eSangathan Newsletter N°6

February 2008
Last minute • A new tool has been implemented to share and talk about what works and what doesn’t.
Key cases are also highlighted on www.epractice.eu

• AGE the European Older People’s Platform, aims to voice and promote the interests of
older people in the European Union and to raise awareness of the issues that concern
them most.

Editorial
The i2010 objective of reaching 50% of employ-
Denmark When one still has the strength and working
ability, not to speak of experience, one owe
ment rate for the aged workers is already a rea- the world to offer it what is still there, to
lity in some of the Member States, amongst which
SENIORS WITHOUT BORDERS IN DENMARK the benefit of other people.
Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands who are Seniors without Borders consists of a group
members of the eSangathan consortium. Most of of people who, after an active working life Many conversations with energetic entre-
the other countries, amongst which is France, want to make use of their experience, their preneurs and information of ongoing pro-
have still a lot of efforts to do to reach this ob- skills and their forces to the benefit of those jects convinced us that there are others out
jective within the two coming years. This is why it
lesser fortunate in the world. there more than willing to give a hand and
seemed appropriate to dedicate one of the news-
letters of the eSangathan project to a selection of offer their knowledge and experience to the
good practices in order to find out what is existing They offer to create the frames of seniors’ countries that show an interest to receive
and stimulate more initiatives. efforts by supporting thoughts and ideas the support.
through practical advice and networking
It is also interesting to look at the work which has possibilities from other members of the In Denmark the number of people aged 60+
been made public by the European Foundation group. exceeds 800.000, of a population of 5.3
for the Improvement of Living and Working Con-
million. Together we, 50+ people, can help
ditions called “A guide to good practice in age ma-
In 2002 a lot of the world’s nations joined someone to have the possibilities we had
nagement”. The guide is available in the eSanga-
than library and it gives some practical examples
forces to fight poverty. This happened at ourselves, in order to give them a more sa-
in addition to general information on: a Rio conference in Johannesburg, South tisfying life and lifespan.
Good practice in age management Africa.
The organisational drivers of good practice At the moment of writing SUG (Seniorer
Dimensions of age management practice “All over the world people are living under Uden Grænser - Seniors without Borders)
Pre-requisites for successful age management conditions that are as different as they are have more than 15 projects in developing
Role and key actors in age management policies unequal, some experience fantastic pro- countries. Contact through www.seniore-
gress, but stagnation and recession weighs rudengraenser.dk
In addition, the Foundation has published a data-
base of good practice examples which may prove
heavily on the everyday life of people el-
useful at the workplace level. Overview reports sewhere. Stability and a fair sharing of the Leif Bloch Rasmussen COPENHAGEN BUSI-
for several countries are also available online. A goods of the world demand a joint effort NESS SCHOOL
press release issued on January 30, 2008 on “di- from rich and poor countries alike, and a
verse approaches to older workers across Europe”
is a strong signal underlying the importance of the
global pact for development that offers all
the same opportunity to enter the world of
France
role of the ageing workforce and the new emer- possibilities.” (Quote from Human Develop- GOOD PRACTICES IN FRANCE
ging corporate practices such as flexible working
ment Report 2003)
practices which are keys to age management The two examples of good practices for
strategies in Austria, Germany and the Nether- France are directly related to the employ-
lands, while the Nordic countries tend to focus In September 2003 UNDP (United Nations
ment of aged workers who are called “se-
on improving employees’ health and well-being. Development Programme in the Nordic
niors” in this country. The first one is an
region) launched the 8 global challenging
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

Companies in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and

initiative led by Sonia CONDETTE at the
Spain, for their part, focus more on training and goals to be obtained before 2015. Suppor-
development. National Agency for Employment (ANPE) in
ting this and doing something about it is the
one of the Paris branches of the agency. The
core of the “Seniors without Borders”.
Due to the cultural differences and the policy second example is an interim company, cal-
priorities of each of the Member States, Europe is led “ATOUT SENIOR” (Senior Asset) who only
de facto a living benchmarking place where we all
The statutes are to: “…use and communi-
works with seniors.
can learn from each other to reach the i2010 goals cate the professional and human resources
in good conditions. among seniors who with their lifelong wor-
king experience want to improve life con-
Testimonial of Sonia CONDETTE from
Nicole Turbé-Suetens ditions for the poorest in all parts of the ANPE (Agence Nationale pour l’Em-
Project co-ordinator world. The members will work unsalaried. ploi - National Employment French
This is also the case with the members of Agency)
the main council and region councils. Se-
niors without Borders is free of political as The GATP (Groupe Action Temps Partagé
well as religious dependence.” - Part time shared Action Group) was
created in 1995 by Sonia Condette, ANPE

