2.1 Recruiting and retaining older workers

Recruiting older workers brings a number of benefits to an organisation, particularly in enabling organisations to benefit from age diversity in work practices. As electricity companies face new and changing customer demands, older workers can help to ensure that company services are responsive to a diversity of customers, and particularly to the needs of an ageing population. Older workers often hold skills, experience and knowledge not held by younger applicants, and for this reason should be highly valued for their actual and potential contribution. Older workers may also hold skills that are easily adapted and developed to the benefit of new organisational and business demands. In this sense older workers can help to raise the skills profile of the workforce and therefore contribute to innovation, productivity and change.

What can electricity companies do to promote the recruitment of older workers?

The following are some human resources practices that can be put in place to ensure that companies promote age diversity and recognise the value and contribution of recruiting older workers:

Ensure that job advertisements promote age diversity. This can be done by removing age limits to recruitment in advertisements for jobs and making a statement in job advertisements that older workers with relevant experience are encouraged to apply.

Review interview methods and if necessary bring in specialists to participate on interview panels so as to ensure that interview questions do not focus on age. Promoting age diversity means focussing on the skills, competencies and experience of interviewees, as well as giving attention to the needs and requirements of older applicants.

In some cases it may be relevant to consider how older workers can be targeted in recruitment campaigns, for example, specific recruitment and advertising that is aimed at older workers. In some cases companies may consider targeting their advertising to older workers who have been made redundant or who or who are in involuntary retirement.

Ensure that your recruitment and selection processes are free from discrimination, by checking the language and assumptions contained in recruitment policies and practices. Make a positive statement in your written recruitment and selection policies about the value of age diversity in the company.

Offer terms and conditions of employment that accommodate older workers needs

Offering terms and conditions of employment, such as flexible working hours, that accommodate older workers needs should be set out in job advertisements and in selection procedures. Highlighting these issues will be important to attracting older workers who may be seeking to work flexibly or who may wish to work in a position that gives them a different work profile than they had in previous employment.

Facts about age friendly recruitment practices

According to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions there are a number of ‘age friendly’ recruitment practices that can benefit companies: “For ‘age friendly’ recruitment to work, a number of preconditions must be met. An open-minded approach to recruitment is required: this presupposes an underlying ‘age-neutrality’ on the part of the recruiting organisation. This, in turn, demands an assessment and selection procedure that is exclusively occupational and task-related; if necessary, outside assistance from specialist employment and consultancy agencies may be called in. For the older employee who has just joined, special orientation or other support facilities may be required: in some cases, offering flexible working hours to newly appointed older workers has yielded positive results. It is also important to make clear to existing employees that they too can benefit from the recruitment of older colleagues. Therefore, they should not perceive the new appointments as competition, but rather as an enhancement of the company’s economic opportunities – or in the case of a public organisation – it chances of success”. (2007: 9)

A report from Taleo Research and The Age and Employment Network (TAEN) (2006), urges UK companies to address the looming skills shortage and capitalise on the ageing workforce by changing their approach to recruitment. Tapping into the older worker talent pool suggests that despite demographic trends UK organisations still have significant biases and misconceptions about recruiting older workers. The authors argue that practical recruitment strategies that take advantage of the growing talent pool of older workers will be increasingly relevant to maintaining a competitive workforce. Skills-based recruiting and e-recruitment technology promote wide access to job roles, and implement a compliant skills-based recruiting process. Specific advice includes considering where you are advertising your job opportunities, word your job opportunities carefully, capture candidate data on compliant, electronic application forms, drive the selection process based on skills and consider re-skilling or up-skilling of new or existing employees.

2.1.2 Lifelong learning, training and developing the skills of older workers

The workplace of today is characterised by rapid changes in work processes, in competition, in customer demands, and in work practices. To keep abreast of these rapid changes employers and employees must be committed to lifelong learning in order to keep ahead. Learning should be a normal part of everyday working practices, whether this is formal, informal or structured learning. Learning needs to be relevant, engaging and compelling. Employees who are active participants in learning are more likely to be active, loyal and to progress at work.

The increasing reliance on technology and performance-based requirements in companies requires more regular updating of skills so that workers can keep abreast of change and develop their skills. As the workforce ages the training and development of older workers is key to providing the correct skills mix in an organisation. Enabling and supporting all workers to update their skills and learning may require companies to put in place targeted programmes of training and development of older workers. This is particularly important because many companies find that older workers do not participate in large numbers in training and development activities and may have missed out on opportunities in the past.

