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Training Older Employees – What is Effective?
Thomas Zwick, LMU Munich and ZEW Mannheim
Cedefop Conference “Learning Later in Life“
Brussels, 21/22 September 2011
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
2Training for Older Employees 2
Motivation
• Literature on life-long learning concentrated on declining participation rates by age and the reasons for that (Lois, 2007)
• Given employees participate in training, its effectiveness seems to decline by age ► Training of older employees does not increase relative productivity of this employee group on establishment level (Göbel and Zwick, 2010) ► Personnel managers think that training of older employees is not effective (Boockmann and Zwick, 2004)
• This contribution compares training motivation of older and younger employees, their training patterns and their (self-assessed) effectiveness
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
3Training for Older Employees 3
Differences in Training Motivation by Age
• Motivation for long-run and abstract investments declines with age and motivation for activities that prevent losses increases with age (Hertel and Stamov-Rossnagel, 2010) ► Training effectiveness is higher if training is practical, internal, on the job, and not concentrated on new skills
• Older employees have disadvantages in fluid cognitive ability and they do not like direct comparisons with younger employees (Kanfer and Ackerman, 2004)
• Older employees are more interested in improving the quality of work than their relative position in the working group► Training effectiveness is higher when it demands crystallised skills and improves working climate (social and managerial skills) and lower when it demands fluid intellectual abilities and mainly offers long term career chances (new information technologies)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
4Training for Older Employees 4
Empirical Strategy to Assess Training Efficiency
• Analyse various dimensions of training patterns by age• Older employees differ from younger employees with respect to
training-related characteristics – for example qualification, tenure or health (Gallenberger, 2002) ► Include only employed ► Multivariate approach to identify role of age including individual and establishment characteristics ► Differentiate between training contents, forms, and effectiveness ► Take into account firm-specific effects
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
5Training for Older Employees 5
Data- Professional training as part of lifelong learning data set (WeLL)- Detailed questionnaires for employees in firms that indicated in representative establishment
panel that they are active in training- Two waves 2007 and 2008- Combine both waves and take one observation per training participant, final sample consists of
6349 employees from 149 enterprises- Use four age group indicators and concentrate on differences between oldest age group
(about 56 years or older) and other age groups- Dependent variables: training goals and effectiveness, training characteristics and contents- Explanatory variables: qualification (3), tenure (4), health, high probability to quit working
during the next year, East Germany, employer size (3), and sector (2) dummies- Adjust for employer clusters
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
6Training for Older Employees 6
Older employees (reference group 55+) have modest training goalsTraining Goals Higher
ProductivityAdoption Promotion Higher
EarningsJob Security
New Orientation
Realschule 0.12*** 0.11*** 0.03 0.02 0.05*** 0.01Gymnasium 0.24*** 0.21*** 0.08*** 0.01 0.03 0.04***Female -0.00 0.01 -0.05*** -0.04*** 0.02 -0.01Birth years 1952-61 0.06*** 0.06*** 0.08** 0.06*** 0.07*** 0.02*
Birth years 1962-71 0.04** 0.05*** 0.11*** 0.10*** 0.05*** 0.05***
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.09*** 0.08*** 0.21*** 0.16*** 0.10*** 0.10***
Tenure 2-5 years 0.06** 0.06** 0.03 0.03 0.06** 0.04*
Tenure 6-15 years 0.05*** 0.06*** 0.05*** 0.05*** 0.06*** 0.03*
Tenure more than 15 years 0.05*** 0.05*** 0.04*** 0.04** 0.05*** 0.01
Good health 0.05*** 0.04** 0.04*** 0.05*** 0.04** 0.01High probability to quit working -0.11*** -0.11*** -0.08** -0.08*** -0.12*** -0.03
East Germany -0.01 -0.00 -0.02* 0.00 0.01 -0.01Employer 200-499 employees 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.03**
Employer 500-1999 employees 0.05* 0.05** 0.04* 0.04** 0.05** 0.03**
Services sector 0.04** 0.04** 0.00 -0.00 0.02 0.01R-squared 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.02 0.02 0.02
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, number of observations: 5303, reference categories: Hauptschule, birth year 1952 or older, employer with less than 200 and more than 50 employers, tenure less than 2 years
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
7Training for Older Employees 7
Older employees assess training efficiency worseEffects of training Higher
ProductivityAdoption Promotion Higher
EarningsJob Security
New Orientation
Realschule 0.09*** 0.06 0.01 0.00 0.03** 0.01Gymnasium 0.17*** 0.04*** 0.04*** -0.00 0.02 0.07***Female 0.02 -0.02*** -0.02*** -0.01*** -0.02* -0.01Birth years 1952-61 0.05** 0.04** 0.02** 0.00 0.02 0.02*
Birth years 1962-71 0.03 0.03* 0.05*** 0.01 0.02 0.04***
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.06** 0.09*** 0.11*** 0.05*** 0.06*** 0.11***
Tenure 2-5 years 0.06** 0.05** 0.02* 0.01 0.04 0.03**
Tenure 6-15 years 0.08*** 0.07*** 0.02** 0.01 0.03* 0.02*
Tenure more than 15 years 0.06*** 0.05*** 0.02** 0.01 0.03** 0.01
Good health 0.05*** 0.03 0.02*** 0.02*** 0.04*** 0.01High probability to quit working -0.10*** -0.09*** -0.04** -0.01 -0.06** -0.00
East Germany -0.01 -0.00 -0.01 -0.01 0.01 -0.02**Employer 200-499 employees 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00
Employer 500-1999 employees 0.05* 0.06** 0.03*** 0.01 0.02 0.01
Services sector 0.04** 0.05** -0.00 -0.02*** 0.00 0.00R-squared 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.01 0.01 0.03
