Working life is getting longer, but not by companies' choice. In Italy, the growth of employed people aged at least 50 depends, according to Istat, on the aging of the population and restrictions on access to pensions. Organizations are left with one decision: what happens to people in those extra years.

This is where professional longevity stops being a demographic issue and becomes an organizational design issue. Public debate offers companies a recurring response: more continuous training, more flexibility, more attention to different career stages.

All solutions that do not really answer the decisive question: who designs what happens to people in the many extra years they will spend at work, when the skills they started with last less and less?

Professional longevity: data from the Observatory on the Future of Work

By linking the data from our Observatory on the Future of Work with official statistics, a precise gap emerges:

• Working life is getting longer: in 2025, a 15-year-old is expected to be in the labor force for an average of 37.5 years in the European Union, 2.3 years more than in 2016 (Eurostat). In Italy, the figure is 33 years, among the lowest in the Union.

• Not by choice of the companies: there are 10.094 million employed people aged at least 50 in the second quarter of 2025, compared to 4.865 million in 2004, and according to Istat, behind this growth are the aging of the population and restrictions on pension access. The pension requirement increases by one month in 2027 and by two in 2028 (Budget Law 2026).

• A now structural phenomenon: in the last five years (July 2021 - July 2026), the increase in employment is mainly driven by the 50-64 age group, where the employment rate rises by 7.8 points and the employed grow by 18%, 13% net of the demographic effect (Istat).

• Skills last less: the average life of a technical skill has fallen to 3-5 years (Observatory on the Future of Work) and, according to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, 39% of the required skills will transform or become obsolete.

• Companies are not ready: career wellbeing, i.e., career paths, development plans, or mentorship, is present in only 44% of Italian companies, four out of ten (Corporate Wellbeing 2025, Observatory on the Future of Work, over 250 HR professionals).

The comparison is sharp: a working life of over thirty years, skills lasting 3-5, and, in more than half of companies, no structured path connecting them. If skills age faster than career paths, the problem is not individual but organizational. For this reason, professional longevity is not declared: it is built, and today it is one of the few true metrics of organizational maturity.

Skills gap and professional longevity

If professional longevity measures the maturity of an organization, the skill gap is where that maturity is read. With a working life of over thirty years and skills that last 3-5, every organization goes through multiple update cycles: the gap between required and available skills becomes a permanent condition rather than an emergency to be filled once.

Companies are aware of this: according to the World Economic Forum, 63% of employers surveyed identify the skill gap as the main obstacle to transformation and 85% plan to prioritize the upskilling of their employees (Future of Jobs Report 2025). The response is almost always continuous training.

But a skill developed also loses value when it is not used. If it remains trapped in a rigid role, in a path designed for a stable context, or in a team that cannot release it, the training investment does not translate into organizational capacity, and the skill gap remains open. The paradox is this: companies invest in upskilling while the organization continues to work as if those skills did not exist. This can be recognized by three signs:

• Internal mobility declared but not practiced: provided for in policies, absent in actual movements of people between roles and teams.

• Project staffing by function rather than by skills: the people involved follow the organizational chart rather than the required capabilities.

• Static job architecture: business priorities change while role boundaries and paths remain unchanged.

This results in frustration and disengagement, and a widespread feeling of not being recognized for what one knows how to do: the exact opposite of what professional longevity promises to people.

At this point, the question for HR changes. It is no longer just about which skills are missing, but where those already developed end up: who activates them, in what timeframe, and with what friction. This is a question that a training plan, on its own, cannot answer.

Reskilling and upskilling: how to build professional longevity in organizations

Responding means measuring the skill gap starting from a snapshot of actual skills, defining where reskilling must lead people based on business priorities, enabling movement between roles and projects, and recognizing, also in terms of remuneration, what has been learned. These are the four phases of our Skills-Flow Model (Snapshot, Blueprint, Direction, Impact): training comes later, to fill the gap that measurement has made visible, and not before, as an investment regardless.

This is the work carried out by Birra Peroni across its network of plants: standardizing skills without disrupting production lines, with over 20 interviews and observations on the field, more than 45 stakeholders involved in co-design, and success profiles defined across 26 key roles. The result allows for managing operators' multi-skilling on objective grounds and planning their development.

In practice, a reskilling and upskilling plan oriented towards professional longevity is built on four levers:

• Skill-based approach: mapping of transferable and reusable skills in different roles, teams, and contexts, regardless of age and job title.

• Horizontal mobility and non-linear careers: role-changing paths that preserve professional identity and leverage accumulated experience.

• Flexibility throughout the life cycle: work models and workloads tailored to personal and professional transitions, such as caregiving, studying, and returns to work.

• Intergenerational knowledge transfer: structured exchange of skills and experiences in both directions.

The role of HR and management in professional longevity

The HR function evolves from a developer of skills to an enabler of contexts where skills can be quickly reallocated and projects matter more than roles. However, every reallocation requires a conversation between manager and collaborator, and the manager's willingness to release a person to another team: a managerial skill even before a policy.

Learning agility and unlearning are two of the thirteen Power Skills that distinguish those who manage from those who lead, mapped in the article Managerial training: the Power Skills that separate those who manage from those who lead, and they are the starting point from which internal mobility becomes practicable.

Frequently asked questions about professional longevity, skill gaps, and reskilling

Why is continuous training not enough to build professional longevity?

Because training does not mean using. Skills last 3-5 years, and if they remain stuck in rigid roles, internal mobility is merely formal, and projects are assigned by function, the developed capital remains unused. Real growth paths and actual mobility are needed, which are currently present in only 44% of companies (Corporate Wellbeing 2025).

How does the skill gap measure an organization's professional longevity?

It shows whether people's skills remain aligned with what the business needs and, above all, if they are actually being used. A working life of over thirty years with skills that last 3-5 makes the skill gap a permanent condition: the ability to read and bridge it over time is what distinguishes those who build professional longevity from those who merely declare it.

How can you tell if an organization is building professional longevity?

By looking at whether people can change roles, update their skills, and actually use them: if growth paths exist, if internal mobility is real, and how quickly developed skills are activated. For Radical HR, this is one of the few true metrics of organizational maturity.

How do you set up reskilling and upskilling to support professional longevity?

Starting from real skills, not age or titles: you measure the skill gap (Snapshot), define where to lead people (Blueprint), make movement between roles and projects possible (Direction), and recognize what has been learned (Impact). This is the Skills-Flow Model, valid for everyone at every stage of their career.

To learn more about how to support professional longevity in your organization, you can contact the Radical HR team.