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Allianz Allianz and Demographic Change
In 2006, we established a Demographic Working Group to evaluate global trends in demographics and determine the risks and opportunities that these trends present for Allianz. We also held a "Living Longer Forum" for politicians, academics and the public to discuss old-age provision, assets, healthcare and real estate. Our findings included: - A dramatic increase in the proportion of old-age and healthcare provision secured by capital investment is required. - Greater focus on saving and financial models which provide the necessary funds for senior citizens to make their own homes more senior friendly or to move into assisted-living accommodation is required. Through research and dialogue we are identifying the internal challenges we need to address as a result of demographic change. As an integrated financial services company, we offer all components of old-age provision under one roof thus efficiency in providing solutions.
Our internal response We have undertaken various initiatives to create a healthy and attractive working environment taking into account age, gender and cultural needs of our current and future employees. Initiatives range from flexible working hours to mixed aged working teams. Encouraging mixed-age working teams throughout the company is a healthy way of increasing communication between various generations. Current demographic trends highlight the potential shortage of skilled workers. We are addressing this in part through further integration of women in the workforce. Female employees are yet to achieve comprehensive equality in the business world, which is why we began a cross-mentoring initiative, ensuring that women throughout our company have the opportunity to get the best experience possible.
Our external response In the next few years, demand for new products and services tailored to the needs of senior citizens will significantly change the face of business. For an overview of our innovative demographic change products and services see our homepage.
More Information Allianz Study on demographic change
Contact Astrid Zwick, Head Allianz Group Sustainable Development Office, astrid.zwick@allianz.com
BASF: GENERATIONS@WORK Like many other companies, BASF is affected worldwide, especially in Europe, by demographic change. The shrinking population, the constant increase in life expectancy and the growing proportion of older employees are bringing special challenges before human resources managers. To ensure that BASF is optimally prepared for these changes, the GENERATIONS@WORK program was started in 2006. The aim is to develop BASF´s competitiveness further against this changing background and to maintain productivity and innovation capability. This is made possible through an intergenerational approach, ranging from the promotion of early-years education through to the recruitment of trainees and measures to shape the working life of different age groups.
Contact Dr. Hartmut Lang, HR Strategy/Future Development, hartmut.lang@basf.com
More Information
BMW Group: Project "Today for tomorrow" Demographic change as an opportunity
In years to come, increasing business requirements will have to be met by an on average older team of associates. This will have a number of advantages, as older people are more experienced and are valuable sources of organisational knowledge and cultural values. A company will be more successful the more it consistently enhances the employability of its staff and their capacity to perform. The BMW Group is already preparing for these challenges today. The right framework conditions and instruments are being created in the project "Today for tomorrow" which takes a holistic approach.
One of its tasks is to sensitise management staff and associates to the demographic change and enable them to deal with it. The project has shown clearly that the only way of tackling demographic change successfully is to change the behaviour of employees in the equivalent way: in future, all associates will have to take greater responsibility for their own performance and employability. It is task of the management to encourage but also to call for their associates to take action in this context. The following shows what is currently known and which measures have been taken in the project's five fields of activity:
No. 1: Health Management and Preventive Care
The cross-locational Health Forums which have been revised within the project have already made a major contribution in this area. The data are recorded for each individual on a voluntary basis and in line with data protection requirements and patient confidentiality. Every participating employee receives a medically high-quality health profile. At the same time, anonymised data are used to identify fields of activity in the company, to derive target-group specific measures and to verify their sustainability.
So far some 28,000 associates have participated in the new-style Health Forums (at the Munich, Leipzig, Berlin and Dingolfing locations). Having identified associates whose health is at risk, target-group specific measures such as weight loss and exercise programmes have been derived and set up, along with the BMW Group Heart Sports Group.
No. 2: The work environment
Work is currently under way to design new working time models which include innovative part-time opportunities that will suit an ageing workforce. In addition, an Excel-based tool has been developed for the evaluation of shift schedules according to the results of manpower studies. At the moment all important shift schedules are being evaluated and possible options for action derived.
No. 3: Training and competences
Work-integrated learning will play an increasingly important role in future, complementing traditional forms of training and even replacing them completely in some areas. Furthermore, in the field of activity of training, workplaces and functions are tested in sub-areas for the degree to which they encourage learning, and direct and indirect forms of learning are devised. The more development potential a workplace has and the more flexibility, participation, innovation and responsibility it demands, the more it encourages people to learn. Companies with many workplaces which encourage learning are demonstrably better prepared for demographic change. These findings flow into new training concepts to support associate and manager development.
