5 steps to build your corporate age pyramid like a visionary pharaoh

In the field of human resources, understanding generational dynamics has become essential. A company's age pyramid has become a strategic tool. It doesn't just visualize demographic distribution: it also helps you anticipate retirements and adjust your skills requirements.

Thanks to this tool, you can adapt your organization to the challenges of an aging workforce and the diversity of career paths: your company gains in sustainability and competitiveness. Why not use it to develop your career plans and align your HR strategies with demographic realities?

Please note that we're not talking about statistics or census surveys in Europe or France. We're talking about an HR project designed to provide the company with indicators on its employees, and adapt its human resources strategy. Otherwise, we refer you to Ined (Institut national d'études démographiques).

In short, focus on the age pyramid, a compass for navigating the complex world of human resources. 🧭

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What is a corporate age pyramid?

Definition

The corporate age pyramid is a tool that visually represents the distribution of the workforce by age and gender, enabling a detailed analysis of internal demographics. It is constructed in the form of a graph, often pyramidal 🔺, and provides essential data for anticipating changes in your workforce.

By examining this pyramid, you can:

• Analyze the ratio between young and older employees, to identify skills renewal needs.
• Identify upcoming retirements, facilitating proactive recruitment planning and knowledge transfer.
• Assess the impact of demographic variations on organizational culture and work dynamics.

Historically used for population studies (births, number of children per woman, etc.), the age pyramid applied to the corporate context offers valuable strategic forecasts. Regular analysis enables you to align your HR decisions with demographic trends, ensuring solid preparation for generational challenges.

✅ In short, the age pyramid doesn't just capture the current state of your workforce: it guides you in implementing sustainable and proactive HR strategies, adapted to an ever-changing environment.

What are the different types of age pyramid, and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

Mushroom shape

🍄 The mushroom shape is characterized by a narrow base and broad top, revealing an aging population with few young talents entering the market. This configuration poses a challenge for skills renewal and innovation. In this type of organization, a large proportion of employees are approaching retirement. This calls for a proactive strategy for the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.

Companies with a mushroom pyramid would benefit from mentoring programs where senior experts train young recruits. However, to attract more young people, it is essential to work on the employer brand and offer motivating career paths.

Corporate example: a consulting firm where expertise is mainly based on experienced staff, and where the demand for skills renewal is becoming pressing.

Toupie shape

🪀 The top shape is characterized by a broad base and narrow top, illustrating a high proportion of young people in the organization and an under-representation of employees nearing retirement. This can signal dynamic, innovative energy, but also presents risks if development prospects are limited by overcrowding of young talent.

In this case, rigorous career management is crucial to avoid stagnation and promote consistent professional development. Make sure you offer opportunities for growth and plan succession in an orderly fashion.

Corporate example: a technology start-up where the majority of employees are young graduates, enthusiastic but requiring well-structured development paths to progress.

Cylinder shape

🥫 The cylinder shape reflects ideal demographic stability, with a balanced age distribution. This pattern is often a sign of a healthy organization, where each age bracket is well represented, enabling a harmonious balance between experience and innovation.

To maintain this stability, it's important to continue investing in ongoing training and to strengthen intergenerational exchanges. But beware: too stable a balance can sometimes lead to a certain inertia, slowing down innovation.

Corporate example: a large industrial company with balanced age management, encouraging mentoring and continuing training.

Crushed pear shape

🍐 The crushed pear shape translates into a broad base and narrow top, but with a deficit in the middle age brackets. This lack of employees in the middle positions can pose challenges for the continuity of operations and the development of future leaders.

To overcome these weaknesses, we recommend stepping up efforts to train young people so that they progress more quickly into roles of responsibility. At the same time, hiring external experts can offer valuable guidance to young talent and compensate for this temporary deficit.

Corporate example: a fast-growing SME, where young recruits need to quickly build up their skills to make up for the lack of experienced managers.

A ball of wool

🧶 The " ball of wool" shape manifests itself in a disordered age distribution, often the result of irregular recruitment. This model is less stable and requires flexible, reactive management to adapt to internal demographic variations.

To stabilize this structure, companies can introduce a culture of continuous learning, enabling each employee to develop versatility. This will encourage agile adaptation to organizational fluctuations.

Corporate example: an organization that has experienced periods of intensive recruitment followed by long pauses, creating a generational imbalance.

Why use an age pyramid?

Anticipating retirements

Anticipating retirements enables you to preserve in-house know-how. Thanks to the age pyramid :

• identify cohorts close to retirement,
• and plan the transfer of skills.

👉 Ensure business continuity and organize targeted mentoring programs.

By anticipating these departures, you avoid skills shortages and align your HR strategy with your long-term objectives. The result? A valuable balance between experience and youth, fostering organizational dynamism and continuous innovation.

Mastering GPEC

GPEC (Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences) is essential for adapting a company's skills to market trends. Use the age pyramid to draw up proactive plans for managing your human capital in an agile and innovative way. Identify declining workforce segments and adjust your recruitment strategies to fill critical skills gaps.

This strategic approach supports your organizational transformations. It prepares you for the skills of the future and enhances your attractiveness as an employer.

