Singapore - With hospital admission rates in 2006 for those aged between 45 - 64 years is at 105.4%, as cited from the Ministry of Health's website, companies must be prepared for more time-off needed from the mature workforce. 

In anticipation of the aging workforce and its possible repercussions in higher amount of MCs taken, restructuring of the hiring strategies in some companies are to be expected and DZ Bank has made their move. With its hiring focus on the younger generation, Winnie Wee, senior manager of HR and accounts, reveals, "So when they are young, I think there won't be high absentees."

Yet, age will not be a problem for May Wong, vice president and HR business partner of Deutsche Bank. "We believe in diversity and giving people opportunities, as long as the person can do the role and is the best person for it, that's fine."

Especially in the banking industry where intellectual capital is highly valued, affirms Wong. "If we have somebody who is very experienced and has a proven track record, ashe can probably be even more successful than someone who is new and probably [costs] less in terms of salary."

While Wee agrees older employees should be valued for their experience, she believes having a mixture of the age groups would be beneficial as half of her 62 bank employees are currently above 45 years of age. But like Wong, Wee also doesn't expect the medical leave days from the older group to increase just yet. "You'll be surprised. Most of them are very health conscious. They do jogging after work."

Holding an armful of health posters, Wee acknowledges that her concern is really more for the smokers in the company as they "disappear a few times in a day". "They have to go downstairs and they cough a lot so when I saw one of the slides about smokers prone to heart attacks, this is more for them."