No. 4: Retirement models
No. 5: Communication/Change Management
The BMW Group's internal media are also encouraging associates to make their own personal provision for the future. They offer regular articles dealing with all aspects and fields of activity concerning how to make provision for old age. Further communications are planned for management staff by 2008. They will provide support on how to sensitise associates to this issue.
Challenges and prospects
It is also particularly important to encourage associates to take responsibility for making their own comprehensive provision for their future. Their behaviour has to change in this respect. A scientific study carried out in the BMW Group has proved that as well as creating the technical and organisational work conditions and supporting the health and competence of individuals, management behaviour plays a particularly important role in influencing employability. So it is vital that management staff sets a good example.
Contact Michael Pieper, phone: +49-89-382-24935, Michael.PA.Pieper@bmw.de
Deutsche Bank: Respond flexibly, take responsibility For a long time demographic change was only discussed as a future scenario. By now, however, corporates are increasingly challenged by demographic developments. For example, estimates of the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), a research institution backed by the Federal Employment Service, suggest that the workforce in Germany will decline considerably over the coming decades due to the reversed age pyramid: from roughly 41 million people in 2000 to only about 26 million in 2040. Significant cultural changes are likely to occur during the same period.
- create attractive opportunities for career-oriented young professionals in order to retain talent - promote the existing potential and maintain our employees´ employability so that we can keep them on board for a longer time - offering better ways to reconcile work and family life, as only satisfied and highly motivated employees will consistently perform well - promoting diversity within the company so that younger and older employees and employees from different cultures can learn from each other.
Recruit new talent Our goal is to get the best young professionals interested in a career at Deutsche Bank. The bank´s global presence increases our chances of doing so. We recruit students from leading universities and business schools world-wide for our internship and trainee programs. The "Class of 2007" consists of 974 university graduates who joined Deutsche Bank, and in 2008 we hope to offer a job to about 1170 new young professionals. In addition, about 1500 apprentices in Germany alone have decided to start their careers at Deutsche Bank.
Offer training opportunities for employees We offer our employees a broad range of professional and personal qualification opportunities. Our Group-wide electronic training platform "db Learn" consists of 3,259 seminars and 250 online training modules on technical and bank-specific issues, leadership and management and personal and team development. Events on corporate culture, orientation and networking round off the spectrum. Individual training plans are discussed in the appraisal meetings with our employees.
Maintain employability The initiative "In eigener Sache - fit in die berufliche Zukunft" helps Deutsche Bank employees to cope with their ever more complex professional challenges. It supports them in increasing and maintaining their employability. More than 7.100 registered users are already active on the specialised website which hosts a number of innovative opportunities for personal development. In 2007 Deutsche Bank´s employability program received a Training Award from IIR Deutschland. In the framework of the nation-wide "Initiative für Beschäftigung!" Deutsche Bank provides some of the offers and a broad range of information on the issue of professional fitness to third parties (www.in-eigener-sache.de and www.jugend-in-eigener-sache.de).
Certifications for better ways to reconcile work and family life Opportunities to reconcile work and family life and to get back to work quickly after having a child are gaining importance. Deutsche Bank offers a broad range of instruments and opportunities to arrange working hours more flexibly. For example, employees in Germany benefit from a part-time agreement with the staff council. A newsletter for young parents, access to the bank´s intranet and workshops and training opportunities enable us to regularly share information with young parents during their maternity/paternity leave. These and other initiatives were the reasons why Deutsche Bank was the first German group to receive the basic certificate of the berufundfamilie® audit of the Hertie Foundation.
Excellent old-age provision Deutsche Bank has developed new concepts for occupational pension schemes early on. An important pillar is the individual contribution plan, under which capital is saved for future pension payments. All payments into the pension account are made by the bank. Moreover, employees in Germany benefit from the occupational BVV (Versicherungsverein des Bankgewerbes a.G.) pension scheme, with half of the contributions being paid by the bank and the other by the employees themselves.
Promoting diversity Demographic changes will not only change the proportion between younger and older employees. Increasingly, people from different backgrounds and with different religions and socialisations will life and work with each other. Deutsche Bank has roughly 78,000 employees in 76 countries. We intentionally create cross-generational teams and organise regular diversity workshops. Our goal is to create an open-minded working environment for all employees regardless of characteristics such as age, gender, religion, ethnic background, sexual identity or physical or mental challenges and to demonstrate and exploit the advantages of diversity. Beyond our internal initiatives, which helped us to gain again the highest number of points in the Corporate Equality Index (CEI) of the Human Rights Campaign in 2007, we were co-initiators of the "Diversity Charter". By the end of 2007 more than 240 companies and institutions had signed this Charter.
