Workshop on Age and Employment 25 June 2008 Mike Healy Westminster Business School

1. Workshop on Age and Employment 25 June 2008 Mike Healy Westminster Business School University of Westminster

2. The international nature of mature@eu 16 Partners • 3 Universities • 4 Social Partner Organisations • 2 Research Institutes • 6 NGOs • 2 IT-companies From10 countriesAT, BG, DE, GR, HU, NL, SI, UK, CH Duration24 month, 8/2006 to 7/2008 Project volume371.623, with 74,96% LdV Subvention Project coordination Zentrum fuer Soziale Innovation, Austria Web-presencewww.mature-project.eu/

3. ... our partnership of experts ... Austria Zentrum fuer Soziale Innovation Software AG Federal Chambers of Commerce Public Labour Market Service Bulgaria New Bulgarian University Germany Technologie- und Innovationsagentur Greek Greek Research&Technology Network DreamTech Information Systems • Hungary Information Society Research&Teaching Group • The Netherlands The Netherlands Platform Older People and Europe • Slovenia Security Technology Competence Centre • UnitedKingdom • University of Westminster • Employers Forum on Age • Switzerland • Union Network International • Swiss Occidental Leonardo

4. Why mature@eu? • Because of demographic shifts, skilled labour supply is constantly declining. This has become a key issue within the European Union. • In the future the number of young skilled employees will continue to dwindle, the participation of older workers will become (and already is) essential. • Employing mature workers is not the problem – it is the solution of a problem. Thus, there is a significant need for a re-orientation of the current hiring policies in place.

5. Percentage of the population who are employed, 2005 Age 50-64 Age 25-49 100.0 90.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 Italy Turkey EU25 Spain Japan Korea OECD Ireland Austria Mexico Poland Finland France Iceland Norway Greece Portugal Sweden Hungary Belgium Canada Australia Germany Denmark Switzerland New Zealand Netherlands Luxembourg United States United Kingdom Czech Republic Slovak Republic Source: Mark KEESE Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD, IES Annual Employment Policy Conference, London, 9 November 2006

6. Age is the most common form of discrimination in the workplace The perceived extent • 46% of Europeans think that discrimination on the basis of age is widespread. • At the country level, we find that this view is most widely held in Hungary (66%) and the Czech Republic (63%) and least so in Ireland (30%) and Luxembourg (31%). • An examination of the results in the two acceding countries shows that age discrimination is more widely perceived in Bulgaria than in Romania. Yet at the same time, Bulgaria has the highest proportion of respondents who feel that the problem is non-existent (17%). Source: Special Eurobarometer 263 / Wave 65.4, January 2007

7. EU Equal Treatment Directive 2000 makes it unlawful that older job applicants are discriminated against their age. • Attitudes to age inequality: “in our country people over 50 are often considered as being no longer capable of working efficiently“ • The country rank: the view is most widespread in Portugal (78%), followed by Slovakia (73%) and Germany (71%). This contrasts sharply with public opinion in Denmark (35%), Cyprus (36%) and the Netherlands (37%), where only around a third of citizens agree with this statement. • Analysis of the socio-demographic variables shows that differences in opinion between the various age groups are quite small, with 55% of people younger than 40 agreeing with the statement, compared to 59% of those aged 40 and over.

8. Objectives and Targets of mature@eu Our argument: A key strategy for the economic growth in a time of competition for talents, specially in the ICT labour market, is to train those key persons with an influence on the recruitment policies of employers. mature@eu is directly concerned with providing an integrated supportpackage to Business Leaders, Equal Opportunities Representatives, HRM, Trade Union Officers and Worker Representatives which enable to introduce age-diverse recruitment policies and practices. Raise the rate of the hiring probability of older professionals in the ICT sector

9. Concepts of ‚age-diverse‘ recruitment Three strategies of implementing age-diversity • eliminating all strands of discrimination, including age discrimination • achieving a balanced age structure within the company or strategies anticipating future age management problems • discriminating in favour of older workers, if companies actively seek to recruit them either because of expected business benefits ‘Good practice means ensuring that older workers have either equal or special access to the available jobs and that potential applicants are not discriminated against either directly or indirectly’ (Walker, 1998:3)

10. Key Principles in age-bias free recruitment ‘A-B-C-D model’ • Ages: chronological ages should never be quoted unless there is some assured relevance attached to so doing. • Balance: older people should be represented in a balanced manner, that is, by and large, exhibiting the same mix of qualities and characteristics as the population at large. • Concept: those involved should seek to acquaint themselves more clearly with the new understanding of older age and utilise that concept in their own work. • Display: those involved should occasionally check their work against the touchstone of the large proportion of the population in the older age group. Source: Wait and Midwinter (ed) (2005:26)

11. Outcomes of mature@eu (I) A study report reviewing labour market participation characteristics of older workers with a special focus on the ICT labour market discussing critical issues in personnel hiring policies offering a range of recommendations for age-diverse recruitment policies available from www.mature-project.eu/

12. Outcomes of mature@eu (II) E-learning modules in eight European languages offering effective and practical support in order to enable organisations to: • Become age sensitive • Identify and overcome age stereotyping • Develop an effective business case for age diverse recruitment policies • Creating and implementing recruitment and selection processes that are age balanced. Age-Diversity Recruitment Toolkitthat provides the necessary background information and materials to help you re-design your existing recruitment policies to become age-diverse.

13. Your are invited to ... • Test the mature@eu training materials in • Give us feedback • inform us about innovative materials • visit us atwww.mature-project.eu/ • Take the elearning platform and use it Thank you for your attention!