Providing older workers with opportunities for training and skills development is an important element of good practice in promoting a culture of lifelong learning across the whole of a person’s working life. And, as many forward looking companies now recognise, training is now an integral part of employee’s career paths. Putting a priority on the training and development needs of older workers can help to overcome the skills deficits that result in many older workers voluntarily or involuntarily taking an early exit from the labour market.

What can electricity companies do to promote the training and development of older workers?

The following are some of good practices in the area of training and development that can be put in place as part of an overall human resources strategy to enhance the contribution of older workers and retain them in the workforce.

It is critical that training and development becomes a central part of skills and career planning for all employees. Investing in training and development will be more important in the future for companies that want to retain their competitive edge. It is important that this is linked to an individual employee’s life-cycle, and the needs and requirements at different stages of their working lives. Taking a life-cycle approach to training and career development will also help to establish the centrality of training and development for all workers and this can help to improve the willingness and motivation to participate in training development as employees get older.

In some cases companies may have written or unwritten practices that set age limits on the participation of workers in company training and development programmes. Removing these is a first step. A second step is to ensure that older workers know that training and development opportunities are open to them. In some cases this may need a change in the mindset of a manager or team-leader so that they inform older workers of training and development opportunities, and encourage their participation.

Put in place training methods and supports that are relevant to older workers

In some cases older workers may not be interested in and motivated to participate in training and development programmes because they are seen to be ‘for younger workers’. Companies can play an important role in motivating and encouraging older workers by demonstrating that training programmes are relevant and adapted to the needs of older workers. Consideration should be given to the training methods used and the support that can be provided during training and development programmes.

Being innovative in the way that programmes of learning and development are organised can help to encourage participation from all age groups. Organising learning in the workplace so that younger and older workers can work together in learning teams can help to promote skills sharing, learning and development. This can be organised informally and formally, for example, through study groups, work-based learning or workshops. It may also be important to provide incentives to increase the effective participation of all age groups in learning activities. This can also be linked to processes to keep older employees‘ knowledge up to date, as well as individualised formal and informal learning programmes that are tailored to the specific needs of older workers to enhance their professional, social and personal skills.

Many companies offer employee development programmes that support the development of skills, leisure, social and other interests outside of the workplace. These programmes can help to maintain company loyalty and to provide employees with incentives and motivation to improve their overall learning, health and well-being. They can include an annual budget allocated to each employee for adult education classes, sporting and leisure activities, as well as the subsidisation of programmes of university and college courses.

It will be important for companies to collate data on the participation of older workers in training and career development programmes and the outcomes of these programmes. If it is found that older workers are not participating, measures should be put in place to redress this.

An important element of planning for the training and development needs of older workers is for the organisation to carry out an analysis of skills needs and skills-mix requirements in the future. This analysis can form the basis for forecasting the training needs of older workers and matching them to future skills requirements. This is an essential basis for making future plans for training and development programmes.

One of the reasons that older employees do not participate in training and development programmes is that their needs have not been assessed. Regular training and development assessments should be carried out with the full participation and consultation of employees. One way to achieve this is to draw up an annual training and development plan, in consultation with an employee, with an action plan of how the plan can be implemented in practice. This should be monitored on an interim basis with the employee, to review progress in achieving the actions set out in the plan.

Using the skills, knowledge and learning of older workers as facilitators and trainers can also raise the profile of older workers and shift the culture of an organisation. Valuing the skills of older workers in this context can contribute to the training of younger and older workers.

Human resources practitioners and training departments need to be sensitised to the needs of older workers and to the implications of demographic change for their organisations. By taking a systematic and planned approach, the provision of training and development can be tailored to the skills needs of the workforce. Of importance is that older workers are also consulted about appropriate training methods.

As discussed in the section below on job rotation and redeployment, training needs to be an integral element of changes in job content and profile that are implemented through job rotation and redeployment programmes. Training can enrich people’s working lives and provide more challenging and rewarding work, and also enable employees who have been engaged in heavy work to work in different positions. If job rotation programmes are to be successful and tailored to the needs of older workers then it is essential that training and development programmes are run in tandem.

The following checklist aims to get organisations assessing potential barriers experienced by older people in the workplace:

Checklist: assessing the barriers experienced by older people in the workplace?

£ What are the main barriers that prevent older people from fully participating in the workplace?

£ Have you consulted with older people to find out, from their experience, what are the main barriers?

£ Do older workers have the same opportunities for training, promotion and career development as younger workers?

£ Is there age diversity in your organisation i.e. a balance of older and younger workers?

£ Do your recruitment policies and procedures create barriers for older workers? Are your policies age neutral?

£ Are older workers able to and encouraged to apply for promotions and new positions in your company, including opportunities to change their jobs so that they are more suitable to older workers needs and requirements?

Endesa, Spain

Endesa has a new talent strategy that has been developed for all employees and forms that basis of performance management and development. The talent model includes a life-cycle evaluation that identifies the different needs of different groups of workers. The company has developed a tracking system and a pilot project has been put in place to track high potential employees and technical experts, which has helped to put in place a knowledge management strategy. Data is broken down by age, gender and function. A single information system has been developed for human resources and this has helped the company to develop a strategy and a basis for identifying skills needs for the development high potential staff and technical experts for the future. The competency model that has been developed works on the basis identifying and tracking where people are working and what roles they are performing in order to develop generic, technical or leadership competences. The key objective is to match skills with future workforce needs. The company collects data on age and gender and they do so to ensure that the processes of recruitment, development and training are open to everyone. The data has helped to show how different groups of people working in the company, including older workers, are taking up opportunities for development. For example, the company’s data has shown that women tend to take people responsibilities in the age group of 35 - 44 years, whereas men peak in an older age group. This means that the company has identified women as a target group that the company should invest in. The company’s leadership development programmes are open to all workers regardless for their age – even those approaching retirement; the company believes that this helps to improve age diversity and the skills and competences of older workers are developed.

The views of older workers in Endesa

As part of the development of the case study with Endesa, a meeting was held with four older workers, all of whom occupied senior positions in the company. The older workers identified areas in which the company could develop and retain older workers. The workers stated that the company does not treat younger and older people differently, however, they recognised that retaining older workers is a key challenge in the future. The following suggestions were given of the types of initiatives that electricity companies could put in place to enhance the retention, career development and motivation of older workers:

Older workers need be informed about company policy on older workers and retirement as this affects how workers plan their career in the company.
People need to have flexibility to change their jobs, job content and working hours in the company – this makes it possible for older workers to adapt.
It is important to have the opportunity to take on different projects or activities in order to improve motivation. This is a very personal issue that is not always affected by age, but exists across the whole working life-cycle. This is affected by the level at which people are working.
It is important to recognise and value the history and knowledge of older workers, so that the knowledge and experience can be transferred to others in the company. Older workers have a lot of history and experience to share and this can be utilised to help to explain the processes of change.
Motivation is helped if the company demonstrates that it values older workers, for example, by encouraging older workers to apply for new positions.
Older workers may need to be assisted to adapt to changes and new company cultures. One way to do this is to have age diversity in work teams and to promote the sharing of experience and values of older and younger workers.
The personal life of older workers and younger workers is very important – there is a need to have flexibility and work-life balance.

2.1.3 Career development of older workers

Many companies are now developing structured career and succession planning that are linked to business needs; building age management into this is an important new challenge for many companies. The objectives of age management are to combine people’s career development with a flexible, life-cycle oriented model of work in order to retain older workers and achieve a balanced age structure. In some cases older workers benefit from opportunities for alternative careers that are suited to their own professional development and age requirements.

Improving the career development of older workers needs to be seen in the context of the working life-cycle. By developing methods of professional career planning and succession planning, managers can help to accommodate the life-cycle needs and changes of older employees and provide workable solutions that help older workers to stay in the workforce and benefit from career development. In turn employees are also likely to be loyal and committed to the company if they are met.

What can electricity companies do to promote the career development of older workers?

As the workforce ages it has become important to develop policies and practices that promote the career development of older workers. In some cases career development can result in promotion, while in other cases it can result in a sideways move to a different but appropriate job. Both can be important to retaining older workers, and enhancing their motivation and performance. Central to the career development of older workers is that they carry out work tasks that utilise their experience and knowledge.

One way that the ambitions and needs of older workers can be accommodated is through the provision of career development interviews that identify career paths and career goals. This can help motivate older workers to make plans for career changes. Matching these with the relevant skills training can help to plug skills gaps, while also retaining valued employees.

