Case study

Scotguide

Age Positive Champion

West Glasgow Bearsden and Milngavie Extra/Age Positive Awards Company Winner 2004

Scotguide is a tour and guide business concentrated mainly in Glasgow but also operating guided tours throughout Scotland.

Business benefits Our employees demonstrate a high degree of loyalty and commitment to the business; high retention means low recruitment costs, and ensure that valuable experience and knowledge stay within the company. Employing older workers pays off in terms of commitment, continuity and enthusiasm. There is no doubt that the business would not function so efficiently and profitably without them.

HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES:

80 per cent of the staff are over the age of 40 and several are aged over 65. Tour guides must be able to deal sensitively with customers. Scotguide have found that older workers are particularly adept at communicating with customers and their experience helps them to deal more effectively with the demands of the job.

HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES:

Jobs are rarely advertised, people are recruited through various training courses such as the Strathclyde Learning in Later Life Initiative, which is run by the local university. This ensures that only people with a genuine interest in local history and geography are recruited.

Retention

Flexibility and consultation are key characteristics of the culture of Scotguide. There are several levels of tour operation from local Glasgow tours, to more extensive regional tours. Employees can, on merit, move up to the more sophisticated and demanding tours, providing they undergo the relevant training. Conversely, they can stay with the less demanding tours or move down to them. This is particularly helpful if an employee decides that s/he wants to work less intensively as they get older.

Retirement

Flexibility also applies to retirement. There is no official retirement policy and every one is encouraged to work as long as they want. The only condition for continued employment is the ability and competence to do the job satisfactorily.

Training and development

All employees are covered by the appraisal system. This enables each employee to discuss their work situation and to negotiate further training and development. All guides need to train but the training doesn't always have to be directly work related to the guide part of the business. One guide expressed an interest in PC training. The request was granted and as well as being a guide she now helps out in the office with administrative duties. Training and job development aren't restricted to the formal appraisal system. Employees are encouraged to discuss their work at any time.

Alex Pringle, managing director of Glasgow-based Scotguide Tourist Services, is ahead of the game. His firm employs 70 people, of whom the oldest is 78. "He loves it. He came to us at 65 wanting two or three years and he's gone on and developed and developed until he's doing all sorts of things. Many of these older people are capable of work but they are not capable of 40 hours a week. By reducing the number of hours, you can have more people but better quality staff.'

"The people who come in at 25 and 55 get the same opportunities and training," Pringle says.

"We don't have a policy of retirement, but because we are an Investor in People company we have an appraisal system, and at the end of the season we always have a one-to-one interview. That's when we discuss the future. It could be winding up or winding down. If we think someone is not quite up to things, that's when we think maybe they could do less. When they first come to us, we say: 'How many hours a week do you want to work? How many days a week?' We try to fit in what they want. This is one of the reasons why we have a very high staff retention. They're not forced to do a 60-hour week or anything.

Scotguide calculates the exact number of hours needed to run the operation and then divides it into modules that are allocated to individuals on the basis of their needs and abilities.

Pringle says a lot of employers miss out on the benefits of this sort of flexibility. "You can decide what your staff requirement is and then work it out in a manner that can be split. For instance, we have one driver who can work three days and another who will work four. That's our bus covered for seven days. This is the kind of thing we do. We're not saying it would necessarily work for everyone but it's one way forward."

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