Age Management in Europe

Age management is, in words of Walker (1997), “the various dimensions by which human resources are managed within organizations with an explicit focus on ageing and, also, more generally, to the overall management of the workforce ageing via public policy or collective bargaining.”

The interventions in age management are the kinds of things that organizations can do, in other words, the tools of age management. These tools have grown over the years. Today, the tools can be classificated in the following categories: changing attitudes; recruitment; training, development and promotion, wage policy; ergonomics and job design; health and well being; exit policy; and redeployment.

“Good practice in the employment of older workers consists of providing an environment in which each individual is able to achieve his or her broad potential without being disadvantaged by their age”

Walker (2005)

For any age management strategy to be successful it is necessary backing from senior management, a supportive HR environment, commitment from the ageing workers concerned and careful and flexible integration. Methodology

First, we did an appointment with Petra de Saa Perez, teacher of Administration and Organization of Companies in the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. This appointment was by email, and we asked her if we could do an e-interview, with the program Skype. She accepted it, and our group and another student, who also chose the same topic, did the e-interview. The e-interview was 31th of March (Monday) at 18:00 hours. It was a very dynamic interview, although in the beginning there were some problems with the internet conexion, and the image was not clear. However, in the middle of the e-interview the conexion was fixed itself. We were 10 minutes asking about our topic and also 10 minutes of questions of the other group. She also sent us some documents which we did not add because the documents were in Spanish. Some questions asked in the e-interview are the following:

• What are the main factors who have influenced the necessity of the age management?
• In what do consist the age management?
• Which are the benefits of adopting this strategy?
• Do you know any company who is adopting this strategy? What did happen in this company? And the results?
• Can this company be used like an example to other companies?

Like we said before, the e-interview was so dynamic, and also interesting. The most important thing that we can extract of the interview, because she repeated it many times, is that every problem in the company about the ageing workforce is going to be different to other one, because each problem of the Human Resource has to be solved regarding the person, not the employee. However, she also emphasized that every company must to remove each existing age barriers.

She was continually referring to practical examples, with real companies with who she has been working.

After this primary research, we collect more information in internet, where there are some really interesting articles, and we finish with our conclusion.

The Business Context

There are some factors that have influenced in the creation of this Human Resource strategy, the age management, such as:

Demographic shifts

Developed countries are nations with a very old population. For example, in U.S. the number of workers over 55 is projected to nearly double from 2002.(1) In appendix one you can see how organizations are preparing for the possibility of a shortage of workers due to the retiring baby boom generation in U.S.

Globalization

New markets are opening, with more competitors, facility the flow of knowledge. Therefore, strategies in Human Resource are advantages from the competitors.

Technological change

New technologies are continuously changing, needing to improve the skills of the people.

Business strategies

Innovation puts added emphasis on collaboration, process excellence, leadership, customer service, subjects belonging to the Human Resource department. Also age diversity in an organization is widely regarded as a business strategy, because of the transfer of knowledge/skills.

Personal factors

Most old workers want to continue working. For example, 11,8% of population aged 65 to 69 was active in labor force in Canada in 2001.(2) Some factors are:

• Enjoy in their work
• Find a meaning in what they are doing in their job
• Economic factors (do not have a private pension plan, to be widower/widow, etc.).
• Workers who have not been in the labor market for many years

Moreover, there are other factors more linked with the needs of the older employees, such as:

• Personal health problems
• Declining physical energy levels
• Stress due to rapid change in technology
• Family care responsibilities
• Support an elderly family member

Organizational factors

Also the organizational factors are so important in the implementation of this strategy, for example:

• Not enough workforce productivity
• Surprise workforce issues
• Too few employees
• Too many employees
• Wrong employees
• Wrong skills
• Not enough innovation

Really, everybody is going to become old, and for many people this means some deterioration of physical or mental capacities. Life is finite and decline is gradual. The goal of the Human Resource in this topic is a successful and rewarding career in which neither mental nor physical decline inhibits performance. This is almost a utopia, but any approximation to this goal would be really successful, and for that is necessary the age management.

Advantages of the aging workforce

Motivation

There are some studies who prove that the motivation increase with age (see table below).

If an employee is more motivated, he is going to do his job successfully and he will not leave the ship.

Experience

It is not necessary to comment this point; everyone knows that older employees have more experience than younger employees.