New technology has a key role to play in the retention of older workers; it is key to knowledge management and to adapting to changes in the workplace. Often competence in new technology is a job requirement and could be a challenge for an older worker. One way to overcome this is for companies to run information technology courses for older workers. For example, in one Norwegian electricity company special and compulsory information technology courses are run for workers over fifty years of age.

Older workers, particularly those that have had successful careers paths, can become valuable mentors for older and younger workers. Mentoring can provide role models, advice and valuable experience for older and younger workers seeking career development opportunities.

Consult with trade unions to help develop older worker’s career and job changes

It will be important for human resources managers to consult with trade union to develop wage policies that are commensurate with skills and experience when older workers participate in job rotation and career development programmes.

2.1.4 Job rotation and redeployment of older workers

Providing opportunities for older workers to sustain their employment will help companies retain older workers in jobs that meet their capacities and promote employability. It can also be an effective tool in job and skills matching when companies face reorganisation and restructuring.

Ensuring that older workers have job profiles and work tasks that meet the requirements of the company and of the individual, is closely tied up with a preventative approach to age management, to the promotion of health and well-being and to the prevention of early exit from the labour market. Job rotation and redeployment can be used to reduce workloads and minimise the effects of stressful, monotonous or repetitive work tasks, to enhance job security for older workers, and provide opportunities for skills development.

If job rotation and redeployment programmes are to be successful they need to involve older workers in their design and implementation, they need to be properly planned and executed, and where necessary the appropriate training and development of older workers needs to be put in place. They are vital to new human resource development programmes that up-skill older workers and promote their career development.

Developing these programmes can be highly motivating for older workers, and they provide older workers with new challenges and possibilities to transfer their skills to new situations. It is crucial that job rotation and redeployment programmes do not de-skill older workers, rather the mindset should be that older workers can be empowered and motivated to take on new challenges in the workplace.

What can electricity companies do to develop job rotation and redeployment for older workers?

At a practical level job rotation programmes require coordination between different sections of the company, including occupational health and training functions. One way to achieve this is to ensure that older workers have opportunities to apply for new positions before they are advertised externally. A job rotation programme will need to be linked to career planning and development, and build in relevant and appropriate training and skills development to enable an older person to make a transition between on type of job and another. It will be important to invest in time and resources in matching older workers to new positions and in establishing and publicising internal job rotation programmes.

There are a range of relevant players that need to be involved in these programmes so as to promote the whole organisational approach to redeployment. These include company occupational health staff, trade union representatives, human resources practitioners, mangers and team leaders. For example, this approach will help to ensure that redeployment is closely linked into occupational health and safety assessments.

Monitoring the outcomes of programmes is important. Do these programmes help to retain older employees? Have programmes enabled older workers to enhance their skills and benefit from career development? Are levels of productivity and company loyalty enhanced? Are there improvements in health and well-being in the workplace? Have rates of sickness leave been reduced?

A key to the success of such programmes will be the effective participation of employees and unions. In some cases the development of agreements in the workplace between employers and trade unions will be an important for ensuring that redeployment is not used as a tool for cutting wages or deskilling older workers. In other cases it will be important that the participation of employees and unions highlights the role of job rotation and redeployment as a mechanism for occupational health and safety.

Axpo, Switzerland

A job rotation scheme has been introduced for people over the age of 50 years. This scheme allows people who want new challenges in the future to have access to new jobs and training in the company in order to keep and revive their interest in working. Taking on a new job or challenge has been important in giving older workers a new ‘lease of life’. One way that the job rotation programme has been developed is through an internal policy change that requires all job openings to be publicised internally for fourteen days before they are go to external recruitment. This enables everyone in the company to get information and the opportunity to change their job if this is needed. Although the uptake of this scheme is relatively low it is hoped that in the future this can be used more extensively as a form of job enrichment. The company recognises that job rotation also requires the company to make some changes in the workplace and invest in some further education and training for those workers interested in switching jobs.

There are also opportunities for older night and weekend workers in these jobs to take a different job in the company if this is available, to avail of education programmes, and to act as consultants to special projects. The company provides for night and weekend workers, many of whom work in stressful and heavy work, with the opportunity to either take early retirement. The company offers financial incentives to enable people to retire early on the basis that the company understands that work in heavy and hard jobs merits people having access to a better life and early retirement.

