Associates and Young Talent

As a result of demographic changes, the average age of the Bosch workforce in Germany will rise from 42 today to 48 by 2020. This will be manifested most clearly in the proportion of associates over 50, which will rise from 23 percent today to almost 50 percent. Consequently, meeting the needs of this age group will take on even greater significance for our HR policy.

To enable us to adapt to these changes in age structure, the board of management and central works council have set up a project called “Utilizing potential, offering perspectives – throughout our working life.” It is dedicated to lifelong learning, coping with change processes, and healthcare. We are currently working with the University of Heidelberg to examine how preventive healthcare and cognitive training impact the flexibility and performance of our associates.

Bosch already offers a wide range of healthcare packages in different countries. A central steering group was put in place in 2005 to promote closer cooperation between the HR department, company medical officers, the central works council, representatives for the disabled, and the Bosch company health insurance fund. Moreover, healthcare working groups were set up at all locations.  In view of demographic changes, we now want to expand the existing measures and intensify communication among the locations. The location activities matrix provides a basis for the locations to rate their prevention and healthcare activities and exchange information.

The Bosch benefit plan is an attractive company pension scheme for our associates in Germany. It is one of our answers to demographic changes and helps recruit associates and ensure their lasting loyalty to the company. The benefit plan is mainly funded by contributions from the company, but associates themselves can also make payments and profit from the intelligent investment policy of our pension fund. The company pension scheme was restructured in 1998 and has been continually expanded since then to reduce the risk of a pension shortfall in old age.

Whenever associates retire, the company loses valuable expertise. Bosch wants to utilize the experience of executives even after they have retired, and now offers them the option of a “second career.” Bosch Management Support GmbH (BMS), which was founded in 1999, makes use of the skills of retired associates aged between 60 and 70. On average, each of the some 680 retired associates in the BMS contributes 30 years of experience – around 20,000 years of expertise in total. These senior experts take part in global projects in return for a consulting fee. As a result of the success with this model in Germany, additional BMS locations have been established in the United States and Great Britain.