In a pilot project, about 20 Zurich Insurance Company employees tested such a platform. They created profiles by selecting from the categories “I can”, “I am” and “I would like to” in relation to their practical experience, their social skills and their hopes for their own future development. The software then compared their profiles with the needs of the company and identified potential matches. For example, Otto Stuber, Head of Household/Assistance, Product Underwriting Personal Lines at Zurich, says: “I could envision applying my expertise in another company department one day per week and to work occasionally when I’m retired”. Another Zurich employee is learning Italian in his free time and would benefit from being assigned to Zurich’s Ticino office for a few weeks. In times when flexibility in terms of work location and hours is in ever greater demand, such an arrangement would benefit the company as well. “For us, this isn’t about retraining our employees”, says Alex Stöckli, Head of Strategic HR Support at Zurich. “We want to tap into their wealth of experience by giving them tasks especially suited to that purpose – for the benefit of Zurich as well as the employees themselves.”

The findings from the pilot project feed into further development of the software kit created in the “ExpAct” project. This EU project, entitled “Experiences keeps people Active”, was carried out by the ZHAW in collaboration with seven partners from Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Hungary. “The software enables a wide range of organisations to build online platforms suited to their needs without much effort”, says ZHAW project leader Andri Färber. “We want to help older people improve their quality of life and preserve their autonomy within their own living environment. The current demographic trend suggests that there is considerable need for such assistance throughout Europe.”

The two-year EU project “ExpAct”, with a budget of 2.5 million euros, was concluded at the end of October. It is part of the Active and Assisted Living Joint Programme (AALJP), which is financed by the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). All the projects in this programme have the common aim of using new technologies to develop innovative products and services for older people. In addition to the Institute of Business Information Technology and the Center for Human Capital Management of the ZHAW School of Management and Law as well as the Institute of Physiotherapy of the ZHAW School of Health Professions, the following partners were involved in “ExpAct”: Aktivsenioren Bayern e.V. (DE), Alpnet Engineering AG (CH), Andrássy University Budapest (HU), Ethical Software Coop. Soc. (IT), the European Academy in Bozen-Bolzano (IT), the PowerAge Foundation (CH) and the University of Innsbruck (AT).