2.1.5 Knowledge management and the transfer of knowledge

An ageing workforce means that organisations need to plan for retaining knowledge from older workers as they retire. This knowledge of contacts, clients, business processes and how to solve problems is often tactic knowledge and may not be documented in company records. Electricity companies are increasingly recognising the need to identify the holders of business-critical knowledge and to develop new knowledge management retention tools and processes, as well as ways to promote informal knowledge sharing, and measures to access to expert knowledge of employees who have already retired.

Many of the new methods of knowledge management can be captured in a culture of learning. In particular, the ‘learning organisation’ concept brings the importance of day-to-day, informal and structured learning into one framework that supports the development and creativity of the company.

Older workers themselves can be retained to help new workers adapt to the working environment. Older workers represent an important knowledge pool, however, a loss of their knowledge and skills could be devastating for companies. For this reason intergenerational knowledge transfer and methods of retaining and managing knowledge will become more important in the future. Similarly a focus on business continuity planning in many companies has highlighted the need to document all different aspects of processes in a company.

Knowledge management is also closely connected to valuing the experience of older workers. Organisations can benefit from the experience and skills of older workers in a number of ways. In particular, intergenerational knowledge transfers can provide an important impetus to increasing motivation at work and in providing challenges for older workers.

Biomasse Italia Spa, Italy

The company emphasises the importance of the continuous investment in the development of the human resources and in the professional training at operating and managerial level, and in management and technological fields. The company has developed a tutorship and mentoring project to facilitate the transfer of technical and managerial know-how and knowledge, accumulated over time, to younger personnel with potential. This has had the effect of reducing the gap between the competences required by the organisation and those held by young people. In Biomasse Italia the "knowledge to do" programme attracts more and more talented young people, and there has been the development of a training centre called ‘BlueLab’ which has the role of transferring the best structured innovations and continuous learning through workbased learning projects and permanent work groups.

What can electricity companies do to retain, transfer and manage knowledge?

Create systems for retaining knowledge and creating knowledge communities or groups as practical ways to share knowledge and skills in the workplace. It will be important to assess the risk of loss of workplace specific and company specific technical knowledge if employees leave. Retaining knowledge is one of the most important reasons for creating age diverse team structures, these can share knowledge, increase awareness and enhance problem solving skills.

Technology also has a role to play in knowledge management and retention; companies can capture knowledge through knowledge management systems, for example, by using the company’s intranet system to share work space, documentation and projects, and by developing appropriate documentation through plans and templates to capture project learning and outcomes.

Advance recruitment initiatives provide an opportunity for old and new workers to overlap. By doing this the older worker can pass knowledge on to the new worker and help to retain valuable knowledge. Hiring a new worker six months prior to the retirement of an older workers can provide the time to building skills and passing on valuable skills and knowledge. Older, retiring workers can act as mentors, supervisors and consultants to people taking up new positions.

Implementing a mentoring scheme can be an excellent way of promoting intergenerational knowledge transfers. Mentoring can enable older workers to support and develop trainees and new employees, as well as support older workers in working life-cycle decisions.

Statkraft, Norway

According to Statkraft managing an ageing workforce is part of their core business and a pro-active approach to age management is considered to be a core value and social responsibility of the company. There is a strong business case for the transfer of competence since the older employee has a lot of tacit knowledge. The challenge is to encourage older workers to share this knowledge and to have systems for the transfer of knowledge. Older workers can be rewarded for their experience and transfer of knowledge through a bonus scheme – this particularly benefits older workers who have reached the top of their salary scales. The company emphasises the transfer of skills and competence. Directors (at Senior Vice President level) have to move away from their leadership position at the age of 62 years in order to let younger people take over. Workers at the age of 62 years remain in the company and can take on consultancy or advisory positions, and thereby play an important role in supporting and developing newer and younger employees.

Axpo, Switzerland

An important part of the company’s human resources strategy has been to ensure that there are effective systems in place for knowledge transfer. When staff leave the employment of the company they often take with them valuable experience, learning and skills. In order to provide a smooth transfer of these experiences and skills the company has introduced a period of overlapping time so that when a new person is employed in the company their predecessor continues working for two years to enable the new person to have a good lead in time. Another way to promote knowledge transfer is to provide managers with consulting positions; the younger worker taking over their managerial position then has access to the older manager’s skills and experience through the provision of consultancy advice. There has been a relatively small uptake of this scheme to date, but the company believes that these practices could become more important in the future.