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°6
February 2008
Team Leader. Today it has 10 to 20 permanent experienced ma- higher than hiring younger people who are tomorrow’s talents.
nagerial staff who offer their competences as punctual or long
term missions. Senior can be called this way for two different reasons: one is that
they have at least 10 to 15 years of experience, the other one be-
The “Espace Cadres ANPE Paris Bercy” (Knowledge workers’ cause of their age. Some fortunate “seniors” do not know anymore
space in ANPE) innovates through this group to help seniors go this kind of ostracism in many countries such as Germany, United
back to work. The GATP has been selected by the Paris Depart- Kingdom, The Netherlands, Finland or Sweden where, by the way,
ment to be one of the major partners of the Senior Competence the level of unemployment is much lower than in France. In these
project. countries, a motivated and competent person finds a job without
the stupid barrier of age.
How do we act?
Each GATP member commits to prospect companies on behalf of The equation is rather simple to understand and, nevertheless, too
the group on the basis of 30 phone calls per week. The aim of many doors stay still closed. Fortunately, things are moving the ri-
this action is to obtain appointments called « emergence calls » ght way, with the recent consciousness coming from the politicians
to identify the possible competence needs. The principle of this on one side and a number of companies on the other side. Those
group is not to position its members as « employment searchers » happy few are hopefully visionary and pioneers who will then be
but rather as fellow-workers bringing solutions. followed by the greatest number.
What GATP experts offer to companies are:
• Security to work with experienced managerial staff. Atout Senior is a group specialized in seniors’ hiring (Part time,
• Assurance for an immediate reactivity within reflexion as well short term and long term contracts (CDI – Contrats à durée indéter-
as realisation, thanks to their organisational flexibility. minée) that promotes employment of excellence. Our customers,
• And above all, the benefit of only paying for the added value whether they are SME of large accounts, do appreciate the quality
of the fellow-worker, exclusively for the time of his mission, of our candidates no matter if they hire them on a short term of
without any structure expenses. long term basis. We have gained the first battle but there is still a
The FSE (Fonds Social Européen - European Social Fund) selected long way to go!
the GATP as a major actor for redistributing employment among
the senior knowledge workers and it allocated a budget to rein- Thomas Trapenard – ATOUT SENIOR Director
force its action and to give it new communication tools such as a
Website about to be completed. India
« Experience, value for future » is the concept of communication 1.Government initiatives
that GATP has created to fight against prejudices and to optimize The civil service of the Central Government is organised into four
seniors’ employment. During 2007, almost 300 appointments have groups, viz. Group `A’ (which includes all- India Service) Group `B’,
been done and concretise into over 100 different missions. Group `C’ and Group `D’. Such classification broadly corresponds
to the rank, status and the degree of the level of responsibility
Philippe Cagniant - GATP Director attached to the posts. Group `A’ posts carry higher administrative
and executive responsibilities and include senior management po-
Contact: GATP c/o Sonia Condette - Espace Cadres ANPE Paris Ber- sitions in the ministries/departments and field organisations. The
cy. 8 rue Van Gogh. 75012. Paris - +331 40 19 97 07 - Email : sonia. middle and junior levels of Group `A’ along with Group `B’ consti-
condette@anpe.fr tute middle management. Group `C’ posts perform supervisory as
well as operative tasks and render clerical assistances in ministries
Testimonial of Thomas TRAPENARD, Managing Director and field organisations. Group `D’ posts are meant for carrying out
of ATOUT SENIOR (Senior Asset) routine duties.

About seniors’ competencies! Central Government has reserved 10% of Group “C” posts and 20% of
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

Yes, French companies are very reluctant to hire experienced peo- Group “D” posts for ex-servicemen. 10% of posts of Assistant Comman-
ple and the issue already exists for candidates who are 38/40 years’ dant in the paramilitary forces are reserved for ex-servicemen.
old! These very qualified young people are politely rejected by a • The government has proposed to extend the retirement age of the
certain number of companies that only see salvation in very young chairmen of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and DAE
professionals. What a pity and what an error! (Department of Atomic Energy) to 66 years, the retirement age of
IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) faculty has been enhanced from
In fact to do certain functions, especially management, experience 62 to 65 years
is essential. Moreover, we gain years of life being healthy, pensions • One of valuable recruitment of retiree is Mr. E. Sreedharan, who led
are obviously shrinking, and the market sends us a signal saying country’s biggest railway projects such as Konkan railway and Delhi
that we should stop working at 45! Where are we going? Metro where he is continuing as its Managing Director.
• University of Pune is to invite senior citizens to revisit education
The « seniors » can be models of experience, qualification, with 80 to 100% fee waivers, developing specific PHD, academic
knowledge and professional consciousness. The level of satis- degree and diploma programs along with internet supported lear-
faction linked with hiring seniors is, as a general rule, much ning material.

