GeniAL Generational Management in Working Life

Transcription

1 GeniAL Generational Management in Working Life Expansion of consultancy services of the information and advice centres of Deutsche Rentenversicherung Second phase April 2009 June 2011 Project -No. INQA 02-09, HdA-I Final report Short version Project management: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund Geschäftsbereich Forschung und Entwicklung Dr. Christina Stecker Ruhrstraße 2, Berlin Supported by:

2 The innovative idea of the GeniAL-Project Short version The fact of rising life expectancy in combination with low birth rates, and this not only in Germany, is considered commonly as a demographic challenge which entails profound implications for the economy and society. The task for the whole society is to consider the population ageing as a chance and takes appropriate measures at all level in the next years and decades. The economy and the labour market are often still helpless with regard to how the demographic ageing of the labour force in companies shall be dealt with. An approach is to find methods and procedures with companies and employees so that Active and Healthy Ageing of the labour force becomes possible and the demographic change turns into a formula for success. The GeniAL-Project A structure and product innovation of Deutsche Rentenversicherung Against the background of the task for the whole society to contribute in meeting the challenge of the demographic change the guiding principle Active and Healthy Ageing was the starting point of Deutsche Rentenversicherung. What can be done in order that employees remain employed longer, who are the main target groups and how can they be supported by Deutsche Rentenversicherung? As a result, the project idea to offer consulting for small and medium-sized enterprises on how to deal with the consequences of ageing personnel and to take appropriate measures has been developed.

3 >3< Contrary to numerous other supported short term demography projects the structure innovation within the scope of the project Generational Management in Working Life GeniAL 1 is based on the following cornerstones: use of the nationwide, overall presence of Deutsche Rentenversicherung (information and advice centres, joint service points for rehabilitation, auditing service, etc.) use of the existing advisory structures and operational gateways, neutral advisory services free of charge, combination with institution-specific core topics and offers of Deutsche Rentenversicherung (operational pension consultations, rehab consultation), guidepost function of Deutsche Rentenversicherung to (local) support offers for employers and their employees and thereby a warranted strong orientation towards the clients demands. At the same time the product innovation of the new advisory services of GeniAL promotes a holistic perspective which contributes to an increase of the professional competence of enterprises by pointing out the fields of activity but not presetting them, contributes to an increase of the professional competence of employees by presenting staff-oriented procedures as an effective method for coping with the demographic challenges in the company and thereby generating an increase of communication and transparency in the company by discussing the topic frankly and promoting the generational solidarity. Finally, the innovative approach of GeniAL in its practical implementation is founded on a solid training of the GeniAL-consultants of Deutsche Rentenversicherung comprising scientific findings as well as company-oriented measures, and a competent monitoring of the training, visits of GeniAL-consultants with competences in all areas of Deutsche Rentenversicherung (insurance, pension, rehabilitation), an individual enterprise analysis and the neutral knowledge transfer of scientifically approved analytical methods, the referral to the support services of Deutsche Rentenversicherung (pension, oldage provision, prevention and rehabilitation), a supply-oriented local referral through the advisors of Deutsche Rentenversicherung to competent network partners (social insurance agencies, 1 Generational management in the sense of the pilot project includes age, health and knowledge management; the German acronym stands for Generationenmanagement im Arbeitsleben.

4 >4< chamber of industry and commerce, chamber of crafts, local business associations, etc.) the acceptance by employers of the cost-free offer and finally on the one-point-contact philosophy through which the employers may address all questions to the same contact person. Objectives and strategic areas of activity of GeniAL Taking the demographic challenges into consideration, the overall objective of GeniAL was as follows: How may advisory elements of the individual pension-related counselling of Deutsche Rentenversicherung be combined with new approaches of demography-specific consulting at company level for raising the motivation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement measures of age-appropriate employment? The project GeniAL concretely pursued the following three subgoals: 1. to explore the possibilities and limits of consultancy services with focus on (regional) demography and labour market (training process and skills, depth of intervention), 2. to determine how the role of a regional guidepost can be established for coping with the demographic change (supply-oriented integration of support services, network composition and moderation) and 3. to question how to organize the new generational management consultancy services routinely in the process chain of Deutsche Rentenversicherung (implementation, operationalisation). These subgoals have been implemented in the pilot project by means of strategic levels of action: parallel with the development of a strategy for raising the awareness of small and medium-sized enterprises, a concept for creating advisory skills was set up. By local and nationwide networking with other social insurance agencies and public institutions GeniAL should be established as holistic advisory service. Finally, ways for a permanent implementation in the routine have been checked. The innovative idea of Deutsche Rentenversicherung to support enterprises and their employees in Active and Healthy Ageing has been first tested in the region Berlin- Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt in The results of the GeniAL field trial prompted the project supervisor Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund to test the project approach

