09 July 2018

SAVIA: Senior talent to light the way to the future

SAVIA is a meeting point between people and companies that want to contribute to enhancing the opportunities and employability of senior professionals.

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A new economic and social paradigm has caused us to experience an epoch of major important changes over the last few years. It has changed the way that our markets operate, and we find that unemployment among older workers is at an alarming level: over 1.5 million unemployed over 45 years of age. And based on an awareness that this is not just a question of statistics but of real stories of persons that have been unwillingly sidelined before their time due to the economic crisis, digitalisation and new business models, Fundación Endesa, together with the Mashumano Foundation, is launching the SAVIA platform: Its primary purpose is to heighten awareness of the experience of these professionals, channelling them toward future projects.

We extend recognition to professionals over the age of 50 as a source of knowledge and experience, and their work is indispensable for businesses if they intend to prosper. Fundación Endesa seeks to foster the necessary cultural change, offering solutions to Spanish business and social networks (SMEs, startups and NGOs) as we approach major professionals, endowed with talent for their growth and development.

SAVIA seeks to exploit the talent of a generation:

1. Contributing new knowledge and aptitudes to improve their capacity to contribute in a complex and changing environment.

2. Influencing the economic and institutional system to recognise the critical importance of their contribution.

3. Creating new and innovative products and opportunities engendered by the energy of wisdom.

Twenty thousand professionals have already joined Generación SAVIA through its platform, along with 300 partner organisations and 130 entities since its launch.

Throughout 2019, more than 30 face-to-face and online training sessions were given mainly focused on topics such as self-diagnosis tools, training actions, job offers and entrepreneurship. The training sessions took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao and Valencia. Furthermore, in July 2019, we celebrated SAVIA's first anniversary with an event at Endesa's headquarters attended by 400 people, including seniors, Human Resources directors, partner entities, etc. All of them were able to discuss the main national and international trends and good practices in the management of older talent, learn about the work of organisations that are already changing the model for recruiting professionals and witness how talent does not have an expiry date.

What SAVIA is

SAVIA is a meeting place for persons, institutions and businesses that want to contribute to enabling opportunities for the development, employability and awareness of senior professionals.

SAVIA is a space bringing together services and resources to generate opportunities and improve the employability of an entire generation - the SAVIA generation.

In introducing this project, Borja Prado, chairman of Endesa and Fundación Endesa, stated that “senior talent represents one of the most important current assets that our country has. We’re talking about professionals over 50 years of age with talents that many businesses need today.”

“We’re launching SAVIA to support the over one million persons over 50 that are in a particularly vulnerable situation.”

Borja Prado, chairman of Endesa and Fundación Endesa

Over 7,200 professionals have joined the SAVIA Generation through its platform since it was launched last April. A platform that has been visited by about 30,000 users, both individuals and businesses. It’s everybody’s responsibility.

The organisations collaborating in this initiative highlight senior talent as a fundamental professional profile for the work environment through a series of videos.

The director for professional career services for former students of IE, Ana Herranz, addresses the extensive experience of these professionals, saying that “what they have to contribute is highly significant. The wealth of resources that they bring can be applied to a number of current challenges. All that has to be done is to put it to use”.

Jaime García-Murillo, managing partner of Nova Mens Consultores, is committed to demonstrating the importance of experience: “Entrepreneurs need to apply the knowledge and experience of older workers in support of various applications in managing their business throughout its various levels”.

“They have to create awareness of their experience, get themselves noticed and prepare their plan. We need them all.”

Ana Herranz, director of professional career services for former students at IE

The SAVIA way was created to open new work prospects and opportunities. How do they plan to do it? By providing future employees with training in new critical skills, helping them to evaluate and promote their experience, inspire with their background and actions and allow businesses to discover the advantages of using senior candidates. It is proposed that this be done using five steps:

1. First steps with Serenity.

2. Self-evaluation through Analysis.

3. Training with Vision.

4. Employment with Impact.

5. Community in Alliance.

The SAVIA generation is also a community in which participants can all discuss matters, remain in contact, advertise employment offers and compare experiences. Social networks play a fundamental role in this paradigm shift in dealing with prejudices and raising awareness of both personal and professional skills.

“The equilibrium between entrepreneurial drive and the serenity and expertise of seniors is a very potent mix for startups.”

Jaime García-Murillo, managing partner of Nova Mens Consultores

Talent combined with experience is an added value that organisations need to consider. Differences between professionals can help in creating multidisciplinary teams, other areas of expertise and experiences that organisations can take advantage of in growth activities.

At Endesa, together with Fundación Endesa, we believe that providing more visibility to this group is more than a social obligation, and furthermore provides a great opportunity for both companies and for professionals with extensive accumulated work experience and knowledge that have an entire lifetime ahead of them to continue building their own future, providing value and consequently contributing to the progress of our society.