An aging society, fewer and fewer people of working age and growing burden on pension systems are increasing challenges for employers and rulers. Participants of the spring edition of EFNI, which is taking place in Warsaw, talked about it.
– I turned 50 last year. On the same day I received birthday wishes from my company and an invitation to a group of corporate seniors. I did not join the group, but I wonder if this is the best practice – says Ewa Street, marketing director, IGT Polska, Coordinator of the Diversity Council at the Lewiatan Confederation.
According to Agnieszka Krawczyk-Dąbrowska, a psychogerontologist, a member of the Polish Gerontological Society, the use of a cognitive network dividing generations or creating solutions for a specific age group can do more harm than good.
– The word “senior” functions in public space. But the senior is who? Does this one gray hair testify to it or only when it laughs in the back? For people in retirement, inactive, it has no negative tone-says Agnieszka Krawczyk-Dąbrowska. – However, I can't imagine calling people at the same age in her workplace.
A 60+ person is not an old man with a cane
According to a psychogeront. In the face of a shrinking labor force, it is much easier to encourage the young generation to work with a person with knowledge and professional experience than to work with “seniors”.
– It also happens in public space that during noble initiatives to activate people 60+, they are seasoned with a picture on which there is an old man with a cane. Meanwhile, placing an equal sign between a man in late adulthood and a person with a disabilities brings a lot of damage. That is why we must be very careful about such details-adds Agnieszka Krawczyk-Dąbrowska.
This is not a crisis at all?
According to prof. Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, director of the Institute of Statistics and Demography at SGH, the current demographic collapse could be predicted 25 years ago, so it should not be called a crisis.
– Current data shows that Poles are unlikely to come, but there will be less and less of us. Because this age, when we leave, is just a generation of demographic boom – says prof. Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak. – It was to be expected.
According to prof. Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak should depend on us how we plan our professional career when we want to retire and what its amount will be. However, this is also influenced by employers, government and local governments.
– All generations must plan their professional career, thinking how to be the longest active, because the change in retirement age is necessary and inevitable – says SGH representative.
Only 25 percent work in Poland. women over 60
– From the point of view of the labor market, the challenge is not only the shrinking number of employees, but also a change in the age structure – believes Maciej Albinowski, an economist from the Institute of Structural Research. -In the next 15 years, the number of employees aged 20-49 will fall by 20 percent. However, among people aged 50-64 there will be an increase in the number of 15 percent. That is why employers will have to look for staff among a little older group. It is currently poor with it. While, when it comes to older men, employment rates are comparable to other European countries, we are in a distant tail for women. With us, ladies aged 60-64 are employed only in 25 percent, while in the Baltic countries it is even 70 percent. So we have a large space in Poland to make these older people better use. Therefore, both the state and employers should activate them better.
Employers do not consider 50+ people?
According to Anna Wicha from the HR forum, on 10 CVs sent by 50+ people, there is no answer in the case of 9.
– This capital is completely not taken into account. That is why we have a lot to do when it comes to communication regarding how many people at a mature age can offer on the labor market – believes Anna Wicha. – You need to find out what competences they lack and then supplement them in the Long Life Life Learning system. I am a supporter of a solution based on public-private partnership. Then you can go out most effectively with such solutions that will suit everyone.
Communication is going down
Also according to prof. Ewa Flaszyńska, director of the Labor Market Department at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, work resources 50+ are poorly used.
– Especially few women at this age are employed – says prof. Ewa Flaszyńska. – It turns out that many people do not know what they have, what they can use in the case of training or when they need support, how they fall out of the labor market. Information and communication are going down. We talk too little about what professional chances for this group of people are.
Our future will not look like now
– Today the median age of a Polish citizen is 42 years. In less than 20 years he will reach 50-says prof. Joanna Tyrowicz, member of the Monetary Policy Council, co-founder and member of the management board of Think-Tank Grape. – It seems to us that the future will look like now, only it will be later, and only the number of people with gray hair will increase. Meanwhile, the reality in which we will live in the future will be different at all. It is not that the brain is equally absorbent when you are 20 years old and when you are 60.
Also, physical fitness is not the same. These employees will not have the performance they have now. That's why there is nothing to color this problem.
According to prof. Joanna Tyrowicz, We will have to deal with the challenges related to the aging society.
– Because in other countries a crisis or demographic boom happens at a different moment, we cannot adopt their solutions with us. That is why this is a very local problem – adds a member of the MPC.
