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Aug 10, 2007

Training the Aging Workforce

By:

Alice Snell kindly brings to our atten­tion her nice post, Baby Boomers: The Beat Goes On, com­ment­ing on sev­eral reports and arti­cles on the aging work­force challenge. 

This is a very impor­tant topic, and directly related to what we are doing. Let me pro­vide an overview with these 10 points. First, some context:

1) The Con­fer­ence Board pub­lished a good report in 2005 titled America’s Aging Work­force Pos­ing New Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Chal­lenges. Quotes:

  • “Some 64 mil­lion baby boomers (over 40 per­cent of the U.S. labor force) are poised to retire in large num­bers by the end of this decade. In indus­tries already fac­ing labor and skills short­ages, forward-thinking com­pa­nies are recruit­ing, retain­ing, and devel­op­ing flex­i­ble work-time arrange­ments and/or phased retire­ment plans for these work­ers (55 years of age or older), many of whom have skills that are dif­fi­cult to replace. Such actions are putting these com­pa­nies ahead of com­peti­tors who view the aging work­force largely as a bur­den putting strains on pen­sion plans and health­care costs.”
  • “More older work­ers want to remain in their jobs for both per­sonal ful­fill­ment and finan­cial rea­sons. In a related forth­com­ing study from The Con­fer­ence Board, more than half (55 per­cent) of older employ­ees sur­veyed said they were not plan­ning to retire because they find their jobs inter­est­ing. Sig­nif­i­cantly, 74 per­cent also cited not hav­ing suf­fi­cient finan­cial resources as a rea­son they were con­tin­u­ing to work, and 60 per­cent cited the need for med­ical benefits.”

Not only in the US: the largest sin­gle group within the UK work­force in 2006 was com­prised of peo­ple between 45 and 59.

2) Some con­sult­ing com­pa­nies like Accen­ture seem to be bet­ting that the solu­tion will be to improve tech­nol­ogy for knowl­edge trans­fer and train younger employ­ees as soon as pos­si­ble (inter­view notes of the con­ver­sa­tion between Accenture’s CEO Bill Green and William J. Hol­stein, edi­tor in chief of Chief Exec­u­tive magazine.)

3) And the mar­ket for Tal­ent Man­age­ment and Suc­ces­sion Plan­ning solu­tions has been grow­ing steadily, and has more room to grow: The Bot­tle­neck — A Lack of Suc­ces­sion Plan­ning in HR. 

Now, Alice men­tions a few inter­est­ing reports and articles

4) Prepar­ing for an Aging Work­force: A Focus on New York Busi­nesses, a sur­vey of 400 HR man­agers spon­sored by AARP. One inter­est­ing tid­bit I found in the report: when asked about “Strate­gies to help employ­ees work past tra­di­tional retire­ment age”, the top answer was “Train­ing to Upgrade Skills (out of 8 such as “eas­ing into the retire­ment” or “work­ing part-time”).

5) The Talent-Shortage Myth, by Work­force Man­age­ment edi­tor John Hol­lon, where he tries to debunk the myth of a mas­sive, simul­ta­ne­ous worker short­age, high­light­ing that many baby boomers will want to remain in the work­force for many more years.

6) She ends up ask­ing “Does your orga­ni­za­tion have—or need—a baby boomer exit strategy?”

My 2 cents

7) Com­pa­nies need a com­pre­hen­sive strat­egy, more than a baby boomer “exit” strategy: hir­ing and train­ing younger employ­ees, ensure knowl­edge transfer, man­age tal­ent and suces­sion plan­ning, AND train­ing baby boomers who want to stay. I tend to agree with John Hol­lon that there won’t be a mas­sive short­age. Many baby boomers will want to, and need to, keep working. But it will be impor­tant for sec­tors like gov­ern­ment, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, energy, util­i­ties, to man­age their wor­force of peo­ple over 50 and ensure flex­i­ble and appro­pri­ate work­place arrange­ments, and start plan­ning now for those arrangements.

8) An impor­tant component of that strategy, that seems to be over­looked so far, is how to help those Employ­ees to ensure max­i­mum Pro­duc­tiv­ity and Health. We have been dis­cussing the grow­ing research behind brain fit­ness and cog­ni­tive train­ing and the increas­ing num­ber of tools and poten­tial acco­mo­da­tions. Won’t companies think about them as part of their Cor­po­rate Train­ing, Well­ness and Talent Management ini­tia­tives? doesn’t it make sense to try to find the best match between tal­ent and job pro­file, and won’t an older employee with bet­ter atten­tion span, pro­cess­ing speed, mem­ory and exec­u­tive functions be in a bet­ter posi­tion to keep adding value, to be more healthy and productive?

9) Which is why we have started to help edu­cate com­pa­nies and pro­fes­sion­als with arti­cles such as Ten Impor­tant Truths About Aging: How we age is at least par­tially under our con­trol, By Elkhonon Gold­berg and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, pub­lished in The Com­plete Lawyer.

