VAE CONTROLS, s.r.o. (www.vaecontrols.cz) is an engineering company operating in the petrochemical and water industry. It develops, assembles, and delivers control systems and technologies for the management of water systems and storage of petroleum products. In the water industry, they are the leading company in the Czech Republic, and in the petrochemical industry, they are also dominant in Europe and Africa. Their goal is and will continue to be better in their industry.

The company does not use the term “senior”. They only distinguish between younger and older workers. In their professional understanding, the older employee is a person who has work experience and is reliable and independent with long-standing work habits. He can communicate very well with the client and is therefore suitable as a mentor for younger colleagues. They have come to this conclusion according to their personal experience with both age categories. Based on their own experience, they figured out that younger workers with similar experience noticeably underperform experienced older workers in terms of the number of orders and acquisition of new clients.

The main company focus is control systems and technologies for the water and petrochemical industry, from design to actual implementation at clients’ sites, so-called EPC contractors. The main focus of the senior staff in the company is on design and project management in the position of project manager. The reason for their successful adaptation of older employees is the equal treatment of all employees, and their correct work assignment accepting the personal abilities of each group. These could be determined by internal tests and questionnaires.

As part of the adaptation process of senior employees, they experience some nice moments, for example when the seniors participate in official social meetings with clients while having “professional discussions” about dining methods and refreshment composition. In other situations, they have no issue with adaptation. On the contrary, some of the younger colleagues sometimes have issues with the hard reality of life. This was brilliantly described by famous Czech humorist Mr. Renčín:

“Sorry to interrupt, son, they’re showing a bedtime story.”

They have not encountered any hurdles in this respect so far, which is probably due to the fact that they do not have blue-collar professions and mostly employ technically oriented university staff.

In particular, it is important to consider the future job role of older workers, its suitability for seniors, and to match the type and career orientation of the senior. The right fit will also depend on the form of the company. Everything is easier if it is all about achieving specific work outputs.

water industry, petrochemistry, control systems, mentor, job description