Older employees

An important resource for businesses

The knowledge and experience of older employees are an important element in a company’s success. To ensure that the potential represented by older employees can be fully utilized and their knowledge passed along, action is needed at several levels. With its powerMEM toolbox, Swissmem offers practical assistance in this area. The field of action is based on a total of four pillars.

Best practices

The “Older employees in industry” working group has compiled a number of best practices from the “Employees aged 50+” field and developed recommendations for action for Swissmem member companies.

Horizontal career

Older employees often possess know-how that has been acquired over decades. Mixed-age teams help to ensure that this knowledge is passed on. Moreover, work should be organized in such a way as to enable horizontal professional development paths to be pursued as an alternative to the customary hierarchical and vertical career paths.

Health management

Workplace health management is a key instrument in maintaining a company's competitiveness. It makes a significant contribution to keeping employees healthy and productive in the medium to long term.

More flexible occupational pensions system

One potential area that should not be underestimated in attempts to counteract the skills shortage is that of keeping older employees in work after retirement age. This allows companies to selectively close resource gaps, while older employees gain the opportunity to continue to participate in the world of work. To create the incentives needed by employees and employers, a more flexible occupational pensions system is called for, among other things.