Organizational knowledge

Retention of older workers gets to keep the organizational knowledge, knowing who is who, and what you should do if something happens.

Ability to mentor or coach

The experience accumulate during the years of working can be teached to the other members of the organization, keeping the skills in the company.

Low turnover

Older employees are more faithful to the company than younger, because they need to maintain a family, to pay a mortgage; they are not promiscuous to travel, or to change their life. They need stability, so the cost of turnover is going to decrease.

Good work ethics and maturity

It is a common belief that older workers are going to be more mature than younger, but in this case, it is not true. It depends only on the person.

Other advantages

There are more advantages, such as greater less competition and more experiences shared; ability to cope with life’s pressures and problems better; knowledge of specialist and technical functions; loyalty and confidence; being able to apply more general and life skills to problem solving.

Furthermore, some studies(3) have shown that the aging workforce stay longer in their jobs, therefore, they contribute to the long-term performance of a company, older employees have low levels of absenteeism and are flexible in their working hours and conditions.

Disadvantages of the aging workforce

Health problems

Like we said before, everybody is going to become old, and for many people this means some deterioration of physical or mental capacities. Therefore, the main problem of the aging workforce is the health.

Adverse to change

Every organization needs new ideas in order to survive, and older employees are not going to formulate this ideas, and even they will refuse new ideas propose for other employees.

Other disadvantages

• Limiting career opportunities for younger staff
• Technological challenges
• Reluctance of the organization to invest in high-cost training

Removing age barriers

First of all, saying that older adults should not be viewed as a homogenous group. Each person is like a world. However, in order to understand this internal world of each one and, therefore, provide the necessary environment in which each individual is able to achieve his/her potential, the company must remove the age barriers existing with the tools mentioned above.

Recruitment

Focusing the HR department’s attention on growing capability by introducing new career development schemes aimed at attracting workers of all ages. How?

• Increasing maximum age limit
• Elimination of particular age barrier
• Support of self-help group to promote their own employment
• Training programmes to promote recruitment policies

Training, development and promotion

Contrary to the popular belief, older employees are as interested in training as the young workforce, and if you offer developmental opportunities to the ageing workforce will ensure that they know that you value them. Therefore, you should, among others:

• Develop training and educational programmes, in particular for older workers
• Open existing training and educational programmes to ageing workers
• Create a learning environment and a workplace mentorship for older workers
• Evaluate the performance
• Promote age-specific policy in the organization

Flexible work practices

Flexible work practices are all the innovative ways employers and employees can agree to structure work to accommodate business and individual needs. Some ways are the following:

• Phased retirement
• Part-time work
• Job-sharing
• Working from home
• Flexible work hours
• Flexible leave options
• Creating a flexible work practices policy
• Job rotation

Ergonomics, job design and prevention

It consist in maintain a workplace that is healthy and safe for all the employees, visitors and customers. For that, you should:

• Ensure that a person issuited for the task and can carry it out safely
• Adapt duties to suit older workers
• Rotate physically demanding or repetitive tasks
• Train all employees in injury prevention strategies
• Ensure that workplace lighting is adequate for the job
• Mix of young and older workers

In the appendix two you can find a table with the incentives offered by employers to help retain workers older than 50.

Conclusion

Age management is a strategy of HR which has born because of macro factors and social factors of the western society. This strategy is fulfilling a demand social, necessary for the improvement of any company because the future is going to be the aging workforce. The baby boom of the 60s is now growing, and there are so many people who are going to retirement almost at the same time. And what is going to happen if there is not sufficient younger workforce? What is going to happen with the western economies? Taking into consideration this question, it is easy to see the importance of the Human Resource for the future. They are going to address the economy, maintaining older workers, or recruiting more, taking into consideration their problems, and providing the perfect environment in order to achieve the best potential of each employee, who is the major asset of the companies.

Moreover, a good practice in age management can suppose an improvement in the company, increasing the motivation, the transmission of knowledge among the employees, and even the productivity. The advantages of the older employees are much more than the disadvantages, only if you manage well, because, like said Petra de Saa in the e-interview “each person is totally different to the rest, each one is like a world”, therefore, you are not going to be a good manager only for recruiting older employees. Age management is constant, it needs a supportive Human Resource environment, the commitment from the older employees and also from the younger’s one, and a careful and very flexible integration. Age management is, simply, the future.