Transcript Training Older Employees – What is Effective? Thomas Zwick, LMU Munich and ZEW Mannheim Cedefop Conference “Learning Later in Life“ Brussels, 21/22 September.

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
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
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
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)
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Empirical Strategy to Assess Training Efficiency
•
•
Analyse various dimensions of training patterns by age
Older employees differ from younger employees with respect to trainingrelated 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
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Data
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-
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
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Older employees (reference group 55+) have modest training goals
Training Goals
Adoption
Promotion
Realschule
Gymnasium
Female
Birth years 1952-61
Higher
Productivity
0.12***
0.24***
-0.00
0.06***
0.03
0.08***
-0.05***
0.08**
Higher
Earnings
0.02
0.01
-0.04***
0.06***
Job
Security
0.05***
0.03
0.02
0.07***
New
Orientation
0.01
0.04***
-0.01
0.02*
0.11***
0.21***
0.01
0.06***
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
High probability to quit working
0.05***
-0.11***
0.04**
-0.11***
0.04***
-0.08**
0.05***
-0.08***
0.04**
-0.12***
0.01
-0.03
East Germany
Employer 200-499 employees
-0.01
0.01
-0.00
0.03
-0.02*
0.02
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.01
-0.01
0.03**
Employer 500-1999 employees
0.05*
0.05**
0.04*
0.04**
0.05**
0.03**
Services sector
R-squared
0.04**
0.03
0.04**
0.04
0.00
0.04
-0.00
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
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
Training for Older Employees
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Older employees assess training efficiency worse
Effects of training
Adoption
Promotion
Realschule
Gymnasium
Female
Birth years 1952-61
Higher
Productivity
0.09***
0.17***
0.02
0.05**
0.01
0.04***
-0.02***
0.02**
Higher
Earnings
0.00
-0.00
-0.01***
0.00
Job
Security
0.03**
0.02
-0.02*
0.02
New
Orientation
0.01
0.07***
-0.01
0.02*
0.06
0.04***
-0.02***
0.04**
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
High probability to quit working
0.05***
-0.10***
0.03
-0.09***
0.02***
-0.04**
0.02***
-0.01
0.04***
-0.06**
0.01
-0.00
East Germany
Employer 200-499 employees
-0.01
0.01
-0.00
0.03
-0.01
0.01
-0.01
0.00
0.01
0.01
-0.02**
0.00
Employer 500-1999 employees
Services sector
R-squared
0.05*
0.04**
0.03
0.06**
0.05**
0.03
0.03***
-0.00
0.03
0.01
-0.02***
0.01
0.02
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.00
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
Training for Older Employees
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Self-assessed effectivity of different training forms by age
Effects of training
Higher
Adoption
Productivity
Promotion
Higher
Earnings
Job
Security
New
Orientation
Seminar
Birth 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***
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***
Birth years 1952-61
Birth years 1962-71
0.02
-0.01
0.01*
0.08
0.03
0.05
-0.01
0.01
0.04
0.02
0.04
0.08***
Birth years 1972 and younger
0.07
0.09***
0.09***
0.05*
0.06
0.17***
Training on the job
Self-managed learning
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, covariates identical to previous regressions
Training for Older Employees
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Self-assessed effects of different training contents by age
Effects of training
Higher
Adoption
Productivity
Promotion
Higher
Earnings
Job
Security
New
Orientation
Information and communication technology
Birth 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***
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***
-0.06
-0.12**
-0.04
0.03
-0.02
0.07
0.04
0.06**
0.08*
-0.02
-0.02
-0.01
-0.01
-0.02
0.06
-0.00
0.04
0.08*
Technical contents
Management and communication
Birth years 1952-61
Birth years 1962-71
Birth years 1972 and younger
Comments: OLS regressions, clustering adjusted for 149 enterprises, covariates identical to previous regressions
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Training effectiveness by age and training characteristics
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•
•
•
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 groups
But:
• 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
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
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
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
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
Training for Older Employees
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
No differences between training extent by age
Descriptive Differences between Training Dimensions and Age Groups
Training Dimension
Entire Sample
Birth Year 1951 or older
Birth Years
1952-1961
Birth Years
1962-1971
Birth Year
1972 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)
Training for Older Employees
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwick
Some training characteristics differ by age
Self-induced learning
Seminar
-0.01
-0.01
Training on
the job
0.04*
0.08***
ICT
Training
-0.00
-0.00
Technical
Training
-0.00
-0.01
Birth years 1952-61
Birth years
1962-71
Birth years 1972 and younger
R-squared
0.01
-0.02
-0.01
0.03
-0.04**
0.08
0.12***
0.01
-0,01
0.00
-0.02
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
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