2.1.6 Planning for the correct skills mix

Achieving the correct skill-mix for large and complex organisations that are changing rapidly presents many challenges in planning for the future. Achieving a competitive edge is essential as markets, competitive conditions and production processes change. For this reason achieving the best and appropriate skill-mix requires effective workforce planning and a focus on age diversity.

While hiring new employees is important to any organisation, particularly as this brings in new talent and new perspectives, it would be misplaced for organisations to rely on new employees to meet all future skills needs. For this reason it can equally be important to retain older employees and invest in their training and development. This is particularly important as organisations go through change and by recognising that older workers have unique skills and qualities that they have gained through their professional and work-life experiences. Age diversity, as in other areas of diversity, can help organisations to be dynamic and innovative.

RWE, Germany

RWE has initiated a method for anticipating future staff shortages through an IT programme that simulates the ageing process both for the workforce as a whole and for each professional group and location. It works as an analytical tool to collect detailed, skills-specific data, and it also acts as an advance warning system that enables the company to identify trends as they emerge and take action in response to them. The possibility to carry out long-term forecasts of skills and labour shortages and surpluses has been a very positive development for the company. One example of the use of the programme is that some of those on traineeships at the lignite mines in the Rhineland were offered permanent contracts of employment. Another example is that the company can now predict the number of engineers it needs in the medium and long term, which makes it easier to identify the numbers of young people that the company needs to recruit at graduate recruitment drives.

RWE has developed a method for assessing the potential of employees on the basis that many employees have “multi-level potential” can make more than just one vertical career move within a manageable timeframe. A comprehensive potential analysis is the tool used throughout the Group to validate multi-level status. The process involves outside consultants, executives and human resources specialists from several RWE Group companies, who work as observers and appraisers. The objective is to promote talent by identifying individual strengths and weaknesses. This analysis of potential is then used as a basis from which development measures are organised. Participants with confirmed multi-level status are accepted into the RWE Corporate Talent Programme where they are promoted further. The company’s qualification management system is a tool that enables the company to record and control this data. Employees enter their qualifications into the system themselves, based on a group wide, uniform catalogue that includes all of the qualifications that are of relevance to the Group. In the future, a list of requirements will be drawn up for every position. By comparing employee skills with the job requirements, the company is able to identify necessary action and initiate special personnel development measures early on. At the same time, this tool puts the company in a position to identify personnel-related risks and take countermeasures where necessary.

How can electricity companies plan for the correct skills-mix for the workplace of the future?

Collecting data and introducing new methods for workforce planning will be important to forecasting future skills needs. There a number of ways in which companies have achieved this. The examples from RWE in Germany and Suez in France give a flavour of an approach that has been taken to identify and forecast future skills needs.

Retain older workers and develop their skills to match future skills needs

As the discussions above on recruitment, lifelong learning and job rotation and redeployment have shown there is an added value to developing the skills and careers of older workers to match those of future company requirements. Training, development, support and assistance programmes will be necessary outcome of workforce planning.

It is important for companies to build a large base and pool of potential recruits (this is discussed in more detail in Section 2.4). While it is important to find new and creative ways of holding onto older people’s skills and knowledge, it will be important that the industry profile and image is attractive to younger and older people. This can be achieved by changing the image and profile of the electricity industry so that it is attractive to young people, for example, by showing that electricity is essential to society and has a commitment to environmental sustainability. A key challenge is to ensure that new jobs are stimulating, challenging and attractive to younger people and older people.

Suez Group

The merger between Suez and Gas de France has provided an opportunity for unions and management in Suez to raise a number of new issues in the area of social responsibility and social dynamics. The union side has highlighted a number of important issues related to age management in the area of equality and diversity, and employment and qualifications. The merger is expected to result in redundancies in companies in some parts of France and the company has been working with subsidiaries to find new jobs for employees who had been made redundant. This development drove trade unions to discuss with management an employment and expertise plan. Although the current position regarding the ageing of the workforce in the SUEZ group is not too bad in general, there are some specific problems in recruiting staff to some jobs, for example, in the area of technology. A Medium Term Human Resources plan was drawn up in 2006 to address these issues with a view to attracting younger workers and to improving knowledge management and the sharing of knowledge between employees.