5 >5< nationwide in 24 GeniAL regions 2 with the agreement of the responsible departments within the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the funding organization Initiative Neue Qualität der Arbeit (INQA) (term until ). Project results of GeniAL From personal counselling to company consulting successful professionalization of the GeniAL advisors In the pilot project GeniAL the major focus was put on new advisory services of Deutsche Rentenversicherung for employers and companies. The cost-free GeniAL advisory services were focusing on outreach consulting services through advisors from the field of pension and rehabilitation of Deutsche Rentenversicherung whose basis was established in a supervised, substantiated theoretical GeniAL training. It was an advantage to be able to build on the existing personal advisory skills of the future GeniAL advisors. From the very beginning the aim of the GeniAL training was to convey a relevant theoretical background with a direct relation to the practical application and implementation in order to preserve the necessary competence for consultations in an operational context. Therefore the future GeniAL advisors have been monitored during the first consultations by the project management and the project-accompanying demography experts. Thereby the support could be tailored to the needs of the respective GeniAL advisor until he/she was able to carry out his/her first GeniAL consultations without expert monitoring. A conducive starting position for the company consultations within the pilot project were existing operational gateways and the nationwide presence of Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Through this the GeniAL offer could be tested and placed in many companies in addition to the classic pension insurance topics. Another strategic starting point was the regional networking with other social insurance agencies (e.g. in the joint service points for rehabilitation, the accident insurance funds and health insurance companies, the employment agency, etc.). 2 Involved Pension Insurances were: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Baden-Württemberg, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Berlin-Brandenburg, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Braunschweig-Hannover, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Hessen, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Mitteldeutschland, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Nord, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Rheinland, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Schwaben.

6 >6< Further criteria for success in professionalizing the GeniAL training besides the expert monitoring were to hand over different standardized consultancy components to the GeniAL advisors (inter alia uniform regional data regarding the population, the labour market, school leavers as well as inquiry instruments). With these standardized tools from the GeniAL tool box, for example GeniAL regional portraits and GeniAL check for the brief analysis of the operational fields of activity, the consulting companies could be sensitized for their regional and branch-specific demographic starting position and the appropriate measures with respect to the ageing of their own workforce. The sciencebased knowledge about the generational management in a company combined with the standardization and the documented contacts before and especially after the GeniAL consultation enabled the GeniAL advisors to improve the quality of their advisory services and their knowledge about operational analytical tools when dealing with the persons in charge in a company. To round off the training process the GeniAL advisors have also been enabled to receive practical knowledge about concrete implementation measures. These practical examples have been gained within the scope of selected so-called GeniAL in-depth consultations. The in-depth analyses revealed possible fields of activity and thus, also useful consultation tools. With the help of the project-accompanying demography experts and the project management, starting measures to age-appropriate work have been implemented in these companies. Thus, a classic counselling cycle (sensitisation, analysis, measures, determination) could be shown and the GeniAL consultation and its awareness effects could be contextualized holistically. The following analytical tools have been applied exemplarily: an age structure analysis with the DemografieKompass, a standardized employee survey for stress management in the IMPULS procedure, qualitative staff interviews with Work Ability Coachings, as well as internal determination workshops. The practical findings from these in depth-interventions have been incorporated as practical experience into later GeniAL consultations and have successfully rounded off the quality and professionalization of the GeniAL training. Finally, GeniAL feedback meetings have been held at regular intervals regionally and nationwide. Through this moderated exchange of experiences the GeniAL advisors were able to share experience across the institutions on their consultation and network

7 >7< activities and the project management could get and give feedback on a regular basis. The project management could then readjust the GeniAL consultation at several points in time according to the needs of the GeniAL advisors and ensure a targeted professionalization of the advisory skills. Through this process, the GeniAL advisors were gradually put in the position to cope independently with the extended range of topics relevant for generational management consultation compared to the personal counselling in the information and advice centres or within the scope of rehabilitation procedures and to function as a competent contact partner for employers. Furthermore, through the combination with pension or rehabilitation advisory services a high customer orientation could be reached for employers and their employees. Supply-oriented networking regionally possible but expandable Essential objectives in the regional networking of GeniAL were to identify interfaces, to find contact persons and to fathom a possible distribution of tasks. In the end the aim was to refer the companies receiving advisory services as far as possible to competent contact persons and institutions in the region depending on the identified need for implementation after the GeniAL consultation and any pension insurance specific followup activities. To fulfill this interface function it was necessary to get an overview of the regionally existing potential network partners as well as of their topical connections with GeniAL. Such an inventory has always been carried out starting from the existing network contacts of the pension and rehabilitation advisors to finally come close to an ideal image of a GeniAL network. In spite of the regionally different experiences in the implementation of networking it showed consistently that offices of Deutsche Rentenversicherung are accepted by local partner institutions as a thematically suitable network promoter. The intended guidepost function of Deutsche Rentenversicherung in demography-centered questions is also accepted and permits a situational cooperation through the continuous attention of Deutsche Rentenversicherung towards an employer-oriented sensitizing service. The methodical structured GeniAL advisory services are considered as essentially helpful by the partners. Therefore, the integration of GeniAL topics in meetings and initiatives has been promoted many times. Furthermore, the additional effect of an increased familiarity with specific offers and services of Deutsche Rentenversicherung is promoted in this way and welcomed by the network partners.