10) At a glance, those Ten Truths are: 

  • Neu­ropsy­chol­ogy Indi­cates That We Can Con­trol Our Aging
  • Aging Means Life­long Devel­op­ment, Not Auto­matic Decline
  • Some Skills Improve With Age
  • Some Skills Need To Be Con­tin­u­ously Nur­tured And Trained
  • Not All Instances Of For­get­ting Are Of Equal Concern
  • We Are In Con­trol, To A Large Extent
  • There Are Four “Pil­lars Of Brain Health”
  • Cross-Training Our Brains Builds Up Cog­ni­tive Reserve
  • Computer-Based Brain Exer­cise Pro­grams Can Help
  • Embrace “Good” Stress; Elim­i­nate “Bad” Stress
  • Retire­ment Is Overrated

So, let me ask, does your orga­ni­za­tion have—or need—a com­pre­hen­sive baby boomer strat­egy? does that strat­egy include a tai­lored Train­ing, Well­ness and Tal­ent Management com­po­nent? and does the Tal­ent Man­age­ment part include employ­ees over 50?

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24 Responses

  1. I’m A Pundit Too » Blog Archive » carnival of political punditry - August 12, 2007 says:
    August 12, 2007 at 10:03

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “In the debate about social secu­rity and health care, we are often for­get­ting this impor­tant demo­graphic trend and how to turn it in our favor.” […]

  2. marguerite manteau-rao says:
    August 12, 2007 at 12:32

    Alvaro,

    Thanks for the lovely com­ment on my blog. Which led me to your blog!

    I am very impressed with your work. And I agree with your premise, that stay­ing young, is as much a mat­ter of exer­cis­ing our body, as, and even more impor­tantly, keep­ing our brain sup­ple and stim­u­lated. Cre­ativ­ity is a won­der­ful gift to be cul­ti­vated and nur­tured all along. So is meditation.

    mar­guerite

  3. Alvaro says:
    August 12, 2007 at 3:06

    Hello Mar­guerite,

    Very nice to meet you!

  4. Articles submitted to online-ebiz carnival says:
    August 12, 2007 at 8:49

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A new trend that will pro­vide new busi­ness opportunities.” […]

  5. s-proprietor.com » Blog Archive » Carnival of The Entrepreneur - August 13th, 2007 says:
    August 13, 2007 at 1:15

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A new trend that will gen­er­ate many busi­ness opportunities” […]

  6. Carnival of Small Business Issues - Edition 15 : Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog - IQI Strategic Management Inc. says:
    August 13, 2007 at 8:21

    […] True to its name, Alvaro Fernandez’s blog, Sharp Brains attempts (and suc­ceeds) to make you think. If this blog is not a part of your sta­ple diet, I sug­gest you run along and sub­sribe to his feed. You won’t be dis­ap­pointed. This time Alvaro asks com­pa­nies if they have a baby boomer strat­egy. Most baby boomers are, after all, going to retire by the end of the decade. Com­pa­nies stand to lose some really great expe­ri­ence. More on this at Train­ing the Aging Workforce. […]

  7. Carnival of Small Business Issues - Edition 15 : Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog - IQI Strategic Management Inc. says:
    August 13, 2007 at 8:21

    […] True to its name, Alvaro Fernandez’s blog, Sharp Brains attempts (and suc­ceeds) to make you think. If this blog is not a part of your sta­ple diet, I sug­gest you run along and sub­sribe to his feed. You won’t be dis­ap­pointed. This time Alvaro asks com­pa­nies if they have a baby boomer strat­egy. Most baby boomers are, after all, going to retire by the end of the decade. Com­pa­nies stand to lose some really great expe­ri­ence. More on this at Train­ing the Aging Workforce. […]

  8. real estate investment « Real Estate Investment says:
    August 18, 2007 at 6:37

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A trend to be aware of-who doesn’t age? our bro­kers? our clients?” […]

  9. Kim says:
    August 19, 2007 at 2:16

    Alvaro!

    The arti­cle for The Com­plete Lawyer was fan­tas­tic! As some­one who never intends to retire, it was very encouraging!

  10. Alvaro says:
    August 19, 2007 at 10:11

    Hello Kim, very glad you enjoyed it!

  11. Brain Blogging, Fifteenth Edition | GNIF Brain Blogger says:
    August 20, 2007 at 9:39

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A new trend that will bring cog­ni­tive train­ing to a cor­po­rate setting.” […]

  12. Carnival of Green Living #03! says:
    August 22, 2007 at 6:00

    […] As the over­all pop­u­la­tion ages, there is a grow­ing need to under­stand how to inte­grate older peo­ple into the work­force. Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents us with this well-written post on Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Brain Fit­ness Blog. […]

  13. Organize Your Life/Carnival Edition #13 says:
    August 24, 2007 at 12:02

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “This is a trend for all to be aware of. Who doesn’t age?” […]

  14. purple motes » COB-14: advancing progress forward says:
    August 26, 2007 at 11:38

