Retention of old-aged human capital in the Thai automotive industry

Abstract

With increasing life expectancy and ageing societies, the employment of the elderly and the human capital that they represent increases in relevance. This research will address this issue by studying the value of old-aged human capital and the possibility of old-age employment in the Thai automotive industry. A mixed-methods research methodology was utilised by employing sequential exploratory strategies. Starting from a qualitative approach, 32 key informants were interviewed in-depth and it was found that old-aged employees, with a high level of experiences, high competency and tacit knowledge, are valued human capital in organisations, and employing these old-aged is possible on the basis of job matching between old-aged employees and employers. The reason for encouraging this employment is mainly the potential of the old-aged workforce itself. In the quantitative part of this paper, these findings are confirmed by the opinions of a total of 308 old-aged employees and human resource managers. Therefore, retention of old-aged human capital is suggested.