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What would it mean if a third of your workforce walked out the door tomorrow?  Would you maintain the customer relationships that were fostered by those exiting employees?  Would you have the necessary information to process work flows?  Would you be able to meet your sales and production goals?

 

Employers are asking these questions since many will be experiencing a loss of nearly 1/3 of their workforce over the next five years as their Boomer employees become retirement-eligible.  Employers may be facing these critical issues:

 

¨      Skills aren't always readily available in the market with today's less experienced employees.

¨      It may take years for employees to become fully trained and knowledgeable in your business.

¨      You have issues unique to your company or industry that make it difficult to gain full productivity from new employees in the short term.

¨      Your employees have developed invaluable relationships with customers, vendors, and other business partners that can't be easily duplicated.

¨      Your long-term employees have a unique understanding of the history and perspective of your organization, its products, and its culture.

 

One strategy to retain institutional wisdom is to retain older workers.  This may be accomplished by changing your corporate culture's approach to retirement through education, changes in incentives for retirement, lifelong learning, and more favorable work scheduling options.  Employers are exploring various strategies for older worker retention, including the increased use of sabbaticals, contract employment options, and phased and rehearsal retirement.

 

However, in many cases, older employees may be anticipating their retirement and not willing to remain with their employers.  In these cases, organizations will need to develop creative ways to retain the wisdom possessed by these older workers.  Outlined here are several strategies employers can use to prevent the brain drain that is likely to occur with retiring employees.

 

Anticipate retirement.  If you haven't done so already, conduct an analysis of your workforce to determine the ages of your employees and estimate their potential retirement dates.  This will allow you to better plan for replacing workers while retaining their knowledge and wisdom.

 

Begin succession planning and development strategies now.  Never before has succession planning and professional development been more critical in organizations.  Develop a formal plan to identify high-potential, internal candidates, and complete a gap analysis to determine what training and development activities will be necessary to to advance these employees.

 

Hire successors early.  Once you know where your future gaps will be, it's time to begin the recruitment process for replacements.  Allow overlap time so new employees can cross-train with incumbents.

 

Document work processes.  Ask current employees to develop a guide for their work, including how work is done, key contacts, timelines, accountabilities, and other critical data for ensuring work is completed on schedule.

 

Keep retirees on retainer.  One employer provides laptops to all its retirees, with one caveat:  they must respond to company emails and questions.  This links retirees with those who have important questions regarding past practices, customer information, and protocols.

 

Provide work options.  Perhaps your retirees don't want to work full-time, but may be enticed to work a unique schedule.  Consider out-of-the-box options like one-month-on/one-month-off schedules, project work, or job sharing with trainees.

 

Keep retirees linked through an employment pool.  Bring them back to fill in for vacations and leaves and to manage special projects and assignments.

 

By developing these strategies, employers will be better able to beat the brain drain and keep institutional wisdom from evaporating for good.

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Contact us today to see how Cathy and Sandy can help your organization move forward through developing internal consulting skills.

 

Cathy Fyock:  cathy@cathyfyock.com; 1-800-277-0384

http://www.cathyfyock.com

 

 

 

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¨      August 7, UFPC, "Thoughts on Leadership" and "Cultural Intelligence," Louisville, KY

¨      August 18, Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, "Leadership Development", Louisville, KY

¨      September 18, The Press Enterprise Career Expo, "The Truth About Hiring The Best," Riverside, CA

¨      September 28, Society for American Florists, "The Truth About Hiring the Best", Palm Springs, CA

¨      October 4 - 5, KY SHRM Conference, "Pearls and Perils of HR Professionals" and "The Truth About Hiring the Best," Louisville, KY

¨      October 17, Tri-Cities HR Expo, "America's Workforce is Coming of Age," "Recruiting Older Workers," "You CAN Teach an Old Dog," Tennessee

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Permission is hereby granted to reprint articles from this report by Cathy Fyock, at no charge, with the agreement that the biographical information be included following each article used. One copy of the publication in which the article is published must be forwarded to Innovative Management Concepts. A fee of $300 per article will be expected for articles published without the biographical and contact information. Please contact us for assistance in editing this article to meet your publication guidelines.