informal approach is often used in age management strategy.
In these less formal approaches there seems to be more room for customisation.

6.2.2. The start-up stage of guidance
The activities performed during the start-up stage often are a form of guidance in
themselves. The following dimensions play a role here:
(a) the level of organisation: is this stage undertaken at individual level,
standard or customised, or is it a group process?
(b) employee involvement in the start-up stage;
(c) the channel that is used: examples are face-to-face communication, visits to
information and guidance centres, online services;
(d) providers of the guidance in the start-up stage;
(e) incentives for participation.

Some cases involve a two-step approach to the guidance process:

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