Retiring Baby Boomers Creating Workforce Talent Shortage

Retiring baby boomers are already creating a significant challenge for U.S. employers in certain industries, according to survey findings released today. The survey was jointly conducted by Buck Consultants, an ACS company, WorldatWork, and Corporate Voices for Working Families. The survey, “The Real Talent Debate: Will Aging Boomers Deplete the Workforce?” assessed responses from more than 480 organizations in a broad cross-section of industries.
Forty-two percent of all respondents indicated the aging workforce issue is significant. Of this group, 50% have a majority of mature workers eligible to retire in five to ten years. One-half of respondents in this group also see a current shortage of skilled workers.

The aging workforce is especially critical in the healthcare sector and oil and gas industry, with 66% and 65% of respondents, respectively, citing the issue as a significