Potential of older employees The "over 50" in the South Tyrolean working world
This study analyzes the situation of older employees (“over 50�) on the South Tyrolean labor market. What difficulties do they face? What are the strengths of older employees and how can companies benefit from them? To what extent is it necessary to improve the employability of older employees?
In addition to a detailed secondary analysis of existing data (Labour Force Survey of ASTAT, South Tyrolean Household Panel of the IER - Institute for Economic Research of the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano, data of the Office for Labour Market Observance etc.), the IER interviewed 466 South Tyrolean companies (266 of them in a personal interview) as well as 100 older employees. For purely demographic reasons, older workers will become increasingly important in the future. The "baby boomers" of the 1960s will additionally contribute to this in the next 10 years. Already now, around 20% (number: 45,400) of all the labour force in South Tyrol is older than 50 years; by 2020 this proportion will be 32%, which corresponds to 67,750 people. Besides the fact that the labour market participation of the older population in South Tyrol is decreasing quite sharply and is below the European average, older employees often find it more difficult to find a job than younger people: among the long-term unemployed people, older people are represented at an aboveaverage rate and companies often prefer younger employees for new jobs. The number of registered people on the mobility list
also shows that age has the biggest negative influence on the ability to re-employ. Conversely, older employees are assessed very positively by their companies. Their greatest strengths are accurate and precise work, high reliability and loyalty to the company. In fact, older employees, for example, change jobs less frequently and consider their jobs to be more secure than younger colleagues. On the other hand, the willingness to adapt and further train is critical. What are the reasons for this "contradiction" (overall very positive assessment of older employees in the company combined with a rather negative attitude when hiring a new employee)? Probably the factors of willingness to adapt and to undergo further training, where the companies consider the "young" to be superior to the "old", are crucial for the fact that younger applicants are preferred because they can be better involved in long-term corporate planning. Despite their lower level of basic training, many older employees are in a leadership position and their experience is seen as very important for the success of the company. The transfer of knowledge takes place primarily through the informal training and instruction of the younger employees by the older employees as well as by mixed-age work teams.
Main conclusions •
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Companies must prepare themselves for a growing share of older employees. It is therefore important to pay increasing attention to topics such as further training, safeguarding physical and mental performance, and knowledge transfer to preserve the experienced knowledge of older employees. The employees themselves must prepare for a longer working life and therefore lay the foundation for successful employment as early as possible through a positive attitude to work and continuous professional training. It is necessary to prepare oneself for the "older" working life before the age of 50. For the use of the strengths of the younger and older age groups, an age-mixed composition of the working groups is very reasonable.