Newsletter October 2009

Companies could be swamped by the elderly wave

Germanys’ aging society will have a fare more reaching impact on the companies’ age distribution, than yet recognized. It is an inevitable fact that from the year 2020 almost half of the existing workforce will be older than 50 years. This makes clear that the companies need to recognize older employees as a human resource which is getting more important every day. The valuable experience of older employees is an asset which must be utilized to increase productivity and competitiveness. Therefore is it important to foster the workforce members in the correct way during their whole career. Done so elderly people - against all prejudices- will be more productive and innovative and do not achieve less than their younger counterparts.

To accomplish this goal, the following mistakes need to be avoided:

1. A highly monotonous workload, which results in a physical and mental deterioration.
2. Missing on- the- job- trainings, as the existing qualifications do steadily erode.
3. Prejudices of the colleagues and the misleading management which result in a lack of motivation.

In order to prevent these failures a well timed and individualized long term career plan needs to be realized. With specific target agreements, job rotation and tailored trainings the individual strengths of each employee could lead in a perfect match with the company’s requirements, preserve the employee from an early mental deterioration and uphold the employee’s motivation.

Job rotation is more than a good mean of knowledge transfer. Changing movements do break the vicious circle of starting noxious effects. Even more the employee can blossom in the new social environment, acquire new key qualifications and learn to adapt himself more quickly and - last but not least - he will have the possibility to spread his precious knowledge with his younger companions.

New tasks and qualifications are no longer a question of age. Rather, lifelong learning must become an established part of working life. Then the workforce member is used to the way of dealing actively and self-critically with his own strengths and weaknesses during his whole career. Consequentially a continuous professional development will be still taken for granted when the employees are aged.

Concerning the prejudices, certain barriers like age restrictions for hiring, promotion and training on the job need to be eliminated within a sustainable human resources management.
A motivating working environment for all age groups needs to be created, which also means that a promotion of a 58 year old employee is as usual as of his 32 year old colleague. In this case the older employee will not just mark time waiting for retirement, as not much is of him expected.

This brings us to the result that companies have to rethink about their corporate culture for getting the best use of the strengths from different age groups and to dismiss the “youth-delusion”.
As mentioned in a German article of the „Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsmedizin und Arbeitsschutz“ (n.n., 2004) , we also ask the question: “Are in a knowledge and informational age still endless forces and eagle eyes of vital essence for the daily-work life?”

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