Only one in twelve companies studied specifically older employees

Consequences of demographic change are not yet considered by 40 percent of businesses as urgent

Despite numerous appeals from politics and business associations, only one in twelve companies looking specifically for workers over 50 years. The result of a study of the consulting and services firm Mercer and the Bertelsmann Foundation in 200 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Even after the transition to retirement with 67 only every second polled company expects future with more jobs for over 60-year-old.

When looking for new employees, it is noticeable that only 8 percent of companies specifically target employees over 50 years. Only 8,3 percent are looking for foreign employees. 15,4 percent of companies target women and 15,7 percent of young people under 30 years. 27,2 percent of companies expect new employees to cooperate with universities, and at least 20,2 percent work together with the local schools to recruit.

Although many companies recognize the problems caused by demographic change. However, there is a lack of solutions. Thus, every second company surveyed sees the operational conflict potential, which is evidenced by a changing age structure. However, the consistent promotion of the coexistence of different generations as an answer to this is often neglected in everyday working life.

On the one hand, for 56 percent of the respondents the "preservation of work and performance" as well as the "employee development and succession planning" in the foreground. On the other hand, only one-third of companies consider it necessary to set up and optimize occupational health management. The companies see more need for action in the areas of reconciliation of family and career and the promotion of willingness to change among employees and executives.

Appropriate measures to meet the challenges of demographic change fail, according to the respondents for several reasons: 40 percent have not yet sufficiently recognized the urgency of the issue, half do not have sufficient human and financial resources, with one-third lacking fixed responsibilities for the topic. Many do not know the impact of demographic change on their business. More than a third of companies have not carried out an age structure analysis so far. Some of the interviewees were unable to give reliable figures on the average age, the proportion of female employees or trainees.

In the first quarter of this year, 218 people from 200 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland participated in the study.

Source: Gütersloh [Bertelsmann Foundation]