"Fit for Demographic Change": Concept Development for Adapting to Demographic Changes in the Industry

Demographic change and demographic development meet digitalization, which reveals the significant need for revolutionary measures regarding the handling of demographic changes in the workforce. In addition to the rising integration of immigrants into the education and employment system and the skills shortage, the identification of a new course of action is one of the most profound challenges of demographic change (Jeschke et al, 2013). Since the implementation of such revolutionary actions is tightly linked to technological advances whose introduction cannot always be predicted, it is necessary to concurrently refine and improve existing approaches. In order to improve existing measures and define future models, a demography management evaluation focusing a holistic lifecycle management has been developed and tested in the automotive industry. Therefore, a concept has been developed for evaluating the current demographic situation in a company, which can, in the long term, help in reducing and counteracting the negative consequences of demographic change. The potential outcomes of demographic change are manifold, so countermeasures have to include different fields of action regarding personnel commitment, staff recruitment, personnel development and personnel activation like health management (Bauer, Cernavin, 2015). The concept is based on three elements: (1) evaluation of the current demographic situation, (2) definition of strategic goals and (3) derivation of suitable measures for action. The concept consists of workshops and semi-standardized interviews with leaders and employees as well as an audit of assessment measures with the human resource department. Through choosing the participants out of the principle of maximum contrast -from leaders of different hierarchies, members of the works council to employees with different educational and work background different perspectives are taken into consideration. This analysis results in a rating, which has been validated by developing and assessing semi-standardized interviews. The development of this concept, its prototypical application and resulting methodological adjustments are discussed in this paper. Concluding, an outlook on the large-scale role out is given.