Using the "aging workforce" instead of writing it off
How can the broad experiential knowledge of the "aging workforce" be activated, profitably managed and secured? Andreas Tinner, a graduate of the Bachelor of Business Administration at the HWZ, investigated this question. He received the UBS Sustainability Award for his bachelor thesis on this topic.
Cross-generational expertise and experience in teams are increasingly system-relevant factors for companies in globalized competition. The looming loss of competence and knowledge due to demographic change and the associated wave of retirements pose major challenges for companies in Western industrialized nations.
Knowledge and experience assurance 50+
For companies with a tendency toward an older workforce, the global pressure to innovate and retirements, which often destroy valuable practical experience, are major challenges. Here, timely and intergenerational knowledge transfer creates competitive advantages. In his work, Tinner clearly demonstrates the economic and business advantages for companies of actively integrating the expertise and practical professional and life experience of employees over 50.
"Better integrating the aging workforce into work processes
Generations that have been socialized differently by technological change often bring values and expectations to the work process that could not be more different. Andreas Tinner contrasts the perspective of the "Aging Workforce", for whom meaningfulness is more important than financial incentives, with the perspective of companies, which must meet the needs for flexibility, health and knowledge management. He provides clear and easy-to-implement recommendations on how Swiss companies can increasingly integrate the "aging workforce" into appropriate HR processes.
Promotion measures shown
SMEs need to act now, to actively safeguard knowledge in order to guarantee their social and economic sustainability. According to the jury of the UBS Sustainability Award, Tinner has made an important contribution to this with his study, because he showed both the urgency of the task and viable support measures.
Source: www.fh-hwz.ch
