UMCG and Radboud University Nijmegen present the ‘Practical Guide for the Sustainable Employability of Older Staff’

The University Medical Center Groningen and Radboud University Nijmegen have developed a tool for organizations that want to work independently on an improved sustainable employability of their staff, in particular older staff. The ‘Practical Guide for Sustainable Employability of Older Staff: an Integrated Approach for Organizations’ is available online from today on www.handreikingdi.nl.

The guide is designed to help organizations to develop their own integrated personnel policy for sustainable employability. It encourages both employer and employee to jointly think about sustainable employability, and to be proactiv. The board of directors, the Works Council, HRM, the Health, Labour and Environment department and the employees themselves will be involved in the implementation of the new or revised sustainable employability policy.

Background

Because the retirement age is shifting from 65 to 67, more and more older employees who would previously have received a pension or taken early retirement will continue to work. Many older employees have indicated that they do not wish or will not be able to continue work up until or beyond their 65th birthday. Therefore, the question of the sustainable employability of older employees has become an important social issue. Many organizations consider it important to retain staff with knowledge and experience by investing in sustainable employability.

Proactive approach

The guide follows on from the ‘Sustainable employability of older staff: current situation’ report from 2012. The research that underpins this report has revealed that many interventions and policy in the field of sustainable employability are applied, often ad hoc, to resolve problems that have arisen (i.e. curative interventions). The guide emphasizes a proactive approach, where attention is also paid to prevention (preventing reduced employability) and amplition (broadening and/or strengthening employability). The guide and the preceding research were funded by Instituut Gak.

Available to all

Everyone is warmly invited to share the guide with other interested parties they may know of. The guide and the earlier report can both be downloaded free of charge on www.handreikingdi.nl.