In the last few decades, the issue of aging has become increasingly relevant. The Italian population, and consequently also the Italian workforce, is one of the oldest in Europe, and many different companies are actively investing in age management. Meanwhile, gender diversity is another relevant diversity management branch. These two types of diversity, age and gender, are both recurring topics inside most organizations and have a great impact on people's lives. This contribution presents data from a national, quantitative research project, called “Ageless Talents,” carried out in Italy in 2018, on a sample of 12,746 senior employees (50–70 years old). The analysis contributes to a better understanding of work-life integration and the talent of workers aged over 50 to provide indications on how to support senior workers as active resources in organizations.
TopIntroduction
Aging populations are a global social change with broad impacts on both the family and the labor market, linked to both an increased life expectancy and a lower fertility rate. These relevant and ongoing changes have consequences for intergenerational exchanges and relationships both in the family context and in the workplace: Italy is one of the European countries most affected by this trend (OECD, 2017).
Modern organizations are facing increasing complexity deriving from continuous social change, which requires them to adapt to multiple challenges and to invest in their internal and external resources. The labor market has changed profoundly in recent decades, with new social actors becoming part of the workforce and bringing their own peculiarities and characteristics with them, thus increasing diversity within the workplace. In this context, the need to manage diversity and complexity in organizational contexts is crucial and growing attention is being given to this issue. The so-called diversity management, which started in the 1970s in the United States, refers to a new approach to managing people based on the idea that the enhancement of diversity, understood as a resource and not as an obstacle, can lead to a competitive advantage for a company (Barabino et al., 2001).
Thus, diversity management takes the form of a way of managing different groups within organizations (Castellucci et al., 2009): the goal is to provide workers with tools and opportunities to bring out their potential and talent and consequently to be a real resource for a company. The adoption of diversity management is a strategic choice, not imposed by any external regulation.
Over time, within diversity management different branches have developed, based on specific types of diversity, including age management, a form of personnel management recently created starting from social gerontology, occupational medicine, and organizational-managerial studies (Cuomo & Mapelli, 2014). It arises from the intent to manage age effectively using strategies to promote the inclusion of workers of all ages and the enhancement of the skills and abilities required in their jobs. Therefore, these are not conceived as strategies for those who are at the end of their career and close to retirement, but for all generations in organizations. Due to demographic changes, we can identify four generations active in the labor market, each of which brings a pool of different skills, know-how, and experiences. In this context, the task of human resource departments is to enhance the contribution that everyone can bring, and this can be done through age management practices, which refer to “the set of measures aimed at creating work environments within which each individual can exploit their potential without being disadvantaged due to age” (Marcaletti & Garavaglia, 2014, p. 117). Age management practices have been adopted by many organizations in northern Europe and the United States, while in Italy they are still scarce: according to a study carried out by ISFOL (2015), only 10% of Italian companies are aware of, and sensitive to, the issue of aging and implement specific interventions in this direction.
Another aspect of diversity management, which – unlike age management – is having great success in organizations, is gender diversity management, a way of managing personnel with specific attention toward gender equality. The goal, therefore, is to promote equity among men, women, and nonbinary people (Sharon, 2006) in the workplace, thus trying to break down all those invisible barriers that prevent a situation of equality between the sexes.
Organizations are investing great efforts in this aspect, both as a response to existing regulations in different countries and as an economic investment, in line with a large literature showing the competitive advantage of having gender-balanced work environments.
Furthermore, organizations are encouraged to invest in these forms of management to give prominence and value to their brand; in fact, public opinion pays great attention to the issue of gender diversity.