8 >8< The objectives which are identical in the networks beyond regional boundaries and competition created an area for joint activities. In principle the sustainability of cooperation is ensured by the involvement of Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Through this, a basis for the willingness of different participants to cooperate is reached with a moderate coordination effort. Such a network does not follow a tight schedule with a close succession of milestones but can rather grow theme-specific and supply-oriented organically with moderate effort. The effectiveness of future GeniAL-induced network activities is increased through both functions, the one of the experience-based initiator and also the one of the additional participant, and through the association with the neutral role of the pension insurance. According to the specific situation either functions can be performed because the advantages of a permanent offer in the context of Active and Healthy Ageing offers enough starting points for a growing cooperation. In the course of further planning for the deployment of resources the main focus should be on ensuring a high staff continuity and to anticipate also the effort needed for the network. Besides raising awareness, networking also has an acquisition function by increasing the familiarity of GeniAL (e.g. meetings for companies in cooperation with health insurance companies or professional associations). In addition, through exchanging ideas in the networks the acting GeniAL advisors achieve learning effects. It was the input of current theme-specific supporting services through network actors that had a positive effect on their advisory skills. Through the cooperation in the companies seeking consultation a supply-oriented integration of the offer will be developed. The results obtained in the pilot phase show that the intensity of the GeniAL network achieves encouraging results and that the continuous development of regional networking is sustainable. However, in this context, there is a need for a strategic framework set up by the responsible agencies of Deutsche Rentenversicherung. In conclusion, first competencies for acting in a theme-oriented network have been established successfully. The actor Deutsche Rentenversicherung is a most welcome partner based on its institutional propinquity to the thematic area of demography, but one which has to outline its strategic objectives clearly to be able to provide interfaces and serve as guidepost. That is the result of the increased perception of Deutsche Rentenversicherung as actor in the field of awareness-raising for the employment repercussions of the demographic change in the regions.

9 >9< The applicability of the pilot experiences Implementation within the scope of a new, integrated employer service During the pilot phase of GeniAL significant experiences could be gained on all operational levels which justify the implementation of the GeniAL approach in an employer-oriented awareness consultation for maintaining the work ability of employees. However, the practicability depends on an integral approach and this should be the constituent core part of further activities of Deutsche Rentenversicherung. It is the interrelationship of the GeniAL consultation awareness-raising, imparting methodological competency and embedding in regional networks which has to be understood as a troika. In the course of the implementation of the project it was evident that the GeniAL advisors were the more confident, the more active and the more independent the GeniAL consultations were carried out. It is therefore advisable to use all entryways of Deutsche Rentenversicherung and to pass information over to the companies on the entire employer-oriented range of topics of Deutsche Rentenversicherung including GeniAL, for example over the company auditing service. With the provided evidence on the practicability of the GeniAL approach questions on the strategic realignment in all fields of activity of the pilot project come into focus: the organisation of training, a systematic recording of operational needs (and corresponding by the further development of the GeniAL consultancy), the deployment of resources and finally, an integrated network strategy. An isolated approach of the mentioned activity levels of the GeniAL approach would perspectively entail a loss of effectivity. The cause for this lies in the operational approach to the topic of generational management and age-appropriate employment: Companies strive for quick and efficient solutions for the needs emerging in individual cases. The advantage of the GeniAL consultation is the fact that the awareness of companies is raised for the different aspects of the problem holistically (e.g. through the questions of the GeniAL check), and that employers receive further support they acquire through the neutral knowledge transfer of scientifically approved analytical methods. Strategies of action can be developed systematically only on the basis of this comprehensive view of the operational problems. This may lie then outside the competence of Deutsche Rentenversicherung, but for companies the institutional responsibility does not count, what counts are integrated practicable solutions. Only an offer which integrates different actors and areas of competence is effective from the point of view of companies.

10 >10< Because of the variety of measures to age-appropriate action an employer-oriented service should unite offers and competences and promote the integration strategically. The innovative content of the GeniAL approach lies exactly in its realignment of the contribution of Deutsche Rentenversicherung in the demographic change which oriented towards the operational needs has established a compatible service. In relation to the task of coping with demographic challenges in working life, the GeniAL project has tested an approach suitable for interfaces which develops an awarenessraising effect, communicates core offers of Deutsche Rentenversicherung effectively and helps to broaden the approved methods. Further more, a permanent offer could be the basis for a long-lasting effective impact research which could indicate operational effects, but also approaches for a necessary permanent realignment of integrated employer-oriented counselling services. Against the background of the experiences gained in the pilot project the advisory board of the project has recommended to the competent boards of Deutsche Rentenversicherung to include the operational generational management in the routine process as part of an integrated service to companies and their employees. GeniAL in the sense of a new, integrated employer service Old-age provision GeniAL Regional projects Chamber of Industry and Commerce Chamber of Crafts Accident prevention & Insurance associations Pension Advisors of DRV Prevention services Federal Employment Agency Health insurance companies Insurance Operational integration management Rehabilitation Regional support Regional networks Source: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (DRV Bund), Project GeniAL