UK best prepared in Europe for ageing workforce

05/02/08 15:39

UK companies lead Europe for ‘demographic fitness’, according to a new report.

The Demographic Fitness Survey, by think-tank the Adecco Institute, surveyed companies across Europe to determine how prepared they were to cope with the ‘demographic crunch’ – the challenge of an ageing, shrinking workforce.

Five factors were used to measure a company’s fitness: career management, lifelong learning, knowledge management, health management and diversity management. Companies were then graded on a scale of 100 to 400 points.

The UK and Germany came out as most prepared for an ageing workforce with average scores of 186. This compared with 182 in Italy, 180 in Spain and 174 in France.

However, despite the UK sharing first place, it still has a long way to go in terms of demographic challenges, according to Wolfgang Clement, chairman of the Adecco Institute and former German economics and labour minister.

“None of the five major EU economies reaches a satisfactory Demographic Fitness Index (DFX) yet,” he said.

“ But that does not come as a surprise: the goal of establishing the DFX is to raise companies’ awareness for the demographic challenges. And this is clearly happening, as shown by the better analyses of age structures, the growing openness towards older employees and a strong commitment to improved education and training.”

Donna M Murphy, managing director of the Adecco Institute, said the survey indicated that demographic change needed to be accompanied by significant reform in European corporate culture.