Speakers Address Generational Differences in the Workplace

Speaking to business leaders at the fifth annual Futurist Conference, sponsored by the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce, about how employers can adapt to different generational values and avoid an awkward working environment, Eric McNulty, managing director of conferences for Harvard Business School Publishing, said "the change is the nature of the work itself."

As reported by Brandon Lausch for the Courier News< "McNulty said scholars and business leaders are now paying attention to generational differences in the workplace for two primary reasons: an increasingly diverse--and aging--workforce and a projected shortage of 10 million workers by the end of the decade that will force businesses to maximize talent."

Those in attendance said the fight to retain talented employees rests on older, more experienced employees feeling valued by mentoring young workers. Other solutions to bridge the generation gaps included flexible work arrangements and benefits when needed, fresh assignments and increased feedback, especially for younger workers.

Source: (Bridgewater, NJ) Courier News "Forum addresses generation gap at work" (October 7, 2006)

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Addresses the Aging Demographics

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
spoke before The Washington Economic Club on "The Coming Demographic Transition: Will We Treat Future Generations Fairly?" He said that viewing the demographic change from a broader economic perspective "shows clearly that adequate preparation for the coming demographic transition may well involve significant adjustments in our patterns of consumption, work effort, and saving."

Ultimately, the extent of these adjustments depends on how we choose--either explicitly or implicitly--to distribute the economic burdens of the aging of our population across generations. Inherent in that choice are questions of intergenerational equity and economic efficiency, questions that are difficult to answer definitively but are nevertheless among the most critical that we face as a nation.

His remarks went on to demonstrate that the question is how the burden of an aging population is to be shared between our generation and the generations that will follow us and to point out that a failure to prepare for the changes will have substantial adverse effects on the economic welfare of the United States and its citizens.

Source: Federal Reserve Board Remarks by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke (October 4, )2006

EBRI Publishes Detailed Look at U.S. Retirement System

The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) has published Retirement Security in the United States: Current Sources, Future Prospects, and Likely Outcomes of Current Trends, an in-depth book on the U.S. retirement system and how it may change in the future.

Among other things, it examines the changing pattern of retiree income across the age spectrum, the additional amounts that today’s workers need to save to retire with sufficient funds to meet basic living expenses, and the amounts that workers with pensions would need to set aside to compensate the benefit loss if their pensions were frozen.

Source: EBRI Press Release (September 22, 2006)

Attracting Older Workers with Hearing Benefits

Writing for the Employee Benefit News, Molly Bernhart wonders "why are hearing plans such a forgotten benefit while dental and vision coverage is considered standard?" She quotes Terry Portis, Ed.D., executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, as saying "If a company is interested in valuable employees effectively communicating, then hearing benefits should be one of their first considerations in considering health and wellness."

The Better Hearing Institute says there will be a continued increase in the baby boomer and the 75-years-or-older bracket in the coming years. The Institute expects the hearing-loss population to grow by one-third and up to 40 million people within a generation.

Baby boomers are often considered one of the most motivated and skilled segments of the employee population. To retain older workers, companies are expected to begin offering hearing benefits to accommodate older workers along with more flexible work schedules.

Source: Employee Benefit News "Hearing benefits could be music to employee ears" (October 2006)

Europe: Commission Issues Report on Ageing and Employment

The European Commission has published a report about what can be done to increase job opportunities for older people and to keep them in employment. "Ageing and Employment--Identification of good practice to increase job opportunities and maintain older workers in employment" reflects on good practice, identifies key factors and recommends actions that can be taken at EU, national, company and individual levels. The study also gauges the success of the European Employment Strategy, one objective of which is to extend the working lives and increase the employment rates of older workers.

The research involved selecting, from 11 EU countries, 41 company case studies across a mix of economic activities in the public and private sectors. An analysis followed into (1) the strengths and weaknesses of the national institutional framework within which these organisations operate and (2) selected good practice in initiatives undertaken by social partners, NGOs and national or regional policy-makers. "While some companies consciously developed an age management programme, many pursued interesting approaches to achieve the same thing without a strategy as such."

Source: Commission of the European Communities News Release (September 13, 2006)

Europe: Workers Believe Employers Are Age-biased

According to a Monster Meter poll, 46% of workers across Europe believe their organisations discriminate against older workers when it comes to looking for new recruits. "Norwegians lead the way in terms of a balanced view, and Germans observed the highest percentage of discrimination against older workers when looking for new recruits."

