The Aging Workforce


Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, is an employment strategist providing speaking, educating, and writing on the issues of an aging and changing work force. For nearly 20 years she has combined her talents as speaker and her knowledge of work force issues to provide innovative and inspirational learning events, and to help organizations attract top talent, reduce turnover, and improve productivity in a volatile labor market. She is the author of five books, including UnRetirement and America’s Work Force is Coming of Age, and has written for and been quoted by top business and HR publications. She is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management, where she has been a speaker at every annual conference since 1987.

"Cathy's 20+ years of experience speaking on topics relevant to an aging workforce give her unmatched credibility on these issues with HR professionals. Her experience, coupled with practical yet creative presentations, really makes an impact on her audience."

--Patrice H. Blanchard
Gerontologist



NEW! Special Report--$20 plus shipping & handling

Recruiting Experienced Workers: A Guide for Employers to Attract Workers Aged 50+



Praise for Recruiting Experienced Workers
"Cathy takes the mystery out of understanding the 50+ workforce demographic and how to recruit experienced workers to an organization. This Special Report guides the reader through specific actions and decisions to prepare leaders to recruit and retain experienced workers."

--Jeff Nally, SPHR
Humana, Inc.









Programs and Presentations

Generational Issues: Why Can’t We All Get Along?

 The workforce is aging, which means that young and old employees are now working side by side. According to a recent SHRM survey, 28% of HR professionals believe that conflict between works of different generations had increased in the last five years, and 33% expect it to increase in the next five years.

This session identifies old assumptions and new responses to work force practices, and outlines specific strategies to recruit, retain, manage, and engage workers of all ages.

You’ll learn about:

  • Generational cohort identification
  • How generational values have shifted over time
  • Results of several generational studies in order to see what business assumptions will change over time, and how this will impact HR programs and policies
  • Strategies that your organization can utilize to maximize the traits and values that each age cohort brings to the workplace


    AARP-Sponsored Workshop: Employment Issues for the 50+ Workforce

     Worker shortages. Educating your front-line about ADEA and ADA. Managing the flexible work schedules demanded by Boomers. These are the realities facing HR professionals today.

    You’ll not only come away with information to lead your organization, but you’ll also be equipped with free train-the-trainer materials, including participant guides, leader’s guides, and AV materials to educate your supervisors and managers on this critical business issue.

  • To understand the forces making the employment of workers age 50+ an important business and employment issue (Why should you care?)
  • To debunk the myths about workers age 50+ and discover the facts (What are the myths?)
  • To learn what barriers may exist within organizations to recruiting and retaining the 50+ workforce (What are the barriers?)
  • To identify AARP and other resources for additional help and support (Who can help?)
  • To create an action plan for the effective employment of workers age 50+ (What next?)

    This program has been approved for 1.5 recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI).


    Business Responses to an Aging Workforce: Are you ready?

     Never before has the workforce experienced the kind of changes that will be driven by aging issues. Many organizations are seeing unprecedented numbers of older adults departing the workforce as they reach “normal” retirement age, and these organizations will be facing new challenges and asking a whole new set of questions:

  • What are the implications for succession planning as large numbers of employees reach retirement age?
  • How do we capture institutional knowledge?
  • How can we encourage the generations to work together?
  • What are the special issues of mentoring and coaching, and in reigniting the performance of long-term employees?
  • What new work options will need to be offered to encourage mature workers to remain in the workplace?
  • What can organizations do to eliminate ageist language and comments from the workplace?
  • How can organizational culture be modified to encourage the increased employment of engaged and experienced workers?

    Join management consultant and business author Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, as she leads a dialogue using an interactive case study on the implications for HR professionals and business leaders in the new challenges of an aging workforce.


    How Dare You Presume I’d Rather Be Young?

     Exploring attitudes on aging to overcome ageism and age discrimination What is ageism and age discrimination, and how can it be eliminated from the workplace? It starts with exploring our personal attitudes regarding our own aging. With any luck at all, we’ll all experience what it’s like to be an older worker. The one dimension of diversity that’s bound to impact all of us, this topic is critical to HR professionals as the workforce ages.

    This session, led by management expert and business author Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, will create new paradigms for viewing aging by examining your current perceptions, analyzing your role models, confronting your fears, and celebrating success stories that can be applied to the workplace.

    Strategies for Maximizing an Age-Diverse Work Force

     The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by the year 2006 our country will experience a shortage of 10 million workers. What can American employers do to meet their staffing needs in this increasingly tight labor market? Employers must develop new strategies for maximizing an age-diverse work force, and older workers are one of this country's best untapped labor pools. This session explores strategies for finding the gold in a graying America—by more effectively recruiting, selecting, training, managing, and retaining this important resource. This session identifies old assumptions and new responses to work force practices, and outlines specific strategies to recruit and retain workers of all ages.

    "Your keynote address...was a resounding success. Your upbeat delivery set the tone for the morning and had everyone smiling. You certainly give 110%."

    --Carolyn Stearnes
    Senior Citizens Services



    Articles

    This is a selection of my business articles on an aging and changing workforce. You are welcome to read, download, or reprint any of them, as long as you include my copyright and byline at the end of each piece.

