Searching for good practice in the management of ageing

Older people are leaving working life much earlier than they used to do in most European countries, usually because of redundancies. However, there are companies which have a policy of keeping older employees in work for purely financial reasons. This emerged at an international workshop on ageing and work arranged by three Swedish organisations in March 1998. The workshop was one of around 60 being held in the run-up to a major conference which will take place when Sweden assumes the Presidency of the European Union in 2001.

How are new jobs created? How can the "the good job" be defined? These burning questions will be the main themes of the "Work Life Conference", which is scheduled to take place between 22-25 January 2001, during the Swedish Presidency of the European Union. The conference, intended for representatives of European governments, governmental authorities, employers, trade unions, business organisations and other interested parties, will be preceded by about 60 international scientific workshops. The first one - on the issue of transnational trade union rights - was held in December 1997. The second workshop in March 1998 was concerned with issues related to ageing and work.

The Work Life Conference, which is supported by the Swedish Government, and the preceding workshops have been organised by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life (Arbetslivsinstitutet, ALI) together with the National Board of Occupational Safety and Health (Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen, ASS) and the Joint Industrial Safety Council (Arbetarskyddsnämnden, ASN). "The aim of the Work Life Conference is to lay the foundation for decisions in working life. It is going to be based on the latest scientific findings," saidBengt Knave, head of the international secretariat of Arbetslivsinstitutet, at the opening of the workshop.

The workshops will focus on most aspects of modern working life, the five main topics being the labour market, work organisation, the working environment, small and medium-sized enterprises and the "information society". Within the scope of these topics, workshop subjects will range from flexible work and just-in-time-employment to work and health in small companies and the impact of electromagnetic fields on health. The conclusions of the workshops will then serve as the basis for the conference. Summaries in Swedish and English of the workshops are also available, free of charge, from Arbetslivsinstitutet.

Below, we examine the issues raised at the March 1998 international workshop on ageing and work.

Early retirement

Professor Åsa Kilbom, Arbetslivsinstitutet, was responsible for the workshop, which addressed the increasing propensity for people in Western Europe to leave work much earlier. The over-50s have a very high rate of premature retirement; in many European countries the actual retirement age is below 60.

Although many of those who stop working at an early age have health problems - especially relating to the musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular systems - the main reason for their leaving the workforce is that it is almost always older people who go first when a company is cutting down on its staff. This leads to some important problems. Since there is a gap between their exit from work and their entry into the national pension system, people often find themselves in a very difficult socio-economic situation. Governments, on the other hand, face rising pension costs as the occupied labour force decreases. In most developed countries, middle-aged and elderly people constitute a growing proportion of the total occupied population.

EU member states are therefore interested in encouraging people to stay longer in work. Their efforts are supported by a declaration in the conclusions of the European Council's Essen summit in December 1994. This declaration stated, among other items, that special attention should be paid to the particular problems facing older employees in attempts to increase employment levels. In June 1995, a Council of Ministers resolution on the employment of older workers emphasised that measures should be taken to prevent the exclusion of older workers from the labour force. However, no binding decisions were taken, and since then priority has generally been given to long-term and youth unemployment.

Older workers are just as effective as younger colleagues

Research shows that there is no reason why people should not stay longer at work. Life expectancy in Western Europe has increased and the general health of the population has improved; generally speaking, older people are just as effective as their younger colleagues. "There are variations between jobs, but older workers tend to be more cautious, more consistently conscientious. No differences are likely in overall absenteeism, older staff have fewer accidents and they are less likely to leave the organisation. Their average net cost to an employer is likely to be similar to that of younger staff," said Peter Warr from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Older workers are also able learn as well as younger ones, according to several studies presented at the workshop - although they may need more time and may prefer to do it in different ways.

Business reasons

Up to now it has been difficult to convince employers of the importance of investing in the retention of older workers, but now there are signs that older employees are being re-evaluated - for purely economic reasons. This was argued by Professor Alan Walker from the University of Sheffield. "A good age-balance can be competitive. This could mean having an age-structure corresponding to the one of the customers, or that the company has lost skilled workers and wants to retain its collective memory," he said.

As yet there are no evaluation studies on the financial viability of investing in older personnel. However, one study from Finland shows that such investment could be viable: according to Juhani Ilmarinen, professor at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Työterveyslaitos), the metalworking company FundiaWirkes saved FIM 3 million through a programme aimed at improving people's working ability.

Focus on the workplace

So how can a working environment be created where everybody can realise his or her potential regardless of age, and which is congruent with good practice in the management of ageing? According to the participants at the workshop, several factors are important:

• early preventive measures should be taken, and focus on the whole workplace rather on the individuals;

• the support of senior management is vital, as well as a supportive human resource environment;

• older workers themselves must be committed;

• the implementation of such a policy should be carried out carefully and flexibly; and

• concrete measures vary from workplace to workplace, but flexible working hours, good ergonomics and life-long learning are generally considered to be of great importance.

Commentary

The ageing of the workforce is a growing problem, which has not yet been adequately dealt with by EU governments and labour market organisations. At the same time, the premature retirement of many people is leading to real economic hardship. Good practices in the management of ageing could be of real benefit. (Lena Skiöld, NIWL)