Lang zullen ze leven, werken en leren. Een schema voor het begrijpen en beïnvloeden van inzetbaarheid gedurende de levensloop

Abstract

To 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.