Ageing and Demographic Change

The Business contribution to Active Ageing - in line with the European Year of Active Ageing 2012

Project manager: Sarah Dekkiche (CSR Europe)

Project leaders: GDF Suez, Intel, AGE Platform Europe,

Challenge

The European population is shrinking and ageing at the same time. The number of those older than 55 years is steadily growing, while all younger age groups are shrinking:

  • From 2012 onwards, the European working-age population will start to shrink while the 60+ age groups will increase by about two million people a year.
  • Eurostat predicts a possible decrease of about 20.8 million (6.8%) people of working age by 2030.
  • According to an internal CSR Europe survey, only 37% of companies find it fairly important to take into account the needs of older consumers when developing products and services directly aimed at them.

To remain sustainably competitive, European companies will have to successfully gear their employment and HR policies to an ageing workforce and to develop innovative products and services for the silver economy.

Objectives

Provide companies with guidelines and tools on active ageing in 2 key areas:

  • Active ageing in employment: tendencies, best practices and methodologies with regard to HR practices on retention/capacity building/recruitment, work life balance, skills transfer, entrepreneurship
  • Product and service development: Identifying the gap between the current product and services offer by companies and the actual needs of ageing customers.

More information in the attached project plan.

Key activities

CSR Europe’s ‘Enterprise 2020’ collaborative project “The Business Contribution to Active Ageing”, including company leaders GDF Suez and Intel and partnered with AGE Platform Europe, was officially kicked-off on December 9th 2011.

66 participants from businesses, NGOs, consultancies and governmental institutions attended the seminar. The context was set by key speakers such as CSR Europe’s president Etienne Davignon, AGE Platform Europe’s Secretary General Anne-Sophie Parent, as well as MEP Lambert van Nistelrooji and European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor. Three best practice examples were then presented, from Randstad, Vodafone and Jobs & Society Sweden. The afternoon session was dedicated to workshops. Participants were divided in four working groups, respectively two on active ageing in employment, and two on active ageing in products & services. The objective of the workshop sessions was to deliver 5 key solutions per working group (responding to the main risks and opportunities identified) – thus reaching a total of 20 solutions.

The outcomes of the seminar have shaped the next steps of the collaborative project. You will find more information in the seminar minutes. For more information please contact Sarah Deckiche at sd@csreurope.org

Future key activities:

  • 2 workshops on active ageing in employment (Q1 + Q2 2012)
  • 2 workshops on active ageing in products/services (Q1 + Q2 2012)

Deliverable

The outcomes and learning will be analysed and worked out so as to develop a methodology for companies, to be summarized in a key reference document by December 2012. A website or online database might be created to showcase the methodology and best practices.

Key dates for your diaries

  • Expert webinar "Skills retention and development, 28th March 2012
  • Expert webinar "R+D/ Innovation", 18th April 2012
  • Workshop "Skills retention and development", 27 June 2012 
  • Workshop "R+D/ Innovation", 28 June 2012 
  • Expert webinar "Empowering the senior workforce", 14th September 2012
  • Expert webinar "Branding, marketing, sales", 24th September 2012
  • Workshop "Empowering the senior workforce", 25th (tbc) October 2012
  • Workshop "Branding, marketing, sales", 26th (tbc) October 2012

Past activities

To understand how to get further engaged and for more information, contact Sarah Dekkiche (sd@csreurope.org).