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°6
February 2008
2.Private Sector initiatives anticipate more on the issue of the 50+ employability. Large com-
panies as Corus/Tata Steel are on track with new kinds of policy.
• Each year, about 60000 people from armed forces come out of
Still, to change company policies is a tuff issue and the government
services – Mr. Sajjan Jindal of the OP Jindal group had recently
supports this effort by several projects.
offered to take the entire retirees.
• ITES-BPO (Information Technology Enabled Services- Business
Process Outsourcing) industry is hiring retired professionals.
• Naukrihub provides an online Indian Job Directory for Retired
from Army, Navy, Air Force, Ex-Military Men and Security Clea-
rance.
• Dr. R.Natarajan a retired chairman of AICTE (All India Council
for Technical Education) urges to have a national directory of
retired professionals.

3.NGOs participation
3.1.Indian Federation on Ageing CONCRETE PROJECTS
http://www.geocities.com/kstability/retirement/ngo.html
InFA (Indian Federation on Ageing) aims at bringing various First 2 projects initiated by the government:
agencies, organizations, Associations, Clubs of Senior Citizens
working for the cause and welfare of senior citizens. SeniorPower
3.2.Helpage India and Proud2B60 SeniorPower has boosted already 3 years a cultural change on
http://www.helpageindia.org/proud2b/index.htm ageing workforces by all kinds of activities. Senior Power pleads
Recently it initiated “Proud2B60: Who Are You Calling Old?” for a mental change as well in acts, to improve longer working,
campaign, aimed at reinforcing the fact that today’s senior ci- disseminates tools and shares experiences. Next February Senior-
tizens are active, healthy, contributing in a large way to society Power will end its activities and suggests 15 further measures to
and to beat the age old myth that life does not stop at 60. strengthen the participation of elderly workers. More and adjusted
training for 55+ to implement ‘life long learning’ is an important
Some of the other NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) are part of the advices.
Anugraha India, ILC-India (International Longevity Centre), Di-
gnity Foundation and Harmony Silver Foundation. Anugraha has Talent45plus.nl
organized International Conference on «Madrid Declaration on In an ‘Action Plan’ several parties have official agreed to help se-
Ageing - Emerging Trends and Strategies in India & South Asia» niors on a job again. The aim is to get within a year 30.000 extra
45+ people into paid work, by 300 mediators who will use the ins-
4.Public contributions trument of Workability Index. Parties are the Centre for Work and
Older people contribute 85 billion Rupees in income tax and Income, municipalities, employability and re-integration agencies.
almost 16 billion Rupees in voluntary work. In India retirees The Ministry of Social Affairs installed an ‘Action Team‘(6 consul-
over 60 give 1.3 billion voluntary hrs per year which is worth tants) to facilitate the fulfilment of the Plan ambitions.
$370 million to the economy (Oxford University Institute of
Ageing). Some private initiatives:
Senior Call Centre - Last December a Dutch town has opened
The Netherlands the first call centre for seniors. It offers employment to about 50
part timers who want to work several hours a day or week. Accor-
DUTCH SOLUTIONS FOR A BETTER LABOUR PARTI- ding to the initiator elderly workers are very appropriate to the
CIPATION OF SENIOR WORKERS job, because of their life experience and quiet nature. Besides, 50+
people often want to work for social contacts or for money. The job
Dutch economy is flourishing and has reached its highest economi-
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

demands are motivation and a good control of the Dutch language

cal grow since 6 years. Inflation and unemployment has declined to
(ANP - Netherlands National News Agency, 04122007).
the lowest rate of Europe (Eurostat). The Netherlands are nr.1 in
the world in teleworking; distance should not be an issue anymore.
The Dutch labour market is showing a profound shortage on person-
SeniorWeb - is an organisation special for 50+ members to sti-
mulate senior participation in the information society. SeniorWeb
nel. Despite this adequate setting only 3% of 50+ unemployed peo-
is already for years successful thanks to volunteers/ambassadors.
ple find another job within one year. Nevertheless, the amount of
In contrast of the general Dutch trend SeniorWeb has no lack of
50+ workers has increased rapidly with 60% in the passed 10 years.
volunteers and leans on more then 2.100 ambassadors, working for
This group forms already almost a quarter of the Dutch workforces
some hours or days a week (2006). SeniorWeb services can be vir-
(2005); within 5 years even a third will be older than 55 year. Young
tual, interactive, on location in 300 national SeniorWeb learning
workers are really hard to find in some sectors. The good news is
centres, or wide spread regional as pc help on house. Ambassadors
that older workers do perform excellent in certain competences
perform divers’ activities for the 50+ members. For instance: ma-
as insight, experience and social skills. Due to these skills 50+ wor-
nage a mailing group, give workshops in learning centres or writing
kers make fewer mistakes (ageproof.nl). Unfortunately employers
articles for website or magazine. The jobs are (assistant) teacher,
choose only in urgent cases for someone over 45. Employers should

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°6
February 2008
coordinator, administrator, manager on ICT systems, public rela- culture, tradition and values. At the company level, the current
tion, website, fundraising, board member or pc helper. So, if these population trend means that in the coming decade the propor-
seniors are able to manage a Web on volunteer basis, why not in a tion of the workforce aged 55 and over will increase dramati-
paid working environment? cally and with it will come new management challenges.

