• Forward-looking demographic management cited

Hanover, October 27, 2010. The international automotive supplier Continental has been honored with the FOKUS 50plus Award for the company’s forward-looking demographic management. An initiative of APRIORI - business solutions AG, the prize is awarded to companies already today actively rising to the challenge posed by the demographic shift – the consequences of an aging working population – with innovative ideas and established processes.

Holmer Struck (3rd from right), HR director at ContiTech, accepted the FOKUS 50plus award on behalf of the ergonomics project team headed by Dr. Dolfen.

One of seven honorees, Continental obtained the FOKUS 50plus Award chiefly for its ergonomics project throughout Germany. Within the scope of this project, the international automotive supplier has succeeded in markedly upping the share of age-neutral shop floor workplaces in the time span since 2005. All told, 25,000 workplaces have already been evaluated in the process.

The reasons given for awarding the prize under the auspices of Sibylle Laurischk, chair of the German Federal Parliament’s family committee [Bundestagsfamilienausschuss], noted: "With forward-looking demographics management, Continental AG has proven to be a pioneer that manages in an exemplary manner not only to properly evaluate the potential of older employees but also to initiate sustainable adaptation processes.” And as Dr. Peter Dolfen, head of corporate Health, Industrial Hygiene, Safety and Security (HISS), explains: “By 2015 we reckon with a nearly threefold increase in the number of production workers in the 55 to 65 age group, from 8 percent at present to roughly 25 percent then. We as a company must take the requisite steps already at this time to cope with this development. It is an investment in the future that will allow us to steer clear of any competitive disadvantages further down the road."

Since 2005 Continental has been actively facing up to the demographic shift. In an ergonomics project implemented throughout Germany, the international supplier preventively tackled the challenge posed by this shift. "This means that with the help of our stress documentation system, SDS, we analyze workplaces and then design the working parameters in such a way that employees of any age can, in principle, do the job. This allows us to make workaday life easier for older colleagues. We make an investment from which both colleagues now and later on stand to benefit," notes Dolfen. “The next step on the agenda is to set up SDS throughout Europe and then worldwide. Parallel to all of this, the company is rigorously pursuing HR marketing and procurement as well as internal HR development and qualification.