Lazazzara Alessandra, Karpinska Kasia, Henkens Kene Learning later in life – Brussels, September 2011

 Introduction  Theoretical background  Method  Results  Conclusions

GLOBAL SITUATION  ageing workforce  increase in retirement age  extension of the working life  life-long training ITALIAN SITUATION  ageing workforce  life-long training considered the most effective measure  training not adequately implemented

 Life-long training increases productivity and work motivation BUT  Older workers are excluded (Armstrong-Stassen and Templer, 2005; Taylor, 2006; Warwick Report, 2006; OECD, 2006; Rymkevitch and Villosio, 2007). RESEARCH QUESTIONS  What factors influence the support of HR professionals for the training of older workers?  For what kind of training and in which situations are they more likely to train older employees?

REASONS BEHIND THE LACK OF INVOLVEMENT IN TRAINING FOR OLDER WORKERS  Economic reason expectation of future benefits and rise in productivity, motivation and job satisfaction (Human capital theory, Becker, 1964).  Psychological reason Discriminating attitudes and behaviours based on people’s age ( Ageism, Butler, 1969).

H1 HR professionals will be less in favour of training for older workers with the increase of their age. H2 HR professionals will be more in favour of training for older employees with a poor job performance in order to improve their productivity. H3 HR professionals will be more in favour of training for highly skilled older workers H4 HR professionals will be more in favour of training for older workers with a lower absenteeism rate H5 Older HR professionals will be more in favour of training for older workers

 3 factorial surveys: descriptions of (hypothetical) situations or persons that are defined by some characteristics randomly manipulated by researchers (Ganong & Coleman, 2006).  Each participants had to assess the desirability of three different types of training for described older workers. FACTORIAL SURVEYSCOPE OF TRAINING 1to update job skills daily used in work activities 2to increase the employability for internal mobility 3to enhance the chances to find a new position outside the company

VARIABLECATEGORY Organisational characteristics Labour force shortages No labour force shortages Need for downsizing Employee characteristics Age Work performance Poor Moderate Good Staff category 0101 Low-skilled workers Highly skilled workers Absenteeism rate0101 High Low VARIABLES USED IN THE VIGNETTES

Factorial survey 1 Below are different descriptions of a number of older workers that currently work in your organization. There would be the possibility that each of these employees follow a 2-day external training (cost of a month salary entirely paid by your company) in order to update the job skills that they currently use in their daily activities. Please indicate for each vignette: How desirable would it be in your opinion that each described older worker has access to training aimed at updating job skills? Organisational characteristics: Age: Work performance: Professional category: Absenteeism rate: Labour force shortages 55 Moderate Highly skilled workers High How desirable would it be to you that the older worker described follow a current job skills updating training? Low desirabilityNeutralHigh desirability

MinMaxMean/%St. Dev. R's gender (male) R's age (in years) R's work experience (in years) R's education (university degree) Kind of university degree Social and behavioural sciences Law and political sciences Natural and applied sciences Literature and Philosophy018.8 R's position Top manager0129 Middle Manager0129 Non managerial0142 R's company size <50 employees employees >250 employees R's sector Industry Services N:66 Resp. rate: 43% DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

HR P V1 V2 V3 V4V5 V6 V7 V8  Unit of analysis: vignette  The 66 participants rated 8 vignettes for survey  Data have a hierarchical structure  Multilevel models

Fixed effectsFactorial Survey 1Factorial Survey 2Factorial Survey 3 Respondents’ characteristics Femaleª (-1.80)-0.36 (-0.86)-0.09 (-0.2) Age of respondent0.05**(2.85)0.06**(3.19)0.06* (2.51) Graduated b 0.92* (2.00)0.55 (1.00)0.54 (0.89) Kind of degree (Ref category: Social and behavioural sciences) Law and political sciences-0.35 (-0.92)0.02 (0.04)-0.56 (-1.1) Natural and applied sciences-0.10 (-0.21)-0.39 (-0.69)-0.69 (-1.1) Literature and Philosophy1.43* (2.40)0.95 (1.33)0.53 (0.67) Role (Ref category: Top manager) Middle manager0.90* (2.21)1.58** (3.3)1.36* (2.54) Non-managerial1.86***(4.35).92***(3.75)2.00*** (3.54) Company’s size (Ref category: Small (<50)) Medium (50-250)-0.94* (-2.22)-0.21 (-0.42)-0.23 (-0.4) Big (>250) -1.61***(-3.7)-0.44 (-0.84)-0.63 (-1.1) Industry Sector c 0.52 (1.39)-0.46 (-1.03)-0.24 (-0.5) Vignettes’ characteristics Organisational characteristics (Ref category: Need for downsizing) Labour force shortage1.35*** (5.65)1.08*** (5.05)-0.33(-1.34) No labour force shortage1.02*** (4.23)0.97*** (4.48)-0.15(-0.61) Age of applicant (Ref category: 40 years old) 45 years old-0.52 (-1.64)0.01 (0.03)-0.20 (-0.65) 50 years old-0.87** (-2.88)-0.58* (-2.1)-0.50 (-1.58) 55 years old-0.96** (-3.02)-0.84**(-2.9)-0.74* (-2.29) 60 years old -2.27***(-7.7)-1.99***(-7.23)-2.09***(-6.69) Work performance (Ref category: Poor) Moderate0.18 (0.72)0.64** (3.03)-0.29 (-1.18) Good 0.70** (2.94)1.32*** (5.97) (-1.02) Highly skilled worker d 0.53** (2.67)0.72*** (4.06)-0.24 (-1.21) Absenteeism e -1.30***(-6.6)-1.12***(-6.42)-0.17 (-0.84) Constant 3.27***(3.30)1.26(1.10)4.07** (3.2)

AN OLDER WORKER HAS MORE CHANCE TO BE TRAINED IF:  training is aimed at external mobility  is younger than 50 years old  has a good performance  is an highly skilled worker  has a low absenteeism rate  the company faces a situation of labor force shortage  the training decision is taken by an older, with no managerial responsabilities, HR professional

LIMITS  laboratory setting versus real-life situations  extending the research to other countries To conclude our findings suggest that HR professionals consider training for older workers more as a retention practice than as a way for enhancing productivity and continuous employability of workers who need additional training most.