Demographic Change
as Top Priority:
The Chief Longevity Officer (CLO)

The retire­ment of the baby boomer gener­a­tion from the work­force also poses signif­i­cant chal­lenges for compa­nies in the real estate indus­try. Solu­tions to these chal­lenges must be found at many levels. One possi­ble solu­tion is to volun­tar­i­ly employ skilled work­ers over the age of 67. New person­nel strate­gies are close­ly linked to this, includ­ing the creation of a new manage­ment role in the C‑suite: the Chief Longevi­ty Offi­cer (CLO). In this Valdivia Lead­er­ship­Im­pulse feature, we explore the vari­ous aspects of this posi­tion, which serves as a prime exam­ple of poly­math­ic lead­er­ship  with exten­sive cross-func­tion­al expertise.

As the work­ing popu­la­tion contin­ues to extend its aver­age lifes­pan in the work­force, it becomes imper­a­tive for employ­ers to compre­hend the oppor­tu­ni­ties and requi­sites that this phenom­e­non entails. This is where the Chief Longevi­ty Offi­cer comes in. His or her core task is to adapt all areas of the compa­ny to demo­graph­ic change and longer work­ing lives. This is not just about older employ­ees. As work­ing lives become longer, the career paths of younger profes­sion­als are increas­ing­ly devi­at­ing from a straight line. There­fore, it is becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant to design the corpo­rate struc­ture, includ­ing job profiles and employ­er brand­ing, to accom­mo­date flex­i­ble and change­able career paths.

An emerg­ing trend with great potential

There are current­ly no system­at­ic stud­ies on CLOs yet. Howev­er, the press and blogs are increas­ing­ly report­ing on the creation of such posi­tions, partic­u­lar­ly with­in compa­nies in the health and well­be­ing indus­try, or those with ambi­tious corpo­rate health programmes. The poten­tial of this new lead­er­ship role is already evident:

• With baby boomers reach­ing retire­ment age, the German labour market will lose around seven million work­ers by 2035. Younger gener­a­tions and immi­gra­tion alone will not be able to compen­sate for this decline. The employ­ment of older skilled work­ers there­fore provides impor­tant relief and is now even promot­ed through tax incen­tives thanks to the newly creat­ed active pension in Germany.
• Those affect­ed are also show­ing inter­est: accord­ing to an IW survey² more than one in three employ­ees can imag­ine work­ing after retire­ment. The job plat­form Xing found even high­er figures: 53 percent want to and are able to contin­ue work­ing in old age, while a further 9 percent are at least open to the idea.

The compre­hen­sive remit of the CLO

In prin­ci­ple, the CLO is respon­si­ble for lead­ing the compa­ny’s response to demo­graph­ic changes relat­ing to longer lifes­pans. ‘A CLO combines respon­si­bil­i­ty for the work­force, health, equal oppor­tu­ni­ties and market poten­tial in a single lead­er­ship role, and trans­forms longevi­ty from a “soft” concept into a measur­able busi­ness strat­e­gy,’ says refer­ence book author Bradley Schurman.

In prac­tice, a CLO could redesign career paths, bene­fits and corpo­rate culture to make them compat­i­ble with work­ing lives last­ing over 60 years. This includes flex­i­ble work­ing models that protect younger employ­ees from burnout and help older employ­ees maximise their productivity.

New goals and unfa­mil­iar concepts

A study by the Biomet­rics Research Insti­tute, MainAnalytics5, describes what a Chief Learn­ing Offi­cer (CLO) should achieve in concrete terms. First and fore­most, it is impor­tant to devel­op strate­gies that encour­age under­stand­ing and dialogue between differ­ent age groups. These include:

• age-diverse teams,
• programs for mutu­al train­ing and mentoring,
• more infor­mal formats such as team events and after-work get-togethers.

Above all, the goal is to see gener­a­tional diver­si­ty as an oppor­tu­ni­ty rather than an obstacle.

In its Human Capi­tal Trends Report from 2024, Deloitte points out an aspect that is becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant, partic­u­lar­ly with the conscious hiring or contin­ued employ­ment of older work­ers: compa­ny cultures must not and should not form a rigid, uniform grid into which every­one has to fit. Age-diverse teams may need their own approach­es and free­dom, which may differ, for exam­ple, from the gener­al start-up mental­i­ty of a young compa­ny. Enabling this would be a typi­cal task for a CLO, as such concepts not only require appro­pri­ate measures, but also the back­ing of top management.

