- Employee retainment will become essential. The cohorts that followed the boomers have a very different work style and are motivated by different critera. Organizations will need to adopt a broader basket of employee programs tailored to the specific needs of their employees.
- Policies and employee plans will need to be reviewed to enable those boomers that want to continue to work to engage on their own terms. Part-time and mentorship options can bridge the experience gap, but policies will need to evolve to encourage participation. For example, in many companies participation in a pension plan is only available to full-time staff.
- Recruitment and terms of work need to become more flexible
Taken as a whole, immigration and the cohorts following the boomers will enter the workforce over time to mitigate the impact of boomer retirement and, of course, not all boomers will want to retire early. Don't expect a wide spread crisis in personnel recruitment, but do expect that certain regions, those companies in knowledge intensive areas and those that have not planned and prepared, to face difficulties that will impact their business. It is not the loss of manpower that will be most keenly felt, but rather the loss of expertise and skills critical to guiding the company.
Implications:
The pending retirement of a significant number of senior leaders and staff is becomming a frequent discussion in the employee lounge. Everyone knows the issue is out there, yet we see many organizations continuing to just carry on as usual. I recently discussed this boomer phenomena with some local companies and was not surprised to learn that in one organiztion 80% of the senior management team would be gone in 5 years while at another, almost 90% of the senior management team was expected to leave within the next two years. What was surprising was that no one seemed overly concerned. Both organizatons have succession plans, but agreed that succession development was weak. Current leaders are fully engaged with the challenges of the business today leaving little time to transition the experience to the next group of emerging leaders.
This places undue risk on the organization - risk to staff, risk to customers and risk to shareholders. Companies need to accelerate their planning, begin developing the required skills and experience of staff and start the process to change their employment practices to retain those boomers who wish to continue in the workplace.
For our part, Cameron Partners has created the mentorship program which enables emerging leaders in client organizations to access skilled and experienced resources on an ongoing and "as needed" basis. Our business planning practice is available to help small and mid-sized business prepare, execute and conclude the rollover of ownership for individual owned and partner owned entities. Interm executive placement and project based engagements from Cameron Partners can help your organization meet near term objectives.
Peter Yeo is a Principal in Cameron Partners
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