Age-friendly human resource practices: a comparison of Baltic and Nordic countries

Purpose Due to population ageing, the European Union (EU) has adopted active ageing as a guiding principle in labour and retirement policies. Among the strategies for active ageing, age-friendly workplaces play a crucial role. This study compares age-friendly human resource (HR) practices in the Baltic and Nordic countries. The latter are pioneers in active ageing, and as the employment rate of older employees in the Baltics is like that in the Nordic countries, we may assume equally age-friendly workplaces in both regions. Design/methodology/approach We used the latest CRANET survey data (2021–2022) from 1,452 large firms in seven countries and constructed the fuzzy logic model on age-friendliness at the workplace. Findings Despite a high employment rate of older individuals in the Baltics, HR practices in these countries fall short of being age-friendly compared to their Nordic counterparts. Larger firms in the Nordic countries excel in every studied aspect, but deficiencies in the Baltics are primarily attributed to the absence of employer-provided health and pension schemes. The usage of early retirement is more frequent in the Nordic countries; however, its conceptualisation as an age-friendly HR practice deserves closer examination. Our findings suggest that the success of active ageing in employment has translated into age-friendly HR practices in larger organisations in the Nordics, but not in the Baltics. It is likely that high employment of older individuals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is a result of the relative income poverty rate. Originality/value Our model represents one of the few attempts to utilise fuzzy logic methodology for studying human resource practices and their quantitative evaluation, especially concerning age-friendly workplaces.