Managing ageing workforces: Empirical evidence from Germany

Drew, Hilary

Abstract

Demographic change (ageing populations and falling birth rates) affects all industrialised nations, including Germany. Traditionally, the problems associated with managing numbers of older workers were mitigated by the Altersteilzeitgesetz in Germany. Under this law, firms were offered financial support by the government to offer early retirement (Müller-Camen et al. 2009). As these provisions came to an end in 2010, the need to find alternative solutions to displacing older workers, as well as ensuring their better integration into the organisation, should have become a more pressing challenge for German companies. Additionally, studies suggest that the long-term use of early retirement, as a displacement tool, has led to the creation of an early exit culture, whereby older employees expect to be offered early retirement and will be resistant to working after sixty years of age (Teipen and Kohli 2004). Having said all this, studies focusing on demographic change in Germany posit that, despite the fact that German managers are aware of the problem of demographic change, they do not perceive it to be a matter of urgency (Kirpal and Kühl 2006; Müller-Camen et al. 2009; Thun et al. 2007). Indeed, researchers suggest that firms are not doing enough, or even anything, to prepare themselves for the changes in labour market demographics.
This article summarises empirical findings from German organisations regarding the challenges of managing older employees.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2016
• Journal: CESR Review
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: older workers, demographic change, ageing workforce, ; germany
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/936075
• Publisher URL: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/bl/bbs/research/cesr/cesrreview/jan-2013.aspx
• Contract Date: Nov 15, 2016