Currently in France it is possible to take early retirement at the age of 55 years for people working in physically demanding jobs. However, recent reforms have meant that people retiring at 55 years have a reduction in their pensions because they lack a full contributions record. One of the issues facing the electricity sector is that people are likely to retire at a later stage, and it is anticipated that the company will need to introduce measures to retain older workers. The company is committed to discussing with trade unions measures to help people stay in the labour market after 55 years. The company has signed two specific agreements with trade unions on Equality and Diversity, and a European Agreement on the Employment and Expertise Plan (GPEC).

2.1.7 Managing and promoting age diversity

This section of the Toolkit has shown a number of ways in which the skills and experience of older workers can be harnessed and developed for company competitiveness. It has been shown that having a diverse workforce has many benefits for companies seeking to recruit and retain the most talented workers.

A central element of diversity is the recognition and valuing of difference in its broadest sense. This means creating a work culture and workplace practices that recognise, value, respect and harness the contributions and talents of all for the benefit of the individual and the organisation. Having a diverse workforce can also help to improve the image of employment in the electricity sector, improve productivity and work satisfaction and maximise human resources so that staff feel valued and reach their full potential. In addition, accommodating diversity in the workplace can be an important pre-requisite for providing services to the public.

Endesa, Spain

Endesa’s diversity project aims to ensure that the company fully embraces diversity in all of its operations. A strong business case for diversity has been established and the company recognises that managing diversity is an imperative for leadership. The company has been through significant restructuring in recent years so that today is it a very complex and diverse company. Diversity is seen as both a leadership and a strategic objective that will be proactive and integrated into day to day operations. With changing demographics, tighter markets and a scarcity of labour Endesa recognises that diversity will bring competitive advantage by reaching out to new markets by attracting, developing and retaining, and managing talent. Endesa’s policy on the management of diversity respects and values diversity and the differences between people as a positive element and a fountain of organisational wealth which we want to manage respect and encourage within the framework of the values and organisation culture. The policy covers personal and professional development of employees, opportunities for learning and a greater capacity for employees to be productive, innovative and creative. Other elements cover Endesa’s relationship to its shareholders, to the diversity of customers and to broader society through social responsibility to older people, women and minority ethnic groups in the community. The principles of the diversity policy state that diversity is a positive value and source of wealth for the organisation and that Endesa recognises and respects the differences between people and that managing them effectively allows for the maximum of development of people and their involvement in company objectives. The policy has a focus on three strategic areas: minority ethnic groups, women and older workers. The policy highlights the need for leadership and for persons responsible for promoting the policy, a communications plan, specific projects and resources for the implementation of the policy.

ESB, Ireland

ESB has a wide range of policies on equality across the nine equality grounds covered by the Irish Employment Equality Acts, one of which is age. An Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy is directed to both customers and staff in areas such as respect and dignity in the workplace, recruitment and selection, career development and working time arrangements. New employees are given a copy of the policy and a DVD/video has been produced for training on equality issues.

Age management is integral to the management of diversity, the principle of which is that companies value the individual for what they offer, regardless of age or gender. Promoting age diversity means developing an organisational culture where older and younger workers work together on projects where each is able to actively contribute, and where they can learn from each other. While many electricity companies have developed diversity programmes that are targeted at improving the gender balance, particularly in non-traditional and senior positions, fewer have developed programmes of age diversity.

The management of age diversity can have some positive outcomes for companies, including intergenerational cooperation and knowledge sharing, a culture that values work experience and learning, appointments based on merit rather than age, improved staff loyalty, work satisfaction and performance.

Checklist: what should an age diversity policy include?

£ A statement that age diversity is a core value for the organisation, and is part of a broader commitment to equality for all groups. This should state clearly how and why achieving age diversity is an important goal for the organisation. This can affirm the equal treatment of employees covering the grounds of gender, race and ethnicity, religion and belief, age, sexual orientation and disability.

£ Include in your policy issues that can help to accommodate the needs of older workers, including the need for age-neutral policies on recruitment and selection, staff retention, progression, training and development, working time and flexible working hours, pay, rewards and benefits, harassment and discrimination against older workers, health and well-being, occupational health and safety, consultation and participation of unions, data collection and monitoring and reporting of outcomes, roles and expectations of managers and employees. It will be important to focus specifically on the needs of older women in the workplace.

£ Provide explanations of how policies can work in practice with good practice examples in the areas covered in the policy.

£ Draw up your policy with full participation and involvement of older workers and unions. Not only does this ensure that you get the right focus to your policy but also that it will become easier to implement it in practice. This will help with disseminating information about the policy widely and getting the buy-in from staff.