2016 Results
Results of the 2016 company surveys and case studies
1. The challenges associated with an ageing population and the extending of working life have arrived at the companies.
There is an emerging new way of managing the transition to retirement, supported by labour agreement regulations.
Within the changed financial conditions (deduction in pension, a lower level of interest in semi-retirement regulations and the smelting of company pension entitlements), employees prefer to retire without deductions and to receive immediate relief through a reduction in working times (age-related leave, compensation for overtime). Saving up working hours over a period of time to be able to go earlier is not as often the case.
2. Situative v. Systematic Age Management:
Specific needs are mostly the starting point for resolving individual cases in the companies that were examined, without generating systemic approaches or the existence of professional systematics
Measures for older workers are relatively widespread in the chemical industry, meaning they are amongst the pioneers of age-related working. The basis is formed by labour agreements that contain the relevant incentives. More measures for older workers can be found in larger as opposed to smaller companies. Those not bound by labour agreements also prove to have fewer measures in place.
There are three catalogues of measures to be observed:
- The majority of companies analyse the age structure regularly or when needed. Age structure analyses are time-consuming and are seen as demanding, albeit necessary work.
- There are wide-spread services in place where older workers are not seen as a special group of people: so a mixed workforce is the most common occurence. It is also common to see older employees being involved in health measures as well as in company further training activities. There is a certain aversion towards "preferring" a specific group, such as older workers if these are not part of labour agreement regulations. It is unusual to find offers for workers to stay in the company past their retirement age.
- In individual cases, if a change in ability due to illness is expected or has already taken place, workplaces will be equipped in an age-appropriate way, semi-retirement regulations enforced, benefits and work requirements adapted or worktimes reduced. However, companies only have limited experience - the vast majority of workers seem to age without issues or do not indicate any problems with work.
3. Age is More a Premordial Matter of Course
Ageing workforces are still not seen as requiring immediate action, at best in individual cases. Demographic trends are anticipated, but without any form of urgency.
The proportion of older workers in a workforce is on the increase. Analyses show that employment opportunities for older people prove if they have many years' experience and employing them requires only a short induction period. Still being in good health also plays an important role. Older workers are generally characterised by a sense of duty, loyalty, work morale/discipline, expert knowledge and an understanding of certain situations in life. Younger members of a workforce are seen as being able to physically stem more, learn quicker and are more prepared for change. At the same time, loyalty and a sense of duty is something the young have to work on, and experience-based knowledge, especially in a technical sense, is something they have to acquire. Older people's experience as well as their system/process-related knowledge is something which is appreciated. Other characteristics, such as creativity, willingness to learn and knowledge of innovations is fairly similar in both the old and the young in the sector survey.
There is a certain shyness around defining measures for "older workers" or labelling "age management" when it refers to a particular group of people. There is a fear of certain groups - against all equality principles – being preferred or at a disadvantage and therefore upheaval and injustice breaking out in the company. Based on the principle of performance, there is also an alternative interpretation: as long as there are no complaints on the quality of someone's work, there is hardly a reason to differentiate between ages from the side of the company. In this respect, no (mutual) attention is paid to the working day: older workers often avoid showing problems with their work so companies tend not to see the corresponding development as a personnel policy issue. The desire or the own initiative to be part of the "normal" workers as an older person is generally shared by the employees. The disadvantage of thinking this way is the fact that certain measures to support or relieve situations that could be necessary or merely desired as they maintain the ability to work long-term are neither seen by the company nor the individual. Both sides seems to see the fact that older workers could become too ill to work as not especially relevant.
4. Overall, a rather static orientation towards skilled labour can be observed. Diversity and the emergence of new employee groups is (still) not especially important in SMEs.
According to the sector survey, around half of all companies had employed applicants over 50. Older workers are employed in individual cases as long as their qualifications are sought after. Nevertheless, despite the decline in applications from the younger generation at the same time, the demographic change has hardly been reflected in HR policy. Recruitment patterns have, in fact, remained unchanged for the most part. Changes in employees' caregiving responsibilities mostly go unnoticed, although such changes are observed more frequently the older the workforce is on average. Adapted working time arrangements are the most popular of the measures, whereas only a small number of companies offer support mechanisms and counselling for workers with relatives who require care.
Nethertheless, recruiting trainees and younger workers as well as facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills from older to younger employees (and the other way around when it comes to openness towards innovations and technical affinity in the field of new media) present certain challenges from the companies' perspective.
5. To generate long-term, internal effects at companies, external input and a change in dynamics of the demographic-related labour agreements is required
Company pension scheme regulations are especially common in many companies (in more than half). A third of companies also offer measures for structuring work according to different phases in life, for semi-retirement as well as for long-term working time accounts. Many regulations are not based on labour agreements. Less than a third of companies see demographic-related opportunities from labour agreements to accommodate an ageing workforce as (very) helpful. Focusing on measures to reduce working hours and a more limited implementation of regulations point to two areas of support for SMEs: parties for salary/wage agreement, but also associations, counsellors and public funding programmes should address the virulent challenges in companies more accurately. In addition to this, they should talk to those responsible from the companies and see how they can stimulate a transition from a relatively static implementation to a dynamic and systematised approach to measures up to the development of a systematic age management.