Holistic human resource management as a tool for the intergenerational cooperation and sustainable business

Abstract

As for human resources, the period before the COVID-19 pandemic can be characterized as relatively stable with a low unemployment rate, while stereotyping in the employment of different age groups subsided. With the arrival of COVID-19, organizations have begun to lay off employees 50+, the employee turnover has increased, the demands of employees and organizations have changed, and the scissors in the number of wages and salaries for both sexes and most positions are widening. Against the background of this recent research, the main objective of our study is to identify access of organizations to implementation of age management (precisely measures supporting employees' cooperation and knowledge transfer). Data were obtained using standardized (n = 183) and qualitative research (n = 5) implemented in the second half of 2020 in agricultural and forestry Czech organizations and were evaluated using multidimensional and descriptive statistics. The results have shown that leaders in Czech organizations, due to financial problems of organizations, employee illness, insufficiently skilled workforce, have begun to take unsystematic steps leading to the destabilization of teams, the demotivation of employees. They have stopped paying attention to sustainable human resource management (SHRM), which is necessary for sustainable business. The factors identified using a factor analysis include the group of organizations according to their behavior similarity when organizations primarily focus on HR marketing, the stabilization of the internal environment or performance management, and the acquisition of qualified employees. The results of this study are limited to the researched sample of Czech companies.