Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
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CHAPTER 11<br />
Maintaining senior employment: some lessons from best practices in France 213<br />
are changing: virtual communications, through various IT media <strong>and</strong> call<br />
platforms, has taken over from more traditional paper-based customer relations.<br />
This meant that some 50 people, whose work involved use of lamination <strong>and</strong><br />
document enclosure machines, found their jobs under threat. Some of these<br />
individuals were the oldest <strong>and</strong> most long-st<strong>and</strong>ing workers in the company.<br />
The company instituted a nouveau départ (new beginning) programme, to<br />
work toward the following aims: convincing employees to redeploy into other<br />
jobs <strong>and</strong> support them to make this move successfully. It proceeded from a<br />
broader forecast-based jobs <strong>and</strong> skills management agreement (gestion<br />
prévisionnelle des emplois et des compétences – GPEC). To ensure<br />
appropriate job mobility management, the GPEC agreement calls for job<br />
mapping, interjob cross-bridges <strong>and</strong> job fact sheets. Interjob cross-bridges<br />
are used to outline possible pathways between different jobs, set out in terms<br />
of skills expected, as laid out in the job description sheets. The tools draw<br />
upon the job observatory, a labour dialogue <strong>and</strong> information <strong>and</strong> exploration<br />
body dealing with developments in the company <strong>and</strong> its activities.<br />
The ʻnew beginningʼ system is a comprehensive programme. It includes<br />
communication, training <strong>and</strong> support, at all stages of the process, as well as<br />
mobilisation on the part of all employees <strong>and</strong> members of management in the<br />
originating <strong>and</strong> destination work sectors:<br />
(a) introduction to new job: tour <strong>and</strong> interaction with the employees, all team<br />
players mobilised to extend the best possible welcome;<br />
(b) support employeeʼs ability to integrate new skills: identification of skills<br />
already in place <strong>and</strong> aptitude tests in the workstation;<br />
(c) training: one month of external training in IT <strong>and</strong> the basics of telephonebased<br />
customer relations;<br />
(d) entry into new position <strong>and</strong> upskilling: one month of internal training on<br />
tools specific to the company, with a specially-trained mentor;<br />
(e) follow-up: a weekly appointment with the human resources manager to<br />
check progress throughout the training period. Return to the previous<br />
position if the training does not proceed well, or extend duration of the<br />
training period, where necessary;<br />
(f) recognition: certificate of completion awarded at public ceremony, to give<br />
recognition to employees who have taken the step to change jobs.<br />
Key success factors<br />
Success factors related to system design are:<br />
(a) flexibility in duration of training period: if some employees needed more<br />
time to learn, it was possible;