Older employees: Endless talent
Many companies have made finding and retaining young talent a top priority. This has implications for the growing number of employees aged 50+. Generation-friendly talent management pays off - an exciting task for employers as well as employees.
In the mid-1940s and in the peak year of 1963, when 109,993 babies saw the light of day, Switzerland recorded historically unparalleled highs in the birth rate. In the meantime, the baby boomers have clearly passed the age of 50 - with massive demographic change in tow. The average age in companies is rising; starting in 2020, many people will leave the workforce each year "due to age," and if things go on like this, very many (58%) will even do so before reaching the regular retirement age. At the same time, HR managers complain about the lack of younger professionals, recruiting and also maintaining long-term relationships are becoming increasingly difficult. But even for companies that still have plenty to draw on (thanks in part to immigration), it might be worth asking older employees: "Do you still have to or do you already want to (work) - and if so, for how long? "Perhaps in order to then devote more attention to the motivation and commitment of those who have been working for a long time. In our experience, it is not done with the conclusion: "There are enough old people, too few young talents, then I just have to change my attitude, upgrade a few competencies with the older ones and bang, opportunity seized." Especially not in companies where it has been considered "best for everyone" for years to retire at 60 and, at worst, to retire even earlier. I don't think that a company automatically becomes better if it relies more on older people - but inspiring those who are already there anew, if necessary, is certainly worthwhile.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
The negative images from the world of work create a negative reality; the self-fulfilling prophecy is reflected in behavior. If we think of ourselves as old and moderately useful, we act that way. A consistent downward spiral, as many older workers will attest. Instead of personal development, stagnation is often felt. This often happens in combination with experienced, constantly increasing pressure and a growing workload that can no longer be put away as easily as in younger years. There is no age-specific adaptation of performance management. So what to do? Find out which of your older employees are struggling through the daily routine for fear of unemployment, for example, and who still has the feeling of being needed and of being able to shape things. Ask early retirees under what circumstances they would have stayed longer, and many answer: "If they had needed me."
Speaking of mixed-age teams
A recent study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the Zürcher Kantonalbank and us (Neustarter-Stiftung, see box) deals with the integration of older people in the labor market and the question of the cultural change that is due. Among human resources staff, the statements regarding mixed-age teams range from "Age doesn't play a role for us" to "Conflicts are always generational conflicts for us." Fabiola Gerpott (University of Amsterdam) found in a field study, "The more diversity, the more it takes Psychological Safety to leverage team intelligence." That means individual team members need a good feeling about expressing their ideas and thoughts, in addition to the safety of being needed. By nature, this good feeling is more likely to be felt toward people of similar backgrounds (age, gender, origin, education level, etc.). Increasing age diversity thus requires even more sophisticated leadership that promotes security in various dimensions.
Working conditions in Switzerland
Surveys by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO on working conditions in Switzerland in 2005 and 2015 show that there is a general need for action in terms of job satisfaction: In 2005, around one-fifth of employees complained about "monotonous tasks"; ten years later, this figure had already risen to more than one-third. According to the responses, the opportunities to "learn new things" and "implement one's own ideas" declined by around 15 percent in each case from 2005 to 2015. These signals are clearly going in the wrong direction, insofar as the economy is threatening to decouple itself from the nature of the human being. But economic and human interests need not be contradictory. Among the clearest intersections are curiosity, the search for innovation and the joy of experimentation. Therefore: companies, allow and encourage experimentation! Develop different models of how to work in your companies and make them transparent - for all age groups.
Old and agile
Many older employees say, "Yes, I would like to work without a rigid age limit, but not as before." This fits well with new organizational forms and increasingly agile work environments. As an example, a credo of the agile development method Scrum is always to change things, even those that are supposedly going well, to discover new and better ways of working. Costs (leadership) time at first, brings self-responsibility, fun, motivation and in the end more innovation and outcome - right? "You sometimes have to teach an old elephant new tricks," Olmar Albers also says. He was desperately looking for a job at 55 when an internship among digital natives brought him back into the game.
More transparency
In addition, other entrenched factors play an important role in demographicsensitive HR work, such as pay. Is the pay structure, which in some places is still strongly geared to (service) age, really still appropriate and fair? If younger employees are fundamentally more favorable to a company than older ones, this further exacerbates the perceived gap between performance and recognition. In contrast, models such as an "arc career" (congratulations, whoever finds a better word!) with decreasing (often personnel) responsibility or part-time work with correspondingly decreasing pay are conceivable. Many older employees are open to discussions about this or explicitly seek them out and are willing to accept an average of about 10% in salary reductions. In general, greater transparency and fewer inequalities with regard to salaries appear to be desirable. This in turn fits with the logical development of thinking less in terms of job titles and more in terms of roles within different projects.
Older employees: Learning by doing works at any age
Much research has been done on the elderly, but the jungle of prejudices has not been cleared much. Research on the relationship between age and performance at least allows the rough conclusion that 55-year-olds do not lift less per se than 30-year-olds. Most deficits, such as longer reaction times, are compensated for - for example through practice and experience. Ultimately, it is not age but working conditions, living conditions, education and motivation that are decisive for performance. So it's more a matter of whether the task area suits the person or personality. The topic of digitization remains exciting. Which age group uses it and how? - Tools, information, communication and consumption will soon be available to 100% of the workforce in the relevant professions. But who is really networking in a meaningful way, designing, producing content and software? Generation-friendly talent management would say: Found startups in the companies. Learning by doing works at any age.
Talk is gold
The majority of older employees are often unaware of their skills and assets. And conversely, their superiors are not aware of their potential, or at best are very vague about it. It is therefore important to talk to people, to question activities, and to break down rigid structures. For example, in the form of honest employee appraisals in which deficits are openly addressed, by both sides. If it's not put on the table, we're left with vague hopes and fears. And then follow up the discussions with measures - from further training to a completely new area of responsibility, which the employees ideally help to shape themselves. Taking active responsibility, creatively exploiting one's own possibilities instead of being a cog in the wheel - that's motivating. However, this also requires a shared will to shape things, beyond internal company hierarchies. Ideally, generation-friendly talent management is defined in such a way that all those involved, i.e. employees, supervisors and the HR department, are joint designers of a transparent process. It would be great if, in the future, all age groups had the skills and motivation to help shape the world of work 4.0 and wanted to work without rigid age limits, perhaps in combination with family and volunteer work - depending on the phase of life.
About the author:
Since September 2016, Bernadette Höller (36), a qualified gerontologist (gerontology), has been the managing director of the Neustarter Foundation, bringing with her extensive entrepreneurial experience in addition to her specialist knowledge.
The non-profit Neustarter Foundation was established in 1999 as the Tertianum Foundation. Since 2017, it has pursued the goal of inspiring and encouraging people aged 49 and older to make a new start in their careers. Neustarter also supports companies facing demographic change and increasing digitalization at the same time, in order to inspire long-serving and older employees with suitable models and methods, e.g. design thinking, for future working worlds.
