While the government wishes to promote the employment of seniors by creating a specific index, present in the pension reform, the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly has just validated its creation. This tool will force, from 2024, companies with more than 300 employees to make public an index representative of the share of senior employees in their structure, under penalty of financial penalties. Guest of Europe 1 this Friday, Bruno Serre, president of the National Association of HRDs, returns to this index for the employment of seniors proposed by Olivier Dussopt.
“There are two things to look at. The first, looking at the figures, you can see that companies have learned a little better to retain seniors, which is rather good news. On the other hand, they have not really yet learned how to hire them. The real tragedy for seniors is to unfortunately lose their job at 56, 57 or 58 and have to find a job. Whereas in this situation, it is extremely complicated”, specifies Bruno Serre.
France, a bad student in Europe
Despite the improvement, France still remains a poor student of Europe. On the other hand, the president of the National Association of HRDs underlines the importance of two points in the senior index. “These two subjects, access to training and the rate of mobility within the company, let’s say from the age of 55, are undoubtedly interesting indicators also in the index. Why? Because for an employee 52 years old for example, when we no longer offer him anything, he will try to shoot to the end”, he says. On the other hand, instead of capitalizing on the experience of seniors, companies give the impression of needing to provide them with additional training.
“With tutoring or mentoring, it’s as if we were telling seniors that they are no longer really employees like the others, when most want to be considered like everyone else. If we look at the companies that are going to offer another position for someone aged 55 or 56, even if it means placing them in a dedicated training course, professional mobility is therefore a better guarantee of going all the way, because the employee is always in the right dynamic of career”, explains Bruno Serre. “So you have to be careful not to reduce the issue of senior employment to that of mentoring or passing on. I think it’s almost more useful to follow that than to sanction companies who hire or not, because the capacities are not the same”, he concludes.