AXA Sees Older Employees as an Opportunity Amidst Demographic Changes

The demographic shift is noticeably impacting the job market – the sizeable baby boomer generation is retiring in the coming years, and with them, a significant amount of expertise is leaving companies in a relatively short time. With 'AXA Horizon', AXA has been opening up new opportunities for about a year.

The work model for post-retirement For those interested, 'AXA Horizon' offers a marketplace where internal clients and employees soon after their retirement can connect. 'On the marketplace, internal clients post open mandates – especially for time-limited projects that would otherwise place additional burdens on their teams and require much organizational understanding or expertise that is hard to find on the job market. Interested retirees can also present themselves and their skills on the marketplace. If tasks and skills match, the clients and potential contractors contact each other,' explains Sibille Blättler, head of AXA Horizon, the principle. Thus, the AXA Horizon program simplifies flexible project engagements even beyond the last team.

A smooth transition into retirement With AXA Horizon, AXA also aims to support its employees in proactively approaching the final phase of their career and designing the transition into retirement more individually. Unlike existing offerings such as partial retirement after the completion of the 58th year of age or Senior Flex – the employment level is reduced by a maximum of 20 percentage points without reducing the insured salary in the pension plan – AXA Horizon offers an answer to employees' desire to contribute flexibly at AXA even beyond retirement, with the marketplace. 'We are pleased that the new offering has sparked considerable interest among our employees and that we have already been able to facilitate several mandates. For instance, in our IT, 'AXA Horizon' employees with rare know-how are already working on projects with a reduced workload,' summarizes Sibille Blättler. 'When 'AXA Horizon' employees work on projects with younger colleagues who are new to AXA, we also promote the transfer of knowledge to the next generation,' emphasizes HR head Daniela Fischer.

Development also for employees aged 55+ In addition to the marketplace, the program also includes an internal community for all employees aged 55 years and over, as well as specific development offerings for this target group. 'We want to offer employees over 55 an environment that allows them to develop. At the same time, we aim to confidently tackle the skills shortage and demographic change in the market,' justifies Daniela Fischer the introduction of the program.

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