고령인력의 활용방안에 관한 연구 : 근로자와 인사담당자 설문조사를 바탕으로 = Study on the application of elderly workers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As a representative managing an outsourcing company, I have always had concerns for the livelihoods of the elderly. Due to the nature of the industry, most of the workers in the field are elderly and there are even quite many who are over the age of 60 among them. Unlike the elderly of the upper class who are ready for their retirement, most of our workers are not in such situations and have to continue to work even at their high age. With the aging society, I feel that more and more people are being situated in such conditions.

Hence, this research was started to study the application of the increasing elderly workers due to Korea’s rapid progress into an aging society.

For the research, various academic journals, books and internet materials were studied in order to look in to the phenomenon, tendency, and problems of today’s aging society and several cases of foreign countries were also studied. Also, a survey was conducted in order to analyze the causes behind the barriers of elderly employment.

The survey was on the barriers and requirements of elderly employment and there were additional questions regarding job finding activities of the elderly. There were also additional questions for the human resource directors about their experiences of elderly employment and its results. By combining the answers of the questions asked both to laborers and managers, the differences in their opinions regarding the awareness and barriers of employment were understood. Also, several ways for improvements were explored.

The reliability of the results and return rates of the survey is high, considering that the survey was conducted on the workers and clients of our company.

Shortage of jobs, social prejudice and lack of preparation of the elderly shared a great part of the barriers of employment. Unlike other researches, the elderly considered not only the external factors but the elderly themselves as a big problem.

The most important alternative was to bring change in the perception of the elderly and companies. A governmental program for such enlightenment and the effectiveness of promoting such programs are discussed in this paper. Moreover, the vitalization of large social enterprises that has big opportunities for providing jobs such as a job where the elderly works for elderly related jobs(No-no care, silver industry related job placement for elderly) or a private-oriented job was suggested as the alternative for the lack of jobs which had the biggest share among the barriers for employment.

Since there is a need for the elderly to become an attractive employee to the companies, the suggestion was to let the companies to directly supervise the workers and manage the program to guarantee sustainable and effective employment instead of the ineffective educational institutions and programs that is currently provided with the government as its main agent.

In addition, governmental institutions for the elderly and their vocational training are continuously being established but most of the elderly and companies have very low awareness of such programs. Thus, the need of an active promoting program angled towards the elderly is suggested.

Finally, the problem regarding the application of elderly workers will act as a basis for further development after following several steps focused on bringing change in the perception of the government, company and the elderly themselves. There should be constant efforts of the elderly, the company should appreciate the elderly as an important work force in preparation for the future manpower shortage and the government should provide support to mediate between the elderly workers and companies.