The crucial link between idea and success

An earli­er Deloitte study⁷ point­ed out a  chal­lenge for CLOs back in 2023. This is because, espe­cial­ly in compa­nies with a strong focus on diver­si­ty and a corre­spond­ing employ­er value propo­si­tion, there is a risk that imple­men­ta­tion is often only docu­ment­ed quantitatively—for exam­ple, in terms of the number of measures taken and those involved. What is often miss­ing are KPIs that measure the success of diver­si­ty programs in terms of rele­vant results, such as increased produc­tiv­i­ty or customer satisfaction.

The study cites anoth­er hurdle: the lack of or insuf­fi­cient connec­tion between diver­si­ty promo­tion and the compa­ny’s process­es and struc­tures. One exam­ple is support programs that come to noth­ing because the partic­i­pants – e.g., older profes­sion­als who have been specif­i­cal­ly recruit­ed – are then unable to find tasks with­in the compa­ny that match the content of the support program.

It is clear that the lack of anchor­ing at the manage­ment level poses a signif­i­cant risk and is often the cause of program fail­ure: success­es are not achieved or are not seen if respon­si­bil­i­ty remains at the pure­ly oper­a­tional or project level. A respon­si­ble person at the C‑level is far better suit­ed to avoid this than a mere representative.

The CLO and the real estate product

Certain­ly, the CLO’s main tasks lie in the HR area. But when we spoke of cross-func­tion­al skills at the begin­ning, this suggests anoth­er area of respon­si­bil­i­ty specif­i­cal­ly for the real estate indus­try: the aging of soci­ety and other devel­op­ments, such as the trend toward commu­nal living, certain­ly fall with­in the remit of a manag­er who is tasked with adapt­ing a compa­ny to demo­graph­ic change.

This means that the strate­gies and programs devel­oped by a CLO are no longer aimed sole­ly at employ­ees, but also at buyers and tenants of resi­den­tial real estate. In this area, there is almost no element of the value chain in which a CLO could not make an impor­tant contri­bu­tion – from project plan­ning and devel­op­ment to archi­tec­ture and furnish­ings to market­ing and new service offerings.

Conclu­sion

Demo­graph­ic change is forc­ing many compa­nies today to take action to secure their abil­i­ty to work, indeed their very exis­tence. Increased employ­ment of older skilled work­ers – in some cases beyond retire­ment age – is only one aspect of this. Life paths and future prospects are chang­ing against the back­drop of grow­ing longevi­ty across all generations.

In order to take all this into account and trans­late it into mean­ing­ful measures, it is certain­ly not neces­sary for every compa­ny to have its own C‑level manage­ment posi­tion. Howev­er, a new begin­ning, a depar­ture into the future, requires not only new skills but also a strong signal both inter­nal­ly and exter­nal­ly. A dedi­cat­ed Chief Longevi­ty Offi­cer or at least a Vice Pres­i­dent of Longevi­ty with clear powers would be such a signal.

Sources

• “Labor market to lose seven million people by 2035,” Die Zeit / Insti­tute for Employ­ment Research (IAB), Novem­ber 2022
• “Who wants to work in retire­ment?”, IW Short Report No. 74/2024, German Econom­ic Insti­tute, Octo­ber 2024
• “XING Diver­si­ty Study 2024,” Xing / Appinio, August 2024
• Bradley Schur­mann is the author of the book “The Super Age” and founder of Human Change, a demo­graph­ic strat­e­gy and inclu­sive design compa­ny; quot­ed in “Get ready for a new addi­tion to the C‑suite,” Quartz Online Busi­ness Maga­zine, Octo­ber 2025
• “From Boomers to Gen Z: Bridg­ing Gaps Between the Gener­a­tions,” main­an­a­lyt­ics, Octo­ber 2025
• 2024 Glob­al Human Capi­tal Trends, Deloitte Insights, 2024
• “New funda­men­tals for a bound­ary­less world,” Glob­al Human Capi­tal Trends Report 2023, Deloitte Insights, 2023

(Image source: istockphotos.com)