Local economic strategies for ageing labour markets Workshop - 31st March 2015 - OECD (Paris)

1. How are firms adapting their practices
with an ageing workforce?
An introduction
OECD LEED Expert RoundtableOECD LEED Expert Roundtable
Local economic strategies for ageing labour markets
Paris, 31 March 2015
Nicola Duell
Economix Research & Consulting
Lindwurmstr. 9
80337 München
Germany
duell@economix.org

2. Developing age management strategies in
companies
• Large companies have been developing age
management strategies now for many years.
• Awareness has risen in large companies
• Research in the area of age management has pointed
out:out:
- Need for a life cycle approach,
- Need for holistic approaches
- Work Ability Index developed by Ilmarinen (Finland);
“export” and adaptation of this concept in many countries

3. Organizing work and developing appropriate
working cultures within the enterprise
• Career management
- Mid-career plans
- Changing tasks / functions (e.g. older workers as consultants)
- Further vocational training at all ages- Further vocational training at all ages
• Managing (gradual) exit
- Re-moving fixed company- or sector-related retirement
schemes
- phased retirement schemes
- Maintaining pensioners on a part-time or casual basis

4. Organizing work and developing appropriate working cultures within the enterprise
• Flexibilisation of working time
- e.g. to reconcile work and family life (caring responsibilities
for elderly parents, care for grand-children; retirement of
partner)
- to adapt to health requirement, stress
• Organisation of working time
- to organise shift work in a life cycle perspective
- adapt length breaks

5. • Health management
- preventive approaches, life cycle perspective
- health scans, early detection of health problems
- follow-up
- external consultants for detection of health problems
(building trust relationship)
Organizing work and developing appropriate working cultures within the enterprise
(building trust relationship)
- use advise of occupational doctors
- improve working conditions
- Minimise accident and sickness risks

6. • Adapting workplaces to older workers by the
use of technology
- e.g. to improve interface with hardware and software
- e.g. to alleviate physical strain (e.g. carrying heavy things)
Organizing work and developing appropriate working cultures within the enterprise
- e.g. to alleviate physical strain (e.g. carrying heavy things)
- Ergonomics

7. • Mixed teams and work organisation
- Recognition of experience
- Innovation management and age management
- Re-organization of work, task allocation between age
Organizing work and developing appropriate working cultures within the enterprise
- Re-organization of work, task allocation between age
groups
- Mixed teams in order to compensate for differences
in productivity

8. Recruitment practices
• Recruitment strategy based on age structure
analysis, need for different competencies, …
• Anti-discrimination practices: awareness raising of
HR managersHR managers
• Job posting without reference to age
• Market approach (hiring older workers to serve a
specific market segment)
• Older workers and entrepreneurship
• Cooperation with PES: mentorship programmes

9. Training and skills development
• Organising knowledge transfer (tandems,
older workers as trainers, transfer of
networks, …)
• In-house training adapted to learning patterns• In-house training adapted to learning patterns
by age groups (experienced-based training
approaches)
• organization of training at sector level
• further training for all age groups, lifelong
learning

10. Closing the knowledge – doing gap
• Still weaknesses for SMEs
• Support / consulting for SMES
• Tools are being developed
- Example: tool to assess the demography fitness of the
companies (Switzerland, developed by a University of Applied
Science, result of Pilot project with companies)Science, result of Pilot project with companies)
- Guides developed by social partners and Ministries
• Networks of companies as a platform for exchanging
practices and good practices
- Lessons learned
- Outreach to SMEs

11. Questions
• Which innovative examples to encourage
older workers to remain in the labour market?
• How can (employed) older workers be
supported to retain and enhace their skills?supported to retain and enhace their skills?
• Do SMEs need particular support to develop
and implement age management strategies?