Studies and networks With a view to the challenges stemming from the reversed age pyramid Deutsche Bank and other groups have established the WISE network. Network meetings at which experiences are shared and research results and examples of best practice are presented take place at Jacobs University in Bremen. Moreover, we participate in studies, for example on the learning behaviour of different generations. In internal projects we purposely rely on support from experienced colleagues who have been working for a consistent improvement in cross-generation cooperation in the network Seniorexperts@db since 2007.
Contact Ralf Brümmer, Head of HR Employment Models, ralf.bruemmer@db.com Additional information:
SAP: A Head Start on Demographic Change In the software industry, where innovation is a driving force for generating revenue, employees play a big role in determining a company´s value. Employees shape innovation and ideas to create new software products and services that benefit customers and lead to profitable business. The employees are the most valuable, most important resource in the innovation process. At SAP, the healthy balance of young employees, including recent university graduates, and more experienced employees is fundamental to the company´s success.
Responses to internal employee surveys and projects have shown that employees currently do not see any generation conflicts at SAP. Nevertheless, SAP supports managers and project heads leading mixed-age teams and offers brief workshops on working in and managing teams with heterogeneous age structures. In all of these activities, SAP recognizes and stresses that demographic change is a challenge for all generations going forward.
Contact Heidrun Kleefeld, C & B Shard Services Germany, heidrun.kleefeld@sap.com
ThyssenKrupp Steel and Demographic Change ThyssenKrupp Steel AG is Germany´s largest steel producer. With a workforce of about 19000 employees, it mainly produces flat quality steel products at different locations for the industry and the automotive industry. In the future, ThyssenKrupp Steel AG goes for growth and innovation - the construction of a steel mill in Brazil and a plant with downstream production facilities in Alabama/USA, as well as the expansion of processing capacities in Germany reflect this strategy. In order to be able to stand its ground in global competition, the company needs to strengthen the employees' motivation and efficiency. ThyssenKrupp Steel AG needs qualified employees in order to stay competitive.
ThyssenKrupp Steel AG sees three main challenges entailed by demographic change. Firstly, longer working lives due to the postponed pension start at the age of 67, the abolition of partial retirement and thus the maintenance of the efficiency of the employees. Secondly: The skill shortage on the job market and the intensified competition for suitable junior employees, and finally the increasing importance of knowledge, and thus the safeguarding of expert knowledge and lifelong learning.
In order to face these challenges, the company has -in a broad-based collaboration between the works councils, the plants and the executive board - tied up a comprehensive package of measures. ProZukunft is a toolbox containing tools for executives and offers for employees. In a first step, the employees of ThyssenKrupp Steel have reduced their working hours by one hour per week in 2006 in order to prevent 500 colleagues from losing their jobs during their fixed-term employments. At the same time, this reduction offers way over 1,000 additional apprentices the chance of being permanently employed after their apprenticeship. This act of solidarity has ensured the reduction of the average age of the workforce and created the basis for further activities.
ProZukunft responds to the challenges involved in demographic change: It is based on the age structure analysis and the personnel planning tool which permit to make forecasts on the qualification and age structure of the individual corporate sections, broken down to each part. The appropriate tools and measures for ProZukunft are derived from the results obtained.
Age-appropriate working hours are especially important for production workers. The partner shift model was elaborated, for instance, for employees who cannot longer take the strain of night shift work: Night shifts of elder colleagues are voluntarily taken over by other colleagues, yet for a limited period of time in order to prevent overwork.
Moreover, the company has become more family-friendly by making working hours more flexible. The objective is to facilitate the re-entry of young parents after the parental leave. ThyssenKrupp Steel offers an individual child care service and daycare facilities in case of schedule difficulties. Apart from the support to young families, the care of family members in need of special nursing is coming into the focus.
ProZukunft possesses a tight project organization, involving a steering committee composed of employer and employee representatives. Project specifications, schedules and reports ensure the efficient implementation; a project office is entrusted with the coordination of ProZukunft. We want to sensitize all employees, executives and works councils and motivate them to participate by means of a broadscale communication offensive, involving large-size placards, an article in the inhouse magazine, as well as an information platform on the Intranet.