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, number of observations: 5303, reference categories: Hauptschule, birth year 1952 or older, employer with less than 200 and more than 50 employers, tenure less than 2 years
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
8Training for Older Employees 8
Self-assessed effectivity of different training forms by ageEffects of training Higher
ProductivityAdoption Promotion Higher
EarningsJob Security
New Orientation
SeminarBirth years 1952-61 0.08* 0.09** 0.03* 0.01 0.09*** 0.07***
Birth years 1962-71 0.09** 0.11** 0.09*** 0.03* 0.10*** 0.13***
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.04 0.09* 0.15*** 0.05* 0.09** 0.21***
Training on the job
Birth years 1952-61 0.01 0.02 0.03* 0.01 -0.01 0.02
Birth years 1962-71 0.01 0.04 0.04** 0.02 0.00 0.06**
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.07* 0.09** 0.11*** 0.05*** 0.02 0.12***
Self-managed learning
Birth years 1952-61 0.02 0.01* 0.03 -0.01 0.04 0.04
Birth years 1962-71 -0.01 0.08 0.05 0.01 0.02 0.08***
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.07 0.09*** 0.09*** 0.05* 0.06 0.17***
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, covariates identical to previous regressions
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
9Training for Older Employees 9
Self-assessed effects of different training contents by ageEffects of training Higher
ProductivityAdoption Promotion Higher
EarningsJob Security
New Orientation
Information and communication technologyBirth years 1952-61 0.04 0.08* 0.01 0.02 -0.02 -0.00
Birth years 1962-71 0.03 0.09** 0.04** 0.03** 0.01 0.03
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.03 0.13** 0.10*** 0.03 0.05 0.10***
Technical contents
Birth years 1952-61 0.09* 0.10** 0.05** 0.00 0.03 -0.00
Birth years 1962-71 0.07 0.11** 0.06*** 0.03** 0.02 0.06**
Birth years 1972 and younger 0.07* 0.04 0.11*** 0.04** 0.05 0.15***
Management and communication
Birth years 1952-61 -0.06 0.03 0.04 -0.02 -0.01 -0.00
Birth years 1962-71 -0.12** -0.02 0.06** -0.02 -0.02 0.04
Birth years 1972 and younger -0.04 0.07 0.08* -0.01 0.06 0.08*
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, covariates identical to previous regressions
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
10Training for Older Employees 10
Training effectiveness by age and training characteristics
• For almost all training contents lower effectiveness for oldest age group • Exception: group and communication training – here same effectiveness except for
promotion and better productivity assessment of older employees• More abstract training forms (formal seminars) are less effective for older
employees• More practical training forms (self-managed training and training on the job) are
more effective for old age groupsBut: • Incidence of training contents and extent offered similar for all age groups (for group
and communication training just two percent higher incidence for oldest group)• Significantly more seminars and significantly less training on the job for oldest age
group
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
11Training for Older Employees 11
Conclusions
• No age differences in crucial training characteristics (number of training spells, training duration, initiative, cost sharing)
• Some differences in contents and training forms (positive age correlation: general human capital, seminar; negative age correlation: internal training, training on the job)
• On average older employees are as satisfied with training as younger employees,
• They have more modest training goals and they are more sceptical with respect to training efficiency
• Training efficiency is higher for group and communication training, for internal training, training on the job and self-managed training
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
12Training for Older Employees 12
Lessons training older employees
• Lower training participation and training effectiveness might be a consequence of wrong training contents and formats instead of lower trainability or interest in training
• Far more establishments include older employees in training than offer specific training measures for older employees (Göbel and Zwick, 2010)
• Manager should take into account:
age shift in motivation from building a career to loss aversion and labour quality/flexibility
disadvantages of old employees in fluid cognitive skills and advantages in crystallised cognitive skills
► offer personalised training measures by age
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
13Training for Older Employees 13
No differences between training extent by age
Training Dimension Entire Sample Birth Year 1951 or older Birth Years1952-1961
Birth Years1962-1971
Birth Year1972 or younger
Duration in hours 44.57(104.32)
41.71 (87.87)
47.77(115.28)
43.30(101.07)
42.36(97.79)
Period in months 2.32(1.89)
2.29(1.87)
2.31(1.87)
2.34(1.91)
2.34(1.93)
Number of trainings 1.77(1.12)
1.77(1.39)
1.74(1.13)
1.78(1.26)
1.80(1.25)
Costs borne by participant
0.16(0.36)
0.15(0.35)
0.15(0.37)
0.16(0.36)
0.17(0.38)
Initiative by participant 0.41(0.49)
0.41(0.49)
0.42(0.49)
0.41(0.49)
0.42(0.49)
Initiative by employer 0.23(0.42)
0.23(0.42)
0.23(0.42)
0.23(0.42)
0.22(0.41)
Training necessary by law
0.17(0.38)
0.16(0.37)
0.18(0.38
0.18(0.38)
0.17(0.37)
Training satisfaction 5.74(2.64)
5.58(2.77)
5.74(2.69)
5.73(2.60)
5.92(2.50)
Descriptive Differences between Training Dimensions and Age Groups
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
14Training for Older Employees 14
Some training characteristics differ by ageSelf-induced learning Seminar Training on
the jobICT Training
Technical Training
Birth years 1952-61 0.01 -0.01 0.04* -0.00 -0.00Birth years1962-71
-0.02 -0.01 0.08*** -0.00 -0.01
Birth years 1972 and younger -0.01 -0.04** 0.12*** -0,01 -0.02R-squared 0.03 0.08 0.01 0.00 0.00
Obs. 5590 5590 5590 5590 5590
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, number of observations: 5303, reference categories: Hauptschule, birth year 1952 or older, employer with less than 200 and more than 50 employers, tenure less than 2 years