Long will they live, work and learn:A scheme for understanding and influencing employability during the life span

Long will they live, work and learn. A scheme for understanding and influencing employability during the life spanA. Nauta, A. H. de Lange en S. Gortz, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 23, June 2010, nr. 2, pp. 136-157To stimulate employees' employability until high age, knowledge is needed about what people of different ages want with regard to work; this knowledge is discussed in this article. Calendar age appears to be a weak predictor of employability. More important are specific indicators of 'age', namely the ages of (1) professionalism; (2) private situation; (3) psycho-social experience; and (4) health-both physical and neuro-cognitive. We describe how these four 'ages' change over a lifetime and to what changes in work-related needs they may lead. Professionalism is rather stable during peoples' careers; private situation becomes salient as soon as employees have children; most people want to feel young; and the likelihood of health complaints grows with increasing age. Nevertheless, complaints can stay away for a long time when employees live a healthy life and keep on learning. We recommend organisations to align their HR-practices with changes in all four 'ages'. These HR-practices are summarised in a scheme for employability and life span, which also gives guidelines for future research.