Continuing Collective Labour Agreement for 65+ - In Therefore Vattenfall AB first focused on competence exchange.
the Netherlands the age of retirement is 65 year. Due to the la- In that field we started up a program, called “Competence
bour shortage there is a market for experienced and motivated Transfer Mentoring” to train older workers in techniques and
(pre)retirees. The Dutch employment agency SeniorWorks, specia- methods for transferring personal knowledge and know-how wi-
lized in temporary senior personnel recently launched - in corpora- thin the organisation. The program recognises the central role
tion with a small employer and employee organisation - a special that the older worker can play in facilitating the transfer of
Collective Agreement which fits 65+ people continue to work in vital knowledge throughout the workplace.
combination with their pension, regardless job or branch (www.
vdwg.nl). The Collective Labour Agreement for 65+ enhances a In cooperation with the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology
regulation of the 65+ labour market by designing flexible, tailor Vattenfall are developing “Dialogue Seminars”. The seminars
made labour conditions as unlimited, insurable 3 month contracts. are designed to make visible, process and utilize tacit knowled-
Although the response now is still low, the initiator expects that ge and know how. For example, this knowledge includes expe-
this idea will be eventually a success. The large Dutch trade unions rience of special operations, how to work in multi-cultural pro-
criticise the new 65+ Labour Agreement, fearing for the rights of jects, how to find and use data on lessons learned from earlier
retired employees. projects, and general wisdom acquired through the years. The
corporation have also worked with the internal and external
Due to the ageing society small businesses are getting vulnera- labour market. With support of the internal labour market with
ble. 3 names of projects which leads to new possibilities to stay the programme “Senior Resource Pool” to promote the use
in concurrence: of special competence possessed by the pool members all of
• OwnWork - helps 40+ people without a job to self entre- whom are in the age bracket 55-65 years old.
preneurship,
• Sesam Academy - training for seniors into consultants for The organisation also cooperates with the external organisation
non-profit organisations, “The Working square” in order to make possible for elderly
experienced people to come to Vattenfall for project work. All
• PUM - is the organisation who mediates senior managers in
the members of the age bracket 57-65 years of age have been
assisting companies abroad.
invited to take part in a range of “+57-seminars” on diffe-
rent locations in Sweden. The age bracket counts about one
Marianne Ziekemeyer, AGE PROOF, reviewed by Kees Knipscheer,
thousand employees. The goal is to motivate, inspire and make
Prof. em. hoogleraar Sociale Gerontologie
possible for an active working life until the ordinary retirement
VU Advisering Ouderen Welzijn (AOWscope)
age at 65 or 67. In this programme the “80-90-100-tool is pre-
sented. It stands for 80 % of working time, 90 % paid and 100 %
Sweden retirement paid.

AGEING WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT IN VATTEN- Source: Website, www.vattenfall.se, Nils Friberg, Senior Advi-
sor Vattenfall AB Nordic.
FALL AB SWEDEN
Martina Sophia BACH FOLKUNIVERSITETET

The ageing of the population and workforce is an emerging is-

© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

sue by all the industrialised western countries. This issue will

not only have a heavy impact on industrial productivity, social
insurance and retirement programs but also affect immigration,

eSangathan Newsletter is published by : eSangathan Consortium Useful links :

@ Denmark :
Editorial Coordinator : NicoleTURBÉ-SUETENS (Distance-Expert) www.seniorerudengraenser.dk
@ France :
assisted by Marie-France MÉDANA www.travail.gouv.fr...
europe@distance-expert.com @ India:
Editorial Board: Martina Sophia BACH, Leif Bloch RASMUSSEN, Chitresh MARKANDA , www.educationworldonline.net...
Miguel MEMBRADO, Mandar VARTAK and Marianne ZIEKEMEYER @ The Netherlands :
eSangathan is supported by : European Commission (DG INFSO) www.senior-power.nl
@ Sweden:
Contract FP6-IST-035064, eSangathan Specific Support Action
www.vattenfall.com
For more information: info@esangathan.eu - http://www.esangathan.eu

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