An Aging Workforce (“The Brain Drain”)
Take a look at these statistics about the Aging Workforce:
The percentage of U.S. workers 55 and older is rising
2006 16.8%
2016 22.7%
While likely successors will be on the decline in the next eight years
Age 55.64 +30.3%*
Age 35-44 -5.5%*
Age 16-24 -1.1%*
Take a look at these statistics about the Aging Workforce:
The percentage of U.S. workers 55 and older is rising
2006 16.8%
2016 22.7%
While likely successors will be on the decline in the next eight years
Age 55.64 +30.3%*
Age 35-44 -5.5%*
Age 16-24 -1.1%*
Projected percentage growth or decline 2006-2016
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Few managers have taken steps to retain professionals nearing retirement age. These are some of the methods that progressive managers have established to cope with the Aging workforce:
Flex schedules 19%
Part-time options 12%
Contracting retired employees 9%
Bonuses for staying on 8%
Delayed retirement plans 4%
No steps taken 60%
Source: Survey of 233 professionals May-June 2007
Based on the above statistics, it has become clear that growth in the number of older workers will soon surpass growth in the number of those just starting out. In particular, in my field of Information Technology, there has not been an influx of new talent. According to the Computing Research Association, computer science enrollment dropped 14% each year between 2004 and 2006.
But, in a survey conducted by Buck Consultants, only 42%of the respondents said that the aging workforce was a significant issue. So it seems that many businesses are content to watch their boomers leave the company.
Some companies, however, are taking steps to capturing the knowledge that is lost when the boomers leave the company. For example, Tennessee Valley Authority realized that 30 to 40 % of its workforce would retire over the next five years so it developed a process to determine which employees possessed unique, undocumented knowledge; to assess the risk or losing that knowledge; and to find ways to capture it through retention, documentation, mentoring, training and the sharing of expertise.
One of the most important things is to assess the value of the knowledge and skills that are walking out the door. Then build a database to capture documentation and lessons learned. A powerful tool is to offer long time staffers new challenges, new benefits and new roles to keep them longer and available to transfer knowledge about their job. Another is to involve older workers in mentoring younger workers to make knowledge sharing a priority.
Obviously, it is clearly important for managers to assess the value of the knowledge and skills that could be walking out the door and do something about retaining the aging employees and developing plans to capture their knowledge before it is disappears into retirement.
1 comment:
I’m the Managing Director of one of Australia’s leading recruitment brands, Ross Julia Ross, and regularly blog about talent shortages across Australia’s industries (www.talkingtalent.com.au)
I firmly believe that in Australia we need to re-define what the average daily and weekly job looks like and how it is remunerated so that we hold onto older workers.
Research firm, Mercer, says that by the year 2012 the amount of workers in the Australian labour force aged 55+ will increase by 14 per cent while the amount of workers aged 25-54 will increase by only 5 per cent.
In industries where work is increasingly based on knowledge-creation, the focus needs to be on the workplace as a key arena for encouraging ‘lifelong learning’ as part of work.
Retaining and retraining older workers will save recruiting costs, maintain institutional memory and technical knowledge and give a higher return on investment in training.
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