Improve talent and career management... and reduce recruitment costs

The age pyramid helps reduce the costs of emergency recruitment. By visualizing age distribution :

1. plan transitions,
2. adjust your training investments to actual needs,
3. concentrate your resources on the age segments where changes are most critical.

This method optimizes your costs and improves your return on investment. A detailed understanding of your demographic structure enables you to customize career plans, thus retaining your talent and reducing turnover costs by increasing employee satisfaction.

How to build an age pyramid?

5 steps to create your pyramid

1. Data collection

Gather the following information for each employee:

• Age: precise or year of birth.
• Gender: male or female.
• Department: optional, depending on the level of detail required.

This data is usually available in your Human Resources Management System (HRMS) or personnel files.

2. Data organization

Classify employees by age group, for example:

• 18-25 years
• 26-35 years old
• 36-45 years old
• 46-55 years old
• 56 and over

For each bracket, count the number of men and women.

3. Choice of creation tool

Select the tool best suited to your needs:

• Spreadsheet: such as Excel or Google Sheets, for manual creation.
• Dedicated HR software: offering automated functions for generating age pyramids.

We detail the methods and advantages of each tool further down the article. ⬇️

4. Creating the chart

Depending on the tool you choose:

• Excel spreadsheet, Google Sheet or any spreadsheet program of your choice: create a stacked bar chart or histogram to represent the data.
• HR software: import the data and automatically generate the age pyramid.

5. Customization and analysis

Adjust the graph for better readability:

• Add clear titles and legends.
• Use distinct colors for each gender. 🎨
• Check axis scaling for proportional representation.

Then analyze the shape of the pyramid to identify demographic trends and guide your HR strategies. How to interpret it? We'll give you some keys later in the article. 💡

Using Excel

Creating an age pyramid with Excel is accessible and provides a visual, adjustable chart. Here's how to proceed by following these steps:

1. Enter the data

• In your Excel sheet, create a column for age groups (e.g. 18-25, 26-35, etc.).
• Then add two columns for the number of men and women in each age bracket.
• Make sure that the values for men are negative (e.g.: -10 instead of 10) so that the bars point in opposite directions, forming a pyramid.

2. Select data

• Select all data, including age and gender labels.
• Go to the Insert tab, then choose a stacked bar chart. This type of chart is best suited to displaying an age pyramid.

3. Customize the chart

• Reverse horizontal axis: click on the horizontal axis, then in the formatting menu, select Axis options and check Reverse category order.
• Adjust colors: choose distinct colors for the men's and women's bars to make them easier to read.
• Labels and titles: add a relevant title (e.g. "Company age pyramid"), legends for each gender and data labels if necessary to make the chart more informative.

4. Finalize and analyze

• Check that the scale of the axes is consistent for both sides of the pyramid (male and female).
• Visualize and interpret the shape of your age pyramid to draw conclusions about recruitment needs or training actions to be planned.

▶️ The following video illustrates this process:

Use dedicated HR software to build an age pyramid

Specialized HR software simplifies the creation and analysis of age pyramids, offering you real time savings and welcome precision. Here's what they can do for you

• Data automation: No more manual data entry! This software connects to your HRIS and updates information in real time, with no extra effort.
• In just a few clicks, you get your age pyramid, with segmentation options (by department, location, etc.) for a finer view.
• Advanced analysis:
• Track the evolution of age groups over time.
• Easily identify age groups close to retirement.
• Anticipate training or recruitment needs, without the guesswork.
• Need a report for a presentation? Export it in seconds and support your HR decisions with concrete data.

Reading and interpreting an age pyramid

Here are a few things to look out for when interpreting an age pyramid :

1. General shape of the pyramid :
• A mushroom shape (narrow base, broad top) indicates an aging population, requiring strategies to attract and retain young talent.
• A top shape (wide base, narrow top) reveals a predominance of young employees, which may imply a need for mentoring and training to coach the next generation.
2. Broad age brackets:
• Wide age brackets in a cylindrical pyramid indicate a balanced distribution, favorable to the transmission of skills between generations.
• Narrow or irregular age brackets may indicate a risk of shortage or imbalance in certain age categories.
3. Male/female comparison:
• Observe the differences between the sides of the pyramid (often, men on the left, women on the right) to assess gender distribution.
• An over-representation of men or women in certain age brackets may indicate a need for diversity and inclusion in recruitment.
4. Evolution over time:
• Compare the current pyramid with those of previous years to spot trends and forecast the evolution of your workforce. 🔮
• Identify age cohorts approaching retirement and plan for necessary replacements.

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The age pyramid at the service of your HR strategy

In conclusion, the age pyramid is much more than just a graph: it's an essential strategic tool for HR. It provides an overview of demographic distribution, enabling you to optimize talent management, anticipate retirements, and prepare for the future by aligning human resources with the company's long-term objectives.

By using the right tools, you can transform this analysis into a genuine strategic lever, ready to seize the opportunities offered by each generation. Mastering the age pyramid then becomes a major asset for evolving serenely and effectively in the job market. 🧍🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️