Contact Volker Grigo, HR Strategy, phone: +49-203-5247257, volker.grigo@thyssenkrupp.com
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The world´s population is changing - medical advances are helping people live longer while fertility rates are in decline. These changes are causing unprecedented pressure on our social security systems. It is still unclear how much these shifts will affect society, but what is clear is that as an international financial services provider we play a pivotal role creating a sustainable future. (
Knowledge about healthy lifestyles is communicated not only in the Health Forums but also in seminars. While "Fit for Job" targets all associates "Fit for Leadership" is directed specifically towards management staff. There amongst other things the additional issue of acting as a role model is clearly addressed. In both seminars the participants are shown how to pay more attention to a healthy balanced diet, to physical fitness and mental balance both at home and at work. Another result is the revised "Network Rehab", which has already taken over 800 associates through an effective fast-track rehabilitation process. 
The issue of work organisation is also under review. In production, job rotation would offer a promising solution for avoiding the ill effects of unilateral strain and should help safeguard the physical and mental flexibility of workers. A unique pilot project in the automotive industry entitled "Arbeitssystem 2017" predicts the age structure of the rear axle assembly team at Plant Dingolfing in 2017 and evaluates the relevance and effectiveness of work so far in the different fields of activity on-site.
The "Demographic Development - Opportunities and Challenges" training programme has been developed and has been operating for two years. During this training, managers are informed about the opportunities and challenges of demographic development, prejudices are dispelled and options for action are presented. For some time now, Qualitative Personnel Planning (QPP) has been tasked with examining how competences within the company will develop. Analyses of the age structure provide information about when knowledge will flow out of the company when associates leave, and what knowledge this will be. These findings help departments in which a growing loss of competence is expected to take timely and appropriate action. Alongside these activities a further module has been developed during this project, this time aimed at finding ways to identify associates' strengths. It represents a long-term personnel and training concept designed to encourage the intrinsic motivation to learn. This achieves far better results than extrinsically motivated learning. 
The aim is that these will take into consideration the life plans of employees and the company´s needs and to be supported by new financing schemes. The financial base for this is already being laid today. By the way: The BMW Group has been supporting personal pensions financing for associates with Personal Provision Capital (PVK) for several years now. An attractive finance model offers associates the opportunity to convert a salary share into provision for old age. 
On average, SAP employees are 37 years old and have worked at the company for five years. The dynamic environment that currently exists at SAP is clear to see. In the long term, however, the homogeneity of its workforce´s age will be a major challenge for SAP - more so than the cultural diversity of its employees. Employees currently in the 35 - 40 age group represent approximately 50 percent of the workforce. They will age together as a group, and with SAP as a company, resulting in specific challenges for strategic personnel management. SAP already uses several human resources tools to approach this impending demographic challenge. For example, SAP operates an exemplary internal health service for its Germany-based employees. A wide range of sports programs gives employees ample opportunity to take care of their physical and mental well-being, either at the workplace or nearby, and on their own time. Employees also call upon the many preventative health services provided by internal and external health-care providers.
Each employee´s individual work-life balance is important, and SAP offers facilities for various target groups. For example, work-life management workshops help employees identify and initiate measures to improve their work-life balance. SAP`s flexible working time systems are also fundamental to its relationship with employees: Employees are trusted to manage their own working hours. Job-sharing, part-time employment, or working from home gives employees the flexibility to balance their professional and personal lives. Enabling employees to be both parents and employees is crucial. At the company headquarters in Walldorf, Germany, SAP provides a parent-child office where parents can bring their children to work if normal childcare arrangements fall through at short notice.
The demographic development also has an impact on the recruitment scope. It gets more and more difficult to find employees on the job market, mainly engineers. For this reason, the company will have to focus on its own junior employees: The talent management comprises a personnel development system for succession planning, the Young Potentials Program which supports young employees in their job-related studies in tandem with their work, and a qualification program for junior employees. 
When elder employees leave the company, their valuable knowledge must be preserved. Knowledge transfer is a complex process where mainly experience must be shared. Within the scope of ProZukunft, knowledge will be passed on in a standardized manner, and successors are systematically initiated, e. g. in guided discussions. Longer working lives imply the necessity for lifelong learning. Our employees' willingness to learn of is very high across all age groups. Yet, elder people have a different learning behaviour than younger ones, they learn at a different pace and rely more on their experience than younger people do. That is why we have adapted the further training courses to the learning behaviour of elder employees. 