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez at the Brain Fit­ness Blog dis­cusses the impor­tance of cog­ni­tive train­ing for an aging work­force. Many com­pa­nies now advise desk-bound employ­ees to do sim­ple exer­cise to avoid office-related phys­i­cal injuries. Com­pa­nies should also care about keep­ing their employ­ees’ brains work­ing well. A Brain Fit­ness train­ing pro­gram would be one way to do that. Hav­ing inter­est­ing, chal­leng­ing work would be another. That lat­ter option, how­ever, may not be fea­si­ble in many circumstances. […]

  15. A Carnival of Employer Branding Advice, August 2007 - Krishna De: Branding, Business Blogging, Personal Branding, Employer Branding, New Media says:
    August 27, 2007 at 9:47

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Given the aging work­force trend, offer­ing state-of-the-art and appro­pri­ate train­ing to staff over 50 will become crit­i­cal for com­pany brand­ing and staff retention.” […]

  16. ask the Career Counselor — Helping you Navigate the Career Landscape says:
    August 30, 2007 at 6:52

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force, posted at Sharp­Brains. ‘Reflec­tions on a clear trend that sug­gests we need to take clear steps to remain as sharp as pos­si­ble as we age.’ […]

  17. Personal Finance Blog Articles: carnival of wealth building ideas - August 14, 2007 says:
    August 31, 2007 at 10:17

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Wealth Build­ing Idea: don’t retire!” […]

  18. My Debt Relief Plan » Festival of Investing says:
    August 31, 2007 at 10:25

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A clear trend that will gen­er­ate invest­ing opportunities.” […]

  19. Cameron says:
    September 2, 2007 at 4:09

    Phys­i­cal health is going to be a big prob­lem. Many boomers who say they will work may not be able to although it is true that a high per­cent­age may have to work for finan­cial rea­sons. I for one will leave the employee work­force to work for myself. Yes, I am one of the old­est boomers.

  20. Alvaro says:
    September 2, 2007 at 3:32

    Hello Cameron,

    Thanks for your post.

    Both phys­i­cal and brain health are impor­tant, and what we see more and more often is peo­ple who are phys­i­cally fine but cog­ni­tively slower than they used to, which affects their pro­duc­tiv­ity and abil­ity to deal with changes. So we should deal with both, and most com­pa­nies still don’t focus on the cog­ni­tive aspect.

    Find­ing self-employment oppor­tu­ni­ties is a great route, but we also expect (and are start­ing to see) com­pa­nies mak­ing changes to retain some employ­ees longer than used to be the case.

    Have you heard of Civic Ven­tures?
    http://www.civicventures.org/

  21. » Brain Exercise and Fitness: August Monthly Digest   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    September 2, 2007 at 9:47

    […] Train­ing the Aging Work­force: an overview of demo­graphic trends and impli­ca­tions, relevant to every HR and Train­ing pro­fes­sional and boomer. […]

  22. Carnival of Sales & Management Success - September 11, 2007 « Brad M. Trnavsky - Sales & Management Blogger says:
    September 11, 2007 at 2:32

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Train­ing the Aging Work­force posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “A clear trend that will influ­ence how sales Reps (and all staff) are trained.” […]

  23. » Cognitive Health, Aging and Baby Boomers   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    December 6, 2007 at 2:34

    […] 5) One impor­tant impli­ca­tion that nei­ther the arti­cle nor the report above cover enough is how all this will impact Cor­po­rate Hir­ing and Train­ing prac­tices to help boomers stay healthy and pro­duc­tive as long as pos­si­ble. You can read more about our thoughts at Train­ing the Aging Workforce and also enjoy this con­cept map on Cog­ni­tive Fit­ness and The Future of Work […]

  24. Steve Little says:
    March 13, 2008 at 3:13

    I real­ize I am a lit­tle late to this party, but it seems to me that all of this talk about cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­i­ties as they relate to retir­ing boomers misses the point entirely.

    It is the indi­vid­ual ‘boomer’ who is respon­si­ble for their expe­ri­ence in every dimen­sion of life.

    At Cham­pion Suc­cess Coach­ing, we help boomers approach­ing retire­ment to con­nect with what they really want their life expe­ri­ence to be for the 20 to 40 years they will have post retire­ment, and then help them cre­ate it…regardless of retire­ment plan­ning and HR reten­tion strategies.

    It is my con­sid­ered opin­ion that the eco­nomic impli­ca­tions of a mas­sive infu­sion of new yet mature entre­pre­neur­ial energy will not only result in a great boom for our ecomony, but will self-organize into what­ever demo­graphic strata are appropriate.

    Peo­ple who want to stay on board with the cor­po­rate world, will.

    Peo­ple who want to r&r in sun city, will.

    Peo­ple who want to engage in pas­sion­ate pur­suit of some sort, will.

    In all cases, it is clear that the fac­ulty afforded a good well­ness pro­gram which includes brain well­ness is desirable.

    Steve Lit­tle

Welcome to SharpBrains!

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