The UK is ahead of its major European rivals when it comes to career management, according to research.
Recruitment company Adecco published findings of its second annual Demographic Fitness Index 2007, with the UK topping the survey for the second year running.
The index measures the preparedness of companies across five areas: career management, lifelong learning, health, knowledge and age diversity management and comprised 500 interviews in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Spain,
It found that the UK topped the league table with 60% of businesses creating new positions to foster career progression, while UK companies also had the highest diversity management with 93% of respondents offering equal opportunities for all age groups.
The UK was also top at lifelong learning with 96% of businesses offering workplace-based training initiatives and 86% providing technical skills training.
However, the UK fails on health management at work is the worst of the five European countries with a score of just 2.9 of nine main health promotion tools identified by Adecco. UK firms are particularly poor at offering regular health checks, the research found.
Rene Schuster, Adecco UK group CEO, said: “While there is a slight slip in the UK’s overall performance in the survey from last year, it is exciting to see that UK business again leads the way in preparation for the challenge of an ever-changing workforce demographic.
“The overall findings of the survey suggest that there is work still to be done to prepare Europe for the challenge of an ageing and shrinking workforce, but we are seeing more and more companies taking steps to address this,” Schuster said.
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