Which personnel measures are effective in increasing productivity of old workers?

Christian Göbel and Thomas Zwick

No 10-069, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: In this study, we investigate the effect of five specific human resource measures for old employees (SMOE) on their relative productivity. Despite the fact that SMOE are applied in the majority of establishments, this is the first representative study on the effectiveness of these measures. We find that the relative productivity contributions of old workers are significantly higher in establishments that provide either specific equipment of work places or age-specific jobs for old workers. In establishments that apply mixed-age working teams the productivity contributions of old and of young employees are significantly higher than in establishments without this measure. Working time reductions and specific training for old employees are not associated with higher relative productivity of these employees. Our paper provides a joint explanation for two recent findings, the only modest decline of the productivity contributions of old workers and the high variance for estimates of age-productivity profiles.

Keywords: ageing workforce; age-productivity-profile; personnel management; HRM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J14 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eff, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10069

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