employee participation

Demographic change poses particular challenges for change processes in companies. On the one hand thing, the working environment and conditions have to be adapted to the aging of the workforce, on the other hand, the processes of change themselves must be taking account to the age of the employees, i.e. for older employees changes must be conducted differently than for younger employees. This paper presents a concrete way to organize change processes in companies, in due consideration of demographic change.

The human engineering and business-oriented literature delivers since the 60s of the last century a lot of examples how to involve employees in change processes. A consistent methodology is certainly missing. Eminently in small and medium-sized businesses existing approaches are not used for daily tasks. To reach a systematic and successful participation of employees in change processes it is necessary to have an approach which analyzes the relevant surrounding system and also uses and develops the competences, experiences and attitudes of all participants (both staff and executives).