    Employing and Retaining Older Workers

     Aging in Place at Work
    Are These Applicants “Overqualified?”
    Attracting Experience to your Workplace
    In Celebration of Aging
    Louisville Metropolitan Police Department Hires Retirees
    Managing for “UnRetirement”
    What does an aging workforce mean to you?
    The Aging of the Workforce: Are You Ready?
    Providing care for the caregivers
    Planning for Your Employees’ Retirement: Are You Ready?
    Innovative Work Schedules as a Retention Strategy: Issues in Managing and Retaining Older Workers
    Six New Assumptions About Maximizing an Age-Diverse Work Force, and Why Most HR Professionals Don’t Get It
    Recruiting Wisdom and Maturity: Strategies for Attracting Older Workers
    Finding the Gold in the Graying of America
    Celebrating Aging: Singing Happy Birthday with Gusto
    Teaching New Tricks: Issues in Training Older and Wiser Workers
    Have Your Cake . . . And Eat It Too! A Story of Leisure, Employment, and Making it Work

    Permission to Reprint

     Permission is hereby granted to reprint articles by Cathy Fyock at no charge with the agreement that the bio information below be included following each article reprinted, and one copy of the publication in which the article is published be provided to Cathy Fyock at the address below. A fee of $300 per article will be expected for articles published without the biographical information and contact information.

    Permission is granted for reasonable editing, including article title change and industry specific examples. Please feel free to contact Cathy for assistance in editing.

    For information on articles customized for your specific publication or industry segment, please contact Cathy. She will be happy to work with you.



    Books and Products

    UnRetirement: A Career Guide for the Retired...the Soon-to-be-Retired... the Never-Want-to-be-Retired

     AMACOM

    ORDER NOW!

    UnRetirement UnRetirement is the first book to offer detailed guidance for older workers on how to keep working beyond "normal" retirement age. It gives specific techniques for how to explore new options--phased retirement, new part-time options, telecommuting, creating a resume that will maximize a life of hard work, and dealing with ageism and age discrimination. It gives specific techniques for how to:

    • Stay active in your current job or create alternative positions with your employer
    • Explore phased or rehearsal retirement, new part-time options, and telecommuting
    • Re-train yourself to fill growing needs for new skills
    • Develop self-esteem and value your own experience
    • Create a resume that will maximize a life of hard work
    • Deal with ageism and age discrimination

    "Many active, young retirees need to think about and plan how to spend their bonus years--how to stay active, interested, and challenged. This book is one of the best answers to this need that I have read."

    --Art Linkletter, Author
    Old Age is Not For Sissies


    Find the Gold



    ORDER "Finding the Gold in the Graying of America" NOW!

    Finding the Gold in the Graying of America explores why older workers are an important labor market segment, and why employers will need to focus on recruiting and retaining this valuable resource in the coming years. This high-impact presentation discusses the factors making this an important market segment, and offers specific ways in which all employers need to rethink assumptions about older adults, aging, and the role of older workers in the workplace.




    Quantities are limited for these products. Contact Cathy Fyock for information about ordering.

    America's Workforce is Coming of Age: What Every Business Needs To Know To Recruit, Train, Manage, And Retain An Aging Work Force

     Lexington Books

    America's Work Force is Coming of Age America's Work Force is Coming of Age offers practical information on solutions to the issues businesses will increasingly face in employing older workers today and in the twenty-first century, and addresses such issues as how other organizations have modified their strategies to attract and retain older workers, and what steps must be taken to avoid age discrimination throughout the employment process.

    America’s Work Force is Coming of Age offers in-depth discussions and detailed guidelines for such critical areas of concern as:

    • Why supervisors must be trained to be responsive to a new set of needs
    • How other companies have modified their benefits programs to attract and retain this major segment of the work force
    • What steps you must take to avoid age discrimination throughout the employment process.

    "Must reading in this time of diminishing numbers of young workers and the need of seniors for post-retirement activity. I cannot think of any phase of the subject that has not been treated in this analysis of the problems, challenges, and opportunities for older people to join the American work force."

    --Art Linkletter
    Author, Old Age is Not for Sissies

    "Our nation cannot avoid turning to older adults to meet its labor force needs. This is the first book to spell out what businesses can do to successfully attract and retain the older worker. Excellent."

    --Jeannette Takamura, Ph.D., Director
    Executive Office on Aging, State of Hawaii



    Consulting Work

    Cathy Fyock can assess your organization’s ability to recruit and retain an aging workforce through an analysis of the following:

    Employee education/culture issues
  • Providing retirement/”unretirement” planning.
  • Educating employees on work options.
  • Removing incentives for early retirement.
  • Reducing the cultural impact of rewards for retiring early.
  • Providing generational issues training.

    Job redesign
  • Reassigning tasks.
  • Using equipment/technology to handle heavy lifting or demanding tasks.
  • Streamlining work systems.

    Flexible work options
  • Adding phased/rehearsal retirement.
  • Creating traditional and nontraditional part time roles.
  • Providing job sharing.
  • Creating telecommuting options.
  • Exploring contract work options.

    Movement throughout the organization
  • Advancing individuals through promotions.
  • Providing job enhancement through lateral transfers.
  • Repositioning older adults to roles that match with their motivations for work and lifestyle choices.

    Eliminating ageist remarks and discriminatory practices
  • Providing training on age discrimination and ageism.
  • Auditing HR policies and practices to ensure they are nondiscriminatory.
  • Holding managers accountable for ageism and age discrimination.

    Reigniting performance in long term employees
  • Providing ongoing training to all employees.
  • Ensuring that employees of all ages are considered for promotional opportunities.
  • Seeing that rewards and consequences are in place for performance/nonperformance.
  • Providing feedback and coaching with employees of all ages.

    Transfer of knowledge issues
  • Documenting processes and procedures, as well as discreet institutional knowledge.
  • Interviewing those leaving the organization for needed information.
  • Storytelling, either “live” or archived, for key information.
  • Mentoring/coaching with senior and junior employees (including reverse mentoring).
  • Developing job sharing opportunities.
  • Developing communities of practice (COP).


    Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, helps you recruit and retain employees in an aging and changing work force. She can be reached at P.O. Box 1229, Crestwood KY 40014, via email at cathy@cathyfyock.com, or by phone at (502) 243-2482.