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

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

Thanks to this tool, you can adapt your organisation to the challenges of an ageing workforce and the diversity of career paths: your company will be more sustainable and competitive. Why not use it to develop your career plans and align your HR strategies with demographic realities?

Note that we're not talking about statistics or European or French census surveys here. We are talking about an HR project aimed at providing the company with indicators on its employees, and adapting 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. 🧭

See all software HR Management System (HRMS)

What is a company age pyramid?

Definition

The company 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 a pyramid 🔺, and provides essential data for anticipating changes in your workforce.

By examining this pyramid, you can:

• Analyse the ratio of young people to older people, to identify skills renewal needs.
• Identify upcoming retirements, facilitating proactive recruitment planning and knowledge transfer.
• Assess the impact of demographic changes on organisational 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 you are well prepared for generational challenges.

✅ In short, the age pyramid does more than 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 characterised by a narrow base and a broad top, revealing an ageing population with few young talents entering the market. This configuration poses a challenge for skills renewal and innovation. In this type of organisation, 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 programmes 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.

An example from a company: a consultancy firm where expertise is based mainly on experienced staff, and where there is a pressing need to renew skills.

Top shape

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

In this case, rigorous career management is crucial to avoid stagnation and promote coherent 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, enthusiastic graduates, but need well-structured development paths to progress.

Cylinder shape

🥫 The cylindrical shape reflects ideal demographic stability, with a balanced age distribution. This pattern is often a sign of a healthy organisation, where each age group is well represented, allowing a harmonious balance between experience and innovation.

To maintain this stability, it is important to continue to invest in ongoing training and to strengthen inter-generational exchanges. However, a word of caution: too stable a balance can sometimes lead to inertia, putting the brakes on innovation.

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

Crushed pear shape

🍐 The crushed pear shape results in a broad base and a 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, it is recommended that efforts to train young people be stepped up, so that they progress more quickly to roles of responsibility. At the same time, hiring external experts can offer valuable guidance to young talent and compensate for this temporary deficit.

Business 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" model is characterised by an uneven distribution of ages, often the result of irregular recruitment. This model is less stable and requires flexible, reactive management to adapt to internal demographic variations.

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

Business example: an organisation that has experienced periods of intensive recruitment followed by long breaks, creating a generational imbalance.

What is the point of the age pyramid?

Anticipating retirements

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

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

👉 Ensure business continuity and organise targeted mentoring programmes.

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 organisational dynamism and continuous innovation.

Mastering the GPEC

GPEC (Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences) is essential for adapting a company's skills to changes in the market. Use the age pyramid to develop 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 organisational 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 can be used to reduce the costs associated with emergency recruitment. By visualising the age distribution :

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

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

How do you build an age pyramid?

5 steps to creating your pyramid

1. Collect the data

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 generally available in your Human Resources Management System (HRMS) or personnel files.

2. Organising the data

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. Choosing the 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 below. ⬇️

4. Creating the graph

Depending on the tool you choose :

• Excel spreadsheet, Google Sheet or any spreadsheet 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. Customisation and analysis

Adjust the graph to make it easier to read:

• Add clear titles and legends.
• Use distinct colours for each gender. 🎨
• Check the scale of the axes for proportional representation.

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

Using Excel

Creating an age pyramid with Excel is accessible and allows you to obtain a visual and adjustable graph. Here's how to do it by following these steps:

1. Enter the data

• In your Excel sheet, create a column for the age groups (for example, 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 the data, including the 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. Customise the chart

• Reverse the horizontal axis: click on the horizontal axis, then in the formatting menu, select Axis options and tick Reverse category order.
• Adjust colours: choose different colours 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 graph more informative.

4. Finalise and analyse

• Check that the scale of the axes is consistent for both sides of the pyramid (male and female).
• Visualise 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:

Using dedicated HR software to build an age pyramid

Specialised HR software simplifies the creation and analysis of age pyramids, saving you real time and providing welcome accuracy. Here's what you get

• Data automation: No more manual data entry! This software connects to your HRIS and updates the information in real time, without any extra effort.
• In just a few clicks, you get your age pyramid, with segmentation options (by department, location, etc.) for a more detailed view.
• Advanced analysis:
• Track changes in age groups over time.
• Easily identify age groups close to retirement.
• Anticipate training or recruitment needs without having to guess.
• Need a report for a presentation? Export it in seconds and back up your HR decisions with hard 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 ageing population, requiring strategies to attract and retain young talent.
• A top shape (wide base, narrow top) indicates a predominance of young employees, which may imply a need for mentoring and training to coach the next generation.
2. Wide age ranges:
• Wide age brackets in a cylindrical pyramid indicate a balanced distribution, favourable 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 the gender distribution.
• An over-representation of men or women in certain age groups 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 the age cohorts approaching retirement and plan the necessary replacements.

See all software HR Management System (HRMS)

The age pyramid to support your HR strategy

In conclusion, the age pyramid is much more than a simple graph: it is an essential strategic tool for HR. It provides an overview of the demographic breakdown: you are able to optimise 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 developing serenely and effectively in the job market. 🧍🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️