Title of the practice |
Improvement of personal life quality and improvement of working life quality of senior workers. |
Precise theme/issue tackled by the practice |
Application of the project investigations tools (questionnaire and focus groups) to identify good practices within companies measured by the Management Software (MS). |
Objectives of the practice |
The aim was to propose and experiment alternative solutions for the development and exploitation of the potential of older workers, increasing their working motivation and extending the productive period in working life. The project had 7 phases, partly overlapping: 4 operational and 3 organizational. First critical factors of functional capacity and existing good practises have been identified, and then tools (questionnaires, focus groups, management software) were created to follow the older workers’ professional life and the evolution of their skills in relation to the production processes (experimentation cycle). Implementation of development activities and an experimental bottom-up training plan aimed at taking subsequent pilot actions turned into good practices once the Company had decided to adopt them. |
Location |
The transnational Finnish and Italian partnership saw the participation of 23 partners among local authorities, Universities, Hospital district and medical care centre, Trade Union, enterprise organizations, companies participating to the experimentation process, Foundations, two evaluation companies (one Finnish and one French) and organizations for workers and managers training. The lead partner was the North Karelia University of Applied Science (FI), AICCRE the coordinator of the Italian partnership. The operational contents and methods have been constructed and defined in co-operation. |
Detailed description of the practice |
Here we report as a brief example only two Companies’ good practices, the Finnish Abloy and the Italian Brioni. Abloy Oy (world’s leading lock Group) developed an age management programme called Agemasters. The senior workers of the Agemaster programme took part to the project in the experimentation cycles. The actions that Abloy implemented within the project OWL were basic information technology training for senior workers and a workshop for supervisors on how to transfer tacit knowledge. Senior workers filled in two different questionnaires. The interviewees weres 73 out of 159 in the first phase of the MS employee survey. In the second phase were 78 out of 159. The need for IT training for senior workers emerged through the work capacity survey. Senior workers felt they lacked basic IT skills compared to their younger colleagues. The IT training was planned together with senior workers to satisfy their needs and expectations and was a success. The first course took place in May 2007 and two more courses in autumn 2007. Abloy planned at least one more course after the project’s end at the beginning of 2008 for more than forty senior workers. Brioni (haute couture/high-quality tailoring for men). The main Company’s good practice was the adjustment of the working timetable in order to have two free Saturday afternoons a month, switching from 6x6 to 6.30x5 for 2 weeks a month. The work was carried out in two 6.30-hour shifts during the day (morning and the afternoon alternatively from one week to the other), with the free Saturday in the week of afternoon shifts. In order to harmonize the weekly working time of employees with a 40-hour contract (who are mainly the senior workers) the management facilitated their work by envisaging a 3.15 hour reintegration, letting them to freely establish the appropriate time and day, to be kept constant in the time. By applying this new action, the enterprise assured workers to keep their weekly 40-hour contract unaltered. Other important actions were parking place inside the Company and, together with the Municipality of Penne (project partner) a new public transport timetable, and more flexible opening hours of kindergarten (for the job sharing within a family group) in accordance with the new workers timetable. |
Evaluation |
This process allows to measure through figures and graphics the older worker physical and psychological situation and a series of other parameters decide which should be the best practice. Consequently the system allows to measure the best practices applications’ effects. This is the very important result: measure, compare, choose and, in the next future, foreseen. |
Lessons learnt from the practice |
Workers had the possibility to influence their own work and working conditions. At the same time they felt to be important member of a team, significant part of the whole organization. On the Companies side, since a unitary cycle had to be deprived of several people at the same time and, although the employees’ presence in different departments was planned in such a way as to be proportional, the cost of the whole operation has exceeded the simple percentage ratio of less work. Nonetheless, this negative side has been off-set by a strong positive social aspect due to both the heart-felt participation of all workers and their real contribution that overcame the costs incurred by the Company. |
Relevant factors/conditions for the transfer of the good practice |
Project actions wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the public bodies for the implementation of other important measures to support the changes of private firms such as: new public transport timetable; new and more flexible opening hours of kindergarten, etc.. Therefore it is fundamental a synergy among private enterprises and local authorities to develop a concrete social and cultural approach of the demographic change in the existing scenario. |
Implementing organisations |
SII Consulting; DMB Solutions ; A.I.C.C.R.E. |
Contact information |
f.battisti@aiccre.it ; g.sgandurra@siiconsult.eu  |
Other possible interesting information |
For a complete project overview: OWL CD; Documents of the 2° National Conference hold at the Province of Pordenone (project PP) relevant for the experimentation and point of view of a local authority (contact: Andrea Satta minori@provincia.pordenone.it) |