"Youth and Middle-aged Adults Are Complementary... Need for Open Communication and Job-centered Personnel Management"

Publication of Korea Employment Information Service Report

A study has found that aiming for open communication is essential to enhance the synergy effect between young and middle-aged generations in the workplace. It was also suggested that a job-centered personnel system, rather than seniority-based hierarchy, can support this.

The Korea Employment Information Service announced a report titled "Research on Youth Employment through Generational Synergy: Focusing on Korea-Japan Case Studies" on the 7th.

The report includes group interviews with 20 participants, including employment and corporate support service experts and actual participants in generational synergy jobs, exploring ways to activate generational coexistence. Specifically, it contains cases where the experiences and interests of middle-aged and young generations meet to help youth career development.

According to the interviews, young people experience relative deprivation toward the middle-aged generation, causing difficulties in generational collaboration. There are issues of job replacement and supplementation between generations in the employment environment, along with problems such as the depletion of the national pension.

Companies are facing many concerns in organizational management as workplace generational conflicts affect overall corporate culture. In related cases, many companies cited communication as the biggest challenge in creating generational synergy jobs.

Experts proposed that to increase generational communication and activate synergy jobs, a job-centered personnel system should be implemented rather than a seniority-based hierarchy. Interview participants suggested a solution called "stepwise communication expansion," which involves subdividing generations during communication and then increasing generational groups.

The report author stated, "Young and middle-aged generations are in a complementary relationship, not a substitute one," adding, "Both generations share the commonality of being vulnerable groups facing difficulties in employment." He continued, "Open communication is important so that young and middle-aged generations can create various jobs beyond generational boundaries and gain synergy."