Analysis of the age management status in the organization (age management audit) and age management efficiency assessment in the organization

AE Trainer

Age management audit is an analysis of the organization in the field of employee age structure management, corporate culture, employee care and in the context of personnel activities regarding age and equal opportunities. The main objective of the audit is to identify problematic points of internal processes of the company from the age management perspective.


It is appropriate to carry out an analysis of the current state of the measures already applied in the organization to target the implementation of age management measures properly. Many organizations have already implemented some measures, but they are not called age management measures. Age management audit should be the part of the process during the implementation of the age management measures in the company (see Figure 3).

The audit/analysis areas are based on the concept of working ability (“The House of Work Ability”) and following the defined pillars of age management (Ilmarinen, 2008).

In terms of content, the audit could be divided into two parts:[1]

1.       Analysis of organizational data (internal and external documentation, directed interviews)

2.       Analysis of the fulfilment of the individual pillars of age management

Figure 3: Introduction of age management in organizations (age management, 2018)

The first step of the analysis should be to identify the age composition of employees according to the individual workplaces and the subsequent identification of the key positions (see Figure 4). The outputs should form the basis for the processing of the succession plan, considering the time of training for the individual positions.

Figure 4: Key areas of age management audit (Štorová & Fukan, 2012)

Further analyses should be directed towards identifying measures that support employees ‘ working capacity e.g. measures, by which the organization supports:

  • health, functional capacity and healthy lifestyle of employees,
  • development of competencies, support of lifelong learning/education, career change management, personal development,
  • motivation, the area of work and personal life harmonization, programs to support stress prevention and burnout syndrome,
  • working conditions considering the needs of individual generations at the workplace, corporate culture and analysis of personnel processes supporting age management.

As a part of this analysis, it is also important to analyse the incapacity according to individual age groups as well as its causes. Regarding the workplace some key issues of safety, health protection and the prevention of risks to employees’ ability to work remain (ergonomics, hygiene, work security, working areas, working tools and equipment, physical load, posture, etc.). The analysis could also be complemented by monitoring turnover according to the individual age groups and the financial costs of new employees training. (Štorová, 2015)

The second part of the audit is the monitoring the fulfilment of the individual pillars of age management (Ilmarinen, 2008):

1.       knowledge of age issues,

2.       accommodating attitudes towards ageing,

3.       good management that understands individuality and diversity,

4.       quality and functional measures of age management,

5.       ensuring good working ability and motivation,

6.       high level of competencies,

7.       good organization of work and working environment,

8.       satisfied life.

The on-line web based individual pillars fulfilment monitor tool was developed by the company age management z.s. in the Czech Republic. The tool is able to evaluate and graphically process the fulfilment (see http://www.agemanagement.cz/audit-age-managementu/).

Both audit parts are processed into the final audit results report. The output is a comprehensive plan for the introduction of age management, which includes:

  • `training activities for managers at different levels and for employees,
  • `proposal for the implementation of age management measures into personnel processes,
  • `measurement of working ability and its evaluation for employees and employers,
  • `consultancy during all phases of the implementation of measures,
  • `regular monitoring.

It is very difficult to find a uniform procedure in this area, it is always necessary to consider the specifics of employers and employees.  However, the important aspect of success are the attitudes of managers at all levels to ageing employees and their willingness to seek individual solutions considering their age, needs and capabilities (Štorová, 2015).

The age management audit could be executed after the implementation of measures. It assesses the effectiveness of the implemented measures. The measurement of working ability can be repeated on a regular basis and it can analyse the effectiveness of the measures taken to support employees’ working capacity.

The age management support measures are time-consuming and with the long-term financial return. However, measures that are accommodating to the needs of employees of different ages lead to their satisfaction and are therefore a premise for their longer and more productive working lives.

A growing number of ageing employees will evoke the need for adequate changes in working life, particularly regarding the organisation of work, it will also affect the corporate culture and the setting of the intergenerational cooperation in the workplace. The age management audit can be a valuable tool for adopting the very measures that the organization needs for its activities and for its employees.