We have been quick to respond to the challenges of shifting demographics. In the context of our demography and generation management we have developed a number of different seminars. By offering a suitable range of seminars for our older members of staff at the Hannover location, we support their performance capability with an eye to specialist, personal and health considerations. A seminar entitled "Actively shaping the retirement transition" helps older personnel to tackle their final years with the company purposefully and efficiently and to look ahead to the third phase of life some years prior to actually stopping work. We are also taking various steps to counter the change in the age structure of our workforce by improving cooperation between new recruits and long-standing employees. In the past, work in mixed groups has proven especially helpful and promising for our company.

The workshop "Leadership in the generational mix" was launched in 2017 as a new component of our further training programme for executives. A group of almost 20 executive staff explored the challenge of understanding teams with a wide mix of generations – given their varying characteristics and values – and leading them in accordance with our management principles. This issue is growing in importance and now already has implications for small teams as well. The workshop results show that awareness of generational diversity within the company is clearly present and, among other things, that developments such as increasing complexity and new technologies are changing the way we work (together).

The age structure of our Group's workforce in 2017 again reveals a balanced picture: 12.8% of our employees are under 30, 60.9% are aged between 30 and 50 and 26.3% are over 50. A comparison of the age structure over the years, however, shows a trend in line with the shift in demographics. The proportion of employees aged "50 and over" rose steadily by 6,3 percentage points in the period from 2011 to 2017.

Age structure of the workforce Group-wide