“The issue of age discrimination is a hot topic within the recruitment world,” comments Alan Townsend, COO for Monster UK and Ireland. “From the initial job posting right through to the HR handbook, organisations must be mindful that they are not discriminating against any potential recruits based on their age. Having a workforce that is age diverse is an indicator of good practice within a company. Furthermore, as we head towards the ’knowledge economy’ the more experienced employee brings a superior level of understanding and a richer skill set - which benefits the company as a whole.”

Source: Onrec.com"Almost Half of European Workers Believe Their Organisations Discriminate Against Older Workers" (September 29, 2006)

Survey: Working After Retirement: The Gap Between Expectations and Reality

According to a Pew Research Center survey, more than three quarters of today's workers (77%) expect to work for pay even after they retire and, of those, most say it's because they'll want to, not because they'll have to. However, the Pew report--Working After Retirement: The Gap Between Expectations and Reality--suggests that these expectations are dramatically out of step with the experiences of people who are already retired.

Pew reports that just 12% of retirees are currently working for pay (either part or full time), and another research organization shows that just 27% of them have ever worked for pay while in retirement. Pew also shows a disparity between the age at which today's workers say they plan to retire and the age at which today's retirees actually did retire, with the average worker expecting to retire at age 61, while the average retiree actually retired at 57.8.

Source: Pew Research Center Social Trends Report Summary (September 20, 2006)

Hospitality Industry: Dealing with the Aging Worforce Crisis

Brecca Loh and John R. Hendrie, writing in Hospitality.net, suggest that the biggest challenge facing the hospitality industry in the next five years is not "designing the Guest Room of the Future, building the most extraordinary mixed-use resort facility, identifying the dining trends of the rich and famous or creating the next terrifying yet exhilarating theme park ride." Rather, just like in health care, the industry will be stuck, "all competing for that rare commodity--reliable labor."

There will be "“Wars for Talent"”, and you must adapt your philosophies to retain older workers and attract new talent. Those who win the battles will be those wrested in progressive workforce development strategies. You do not have to be a huge corporation to make ready, but you will need to target your workforce and maximize your human capital. We know this argument is unpleasant for many in a labor intensive business, but this is the reality. Choose or close!

They suggest that employers must change direction, philosophy, and operation to deal with this. Among other things, they need to be more competitive in attracting and retraining new employees, create performance incentives, and build management-employee relationships.

Source: Hospitality Net "A Crisis So Immediate And Obvious, You May Have Already Missed It" (September 27, 2006)

Older Workers: 12 Reasons To Hire Them

Stephen Bastien, writing for Entrepreneur.com suggests that older workers may answer the quest of employers "employees who are honest, responsible, dependable, loyal, focused, organized and mature." He outlines 12 reasons why hiring older workers can help employers "maintain a reliable, dedicated workforce and provide a significant cost savings for both the short and long term."

Specifically, he suggests that older workers are (1) dedicated, (2) punctual, (3) honest, (4) detail-oriented, (5) good listeners, (6) take pride in a job well done, (7) organized, (8) efficient and confident, (9) mature, (10) set an example for other employees, (11) communicate well, and (12) reduce labor costs, since many already have insurance plans from prior employers or have an additional sources of income and are willing to take a little less to get the job they want.

Source: Entrepreneur.com "12 Benefits of Hiring Older Workers" (September 20, 2006)

United Kingdom: Workers Fear that Employers Won't Hire Them at 65

Nearly a third of respondents to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom for Help the Aged believe that employers will not want to hire older workers, despite new laws designed to prevent age discrimination in the workplace coming into force on 1 October. According to the poll carried out by GfK NOP, a majority of people think ageism is widespread in British industry and 25% of people approaching retirement age thought ageism would prevent them from working beyond 65.

Kate Jopling, Senior Policy Manager at Help the Aged, says: ‘Despite the Government passing new laws to protect older workers, many people simply don’t believe that British bosses will hire them once they reach 65. Employers need to realise that just because someone has reached a certain age, it doesn’t mean they aren’t fit for work. In fact, our survey shows that 80 per cent of people consider older workers to be more loyal and dedicated than many other age groups in the workplace.

Source: Help the Aged News Release (September 22, 2006)

Study: Most Organizations Not Prepared for Talent Shortage Fueled by the Retirement of Baby Boomers

Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., has released a whitepaper finding that most organizations, particularly larger ones, are not ready for the pending talent shortage caused by the looming retirement of 78 million workers age 55 and over. The paper--"Managing Talent in the Face of Workforce Retirement" (available free with registration)--summarizes key findings of Knowledge Infusion's "2010 Talent Readiness Assessment," which indicates, among other things that:

• Organizations with more than 2,500 employees indicated that approximately 1 in 5 workers are over the age of 55;
• Over 50% of respondents said the retiring workforce will cause a knowledge/skill gap; and yet
• Less than 30% of organizations who responded had a retention plan in place.

Adam Miller, President and CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand, said: "Companies need to proactively assess their organizations and determine a plan of action before this threat becomes a reality. Understanding the overall goals of the organization and which employees are key to achieving these goals including their role, skills and level within the company is important to implementing a retention plan."

Source: MarketWire Press Release (September 25, 2006)

NASA and Astronautic Engineering: Aging Workforce in Space Industry

Reporting from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics's (AIAA) Space 2006 Conference, Robert Lemos writes that NASA's corps of engineers that designed, built and maintained the space shuttle are reaching retirement age.

"The average age of my civil servants is 49 and we only have nine people under the age of 30," said S. Peter Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, who jokingly added: "Then I talked to Google and they only have nine people over the age of 30."

In fact, for all aeronautic and astronautic engineers, the average age of AIAA membership in now in the low 50's. Lemos reports that Lockheed Martin has began several initiatives to try to transfer knowledge from the older, experienced engineers and technical staff to the younger hires, including mentoring programs in which a young engineer is assigned to a senior mentor and ones that sponsor occasional roundtable classes between a senior engineer and younger staff, focusing on specific technical problems and how to solve them.

Source: Wired News "NASA Fights Premature Graying" (September 21, 2006)

Online Job Sites for Older Workers

Diane E. Lewis, writing for The Boston Globe, discusses new job sites for "tapping into the graying segment of the labor market that's not quite ready to retire." Featuring an interview with the owner of RetirementJobs.com, she also identifies similar sites for helping connect older workers and employers that may want to hire them.

[RetirementJobs.com] certifies employers as ``age friendly" before they can post job vacancies by requiring firms to fill out a survey of a dozen questions about their recruiting practices, training, benefits, pay, and corporate culture. The human resource departments of companies whose answers indicate a genuine interest in hiring older workers must participate in another round of interviews, conducted by RetirementJobs.com's 12-member staff, to establish that their firms offer benefits and flexible scheduling options that appeal to older workers.

Source: The Boston Globe "RetirementJobs.com website caters to those who aren't ready to retire" (September 11, 2006)

United Kingdom: Unions Endorse End to Mandatory Retirement

The Trades Union Congress conference backed a motion to amend the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations to stop people over 65 being fired because of their age. Under the age regulations that come into effect in October, older workers will have new rights in employment, but over 65s can still be forced to retire against their wishes and employers will still be able to refuse to hire someone over 65.

Sally Hunt, joint general secretary, University and College Union said: "All workers, regardless of their age, should be treated with respect and be fully protected by employment rights. It is the role of the union to fight for those rights and to protect their members. Today unions have sent a clear message that they will not stand for age discrimination."

Source: AgeConcern News Release (September 14, 2006)

Canada: Retired Persons Association Becoming Advocate for Hiring Older Workers

Daniel Drolet, in his weekly Ottawa Citizen column on retailing, writes about how hiring older workers may be the solution to the growing labor shortage for retail businesses. Judy Cutler, director of government relations for CARP, says "We have older workers who want to work. Why not embrace their expertise?"

In many ways, retail sales jobs seem perfect for aging workers who crave social interaction, don't want a full-time job, like the idea of being able to leave for a few months to go south in winter, and who, if they have pensions, don't necessarily have to worry about the benefits.

However, Ms. Cutler says embracing older workers is going to require a change in attitude on the part of employers.

"People still have trouble getting jobs because of their age," she said, adding that these days, an older worker is anyone over the age of 45. "We hear from people who are cutting their resumes in half to make it look like they are not old enough to have done everything they have done."

CARP now devotes part of its website to helping older workers find jobs. "We're not advocating for mandatory employment," said Ms. Cutler. "We don't expect that all older workers will want to work. But I'd like to see more inter-generational interaction and activity. I think it's part of a holistic approach to accepting the aging population.

Source: Ottawa (CA) Citizen "Older workers could be new answer to labour shortage" (September 15, 2006)

Accomodating Older Workers: Health & Safety

Writing in the Occupational Health & Safety publication of the Alberta, Canada, Human Resources & Employment department, Nordahl Flakstad focuses on what smart employers are thinking about how they can actively recruit and retain older workers.

Typically, an employer needs only to introduce minor and inexpensive adjustments to working environments and procedures to better accommodate older employees. employees. For example, there may need to be changes to lighting, the positioning of workstations or tool and equipment design.

