Explores the age management practices of companies in nine European Union (EU) Member States, in light of restructuring undergone during the recession.
Vienna General Hospital sees the importance of the tackling the issue of ageing in terms of organisational strategy, organisational culture, personal development, organisation of work, and individual health of employees.
While age management at the Borealis Group has always made use of generous regulations for early retirement there has also been a movement to maintain older workers in the workplace by creating sustainable work processes and adapting work practices to take into account employees' needs.
Abengoa has HR practices and policies that promote the employability and mobility of all workers regardless of age. The organisation also has specific age management policies including partial retirement policies.
DHV, a company reliant on the knowledge and personal skills of people, has placed strong emphasis on training and development, on promoting a healthy workforce, as well as on new ways of working, all of which provide more freedom for workers to choose the means to do their work.
In the Netherlands employers were encouraged to invest more in education and training instead of preferential age-related benefits, as part of efforts to make employing older staff more attractive to companies.
According to representatives of the company interviewed for this case study, there has been a greater willingness to recruit people aged 50 or more during the economic cycle of the past two to three years, but this is cyclical.
As men and women extend their working lives, they enhance their own retirement income security and may ease the strain of an aging population on economic growth as well as shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare, according to testimony presented by Nicole Maestas before the Senate Finance Committee.
