The world does not end over the age of 45, however, only those who are able to change company culture, industry, position and location, can succeed in the labour market. According to experts, nowadays, it is not the smartest, strongest or fastest, but the most adaptive ones who survive.
“This generation did not have to plan their career, the majority are not familiar with the proactive ways of looking for a job, all they know is how to continuously rise through the ranks. The members of this generation, almost without exception, have reached the limits of their competencies and nearly all of them could use a thorough re-planning”, Györgyi Kristóf, manager of Hammel & Hochreiter, a company specialised in management and business consultancy, summarises her experience with regard to employees born prior to the first half of the 1970s. “Every company has a position that could be offered to a person above 45 or 50, but no one can expect a headhunter or a consultant to find it for them”, says the experts.
Multilingualism is expected
In Hungary, professionals with many years of experience are primarily in demand at manufacturing companies these days. However, in order to fill a middle or senior management position at a light industry or food processing company, speaking only one foreign language is not enough. Due to the structure of the economy – and depending on the ownership background and the composition of the partners –, in addition to the obligatory English, employees typically have to be able to communicate proficiently in German, both verbally and in writing, however, the requirement of being fluent in French or Italian is not rare either. The only exceptions are maybe the “extended workbenches” that carry out contract manufacturing, however, people who only speak Hungarian are usually screened out even in the case of skilled worker positions.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a demand for the work and life experience of middle-aged people.
Members of the 45+ generation need to be skilled in more than just English auxiliary verbs and German prepositions. Györgyi Kristóf believes that these days, flexibility and the ability to fit into a different corporate culture are also basic requirements. Members of the Hungarian middle-aged workforce typically socialised at a single workplace, where they climbed the corporate ladder in the course of 15-20 years, then ended up in a management position, which they are only willing to leave if forced to do so. “The recovery of the 1990s has already run its course, and in order for even well-trained professionals to find their place once more, they need to change economic sectors and even company cultures, which is often a greater challenge”, the expert claims.
The number of seats is continuously decreasing as organisations are flattening.
Culture change and mobility
In the Hungarian world of work, three company cultures exist side by side. The typically Hungarian-owned family businesses usually assign positions based on family relationships instead of professional competencies, even if they prosper because of the professionals. Companies in the SME sector often lack staff from the generation in question, since their founders from the early 1990s are usually close to retirement, while their children mostly belong to generations Y or Z. The gap in this segment can be both an advantage that increases employability and grounds for exclusion. Foreign-owned (primarily German, Austrian or Swiss) companies prefer the mentality of their home country even if they work for the global market and claim to have an international working culture. Therefore, the success of 45-50 year-old employees typically depends on their ability to adapt to the written and unwritten “national” expectations there.
The third universe is the world of multinational companies. Human resources are usually more or less valued “agile gears” that need to fit into the machinery from the very first moment, otherwise, they will fall victim to the fluctuation, which is often above 60%, during the few months of the probationary period. “The adaptability of the generation in question is indispensable for their successful employment”, Györgyi Kristóf believes. This includes the issue of mobility as well. Willingness to commute within the country, or even relocate is one of the basic requirements these days. However, experience has shown that Hungarian professionals who have already lived half of their lives have trouble understanding and accepting this. Another common difficulty is making 50-year-olds who have already reached a management position settle for lower level posts or positions, which can also be the source of a lot of workplace tension and problems.
3 W: there is something about women
“Gender differences add further nuances to the issue of people over the age of 50”, Györgyi Kristóf highlights. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, an international HR expert who started her career as a programmer, and Alison Maitland, Financial Times columnist published a thick book entitled “Why Women Mean Business” back in 2010. In this book that became a bestseller within days, the authors discuss the connections in relationships of the world economy from the aspect of differences between genders, and their views are still valid today.
According to their basic precept, the development of the 21st century is affected by the 3 W’s: the web, women and the weather. In addition to the undeniably world-changing effect exerted by the world revolution of information technology and global climate change, they also drew attention to women’s trend-setting role. They referred to research claiming that among the world’s 300 largest companies, those whose management includes at least one woman are the most profitable. They also pointed out that companies where female managers are employed achieve a return on equity that is 35% higher than that of companies which operate based on the traditional patriarchal model. Therefore, the inventors of the 3 W’s claim that companies operate more profitably if women are also involved in their management. Of course, Wittenberg-Cox and Maitland do not question the fact that in any given profession, the fundamental question is not whether a certain task is carried out by a man or a woman, but whether that specific person is fit for the job. Still, they believe that gender differences have a significant effect on business life, since men and women make decisions based on different criteria.
According to international research, organisations that exploit the unique gender-specific traits gain an ever-increasing economic and competitive advantage in the market. The gender perspective claims that the conscious use of the traits of women and men that complement each other leads to sounder decisions, as well as the development of a more natural balance between cooperation and competition, work and life, interpersonal relationships and result-orientation. Monic Bührs and Elisa de Groot, experts on women’s career management, who further developed the concept of the 3 W’s say that women should not strive to stand their ground by demonstrating male characteristics but rather by consciously applying the unwritten rules of the business environment and the world of work, and “play” by these rules while preserving their femininity, building upon empathy and cooperative acceptance.