In addition to providing some quick guides for work site accomodations with respect to vision and lighting, hearing and sound, and griop and handling, the article also references "Safe and Healthy: A Guide to Managing an Aging Workforce," a 44-page booklet developed by Alberta Human Resources and Employment to help managers and supervisors, some of whom are decades younger than their older employees, to better appreciate and respond to the challenges faced by aging workers.

Source: Alberta (CA) Occupational Health & Safety "Accomodating the Aging Workforce" (September 2006)

Corporate Practice: How One Company Uses the Older Worker Advantage

Vita Needle Company in Needham, Massachusetts, describes how 95% of its 35 workers in production are part-time senior citizens. An interview with three of the seniors and with a senior manager shows how the company manages to be productive, while allowing, for example, workers to pretty much set their own hours.

Source: TheMatureMarket.com "The Older Worker Advantage: Making the Most of an Aging Workforce" (September 13, 2006)

U.S. Labor Department Releases 2006 National Saver Summit Report

The U.S. Department of Labor has released the final report of the 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings. The report, entitled Saving for Your Golden Years: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities identifies barriers to retirement savings confronting low-income workers, small business employees, new entrants to the workforce, and individuals nearing retirement. The summit delegates, who met in March 2006, worked on action plans for target populations to raise awareness about retirement planning and offer new programs, policies and ideas to help them adequately save for retirement.

With respect to the challenges faced by workers nearing retirement, delegates came up with a number of suggestions for programs to heighten awareness of possibly inadequate savings, improve older workers’ ability to catch up on savings, take measures to deal with rising healthcare costs, and facilitate phased retirement. Among these were:

• Lifetime Accumulation: Change the tax code that limits tax-deferred annual contributions to retirement
  savings accounts to lifetime limits on contributions.
  
• Change Rules to Reflect Shifting Paradigms: Establish regulations to incorporate some of the best
  features of defined benefit plans—-automatic enrollment, default options—-into defined contribution plans.
  
• Product Bundling: Remove the regulatory impediments to bundling products like annuities and long-term care insurance.
  
• Flexible Work Training (for Managers): Provide training to managers who are willing to hire seniors, focusing on the design, implementation, and appropriate target audiences of flexible work arrangements.
  
• Retiree Health Security: Offer retirees greater financial security by providing protection against two of the biggest threats to retirement security: runaway healthcare costs and gaps in retiree healthcare coverage caused by bankrupt, closed, or
  financially strapped businesses that discontinue or reduce retiree health benefits.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor News Release (September 7, 2006)

American Management Association Identifies Corporate Concerns about Aging Workforce

The September 2006 issue of the American Management Associations's Moving Ahead includes an article by Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., reporting on the results of an extensive Leadership Pulse study focusing on the "AWF"--the "aging workforce." The survey found that of 369 respondents--from general managers to C-level executives, 43% report that an AWF will affect their organizational culture, only 24% did not; in addition, 42% felt the AWF would affect the quality of their talent, while 26% reported little or no concern of this.

And after reviewing the qualitative data, the researchers identified three major areas of concern:

• Culture Change--"some view this as a strategic opportunity to reshape their organizational culture in a new and desirable direction."
  
• Knowledge Gap--"As older employees leave, their talent, knowledge, deep relationships and extensive, on-the-job training exits with them. These are elements that simply cannot be replaced through the hiring of recent college graduates."
  
• Leadership Gap--"Respondents were also concerned about the loss of leadership knowledge, skills and abilities." However, again, others view upside of the situation, by bringing a welcome opportunity for new leadership.

Source: American Management Associaton "Strategies for Dealing with the Challenges and Opportunities of America’s Aging Workforce" (September 2006)

Survey: US Labor Department Employee Tenure Data Shows Job Tenure Lengthens with Age

The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.0 years in January 2006, unchanged from January 2004, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Not surprisingly, older workers tend to have more years of tenure than their younger counterparts: median tenure for employees ages 55 to 64 was 9.3 years in January 2006, about three times the tenure for workers ages 25 to 34 (2.9 years).

Information on employee tenure has been obtained from supplemental questions in the Current Population Survey (CPS). every 2 years since 1996In data As would also be expected, a larger percentage of older workers than younger workers had 10 or more years of tenure. For example, among wage and salary workers ages 55 to 59, about half were employed for 10 years or more with their current employer, while among workers ages 30 to 34, about 11% have 10 or more years of tenure, and for workers ages 25 to 29, the proportion was about 2%.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics News Release 06-1563 (September 8, 2006)