Alternde Belegschaften in der Chemieindustrie vor und während der Corona-Krise. Chancen der Beschäftigung Älterer im disruptiven Arbeitsmarkt

"The employment rate of older workers in Germany has increased significantly in recent years. This is due to the rising labor force participation of older people and the increase in the retirement age since 2012. There has also been an increase in employment after retirement. What may be an economic necessity for employees or a desired extension of their active working phase is an important means for companies to secure their need for skilled workers. At the same time, however, employing older workers also poses specific challenges for companies, which need to be addressed with an age- and ageing-specific HR policy. In 2016, the BA University of Applied Sciences (HdBA) and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) conducted an online survey of small and medium-sized companies in the chemical industry (as an exemple for the manufacturing industry in Germany) to examine the opportunities and risks of demographic change for companies and their HR policy towards older employees. At that time, the findings indicated that the companies‘ focus was more on individual problems than on a systematic age management. In order to investigate how companies are facing up to the ongoing challenges of demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers and what HR policy measures they are using to meet these challenges, another online survey was conducted in 2022. This survey also focused on the specific situation of older employees during the Corona crisis. As with the 2016 industry survey, the survey was conducted by the Umfragezentrum Bonn (uzbonn) on behalf of the HdBA. As the results of our survey show, the trend of increasing labor force participation of older people has continued - despite the Corona crisis. Older people were not affected by Corona-related job cuts to an above-average extent. While the companies' hiring activities declined during the Corona-crisis, the proportion of older employees increased. The proportion of older employees in the chemical industry is particularly high in medium-sized and long-existing companies - especially in the area of production. However, the survey also indicates that specific measures for the employment of older workers still often appear to be the result of individual solutions and not of company-supported, systematic approaches. Nevertheless, the demographic trend seems to increase the pressure on companies to take action: For example, the use of some measures to maintain the employability of older employees has increased significantly compared to the 2016 sector survey. In particular, there has been a significant increase in offers to remain employed by the company after retirement. In addition, further training for (older) employees is becoming increasingly important against the background of technological change. It is noticeable that companies rarely focus on specific further training measures for older employees, but rather organize their further training activities independently of the age of the employees. With regard to the company's assessment of the benefits of individual personnel measures, our findings indicate that the necessity of transferring experience to (younger) employees is more important than the potential preservation of older employees' employability. Personnel measures such as making working hours more flexible or designing age-appropriate workplaces, which focus on promoting the retention of older employees, play a rather subordinate role for the companies. In contrast, the respondents ascribe comparatively great importance to measures such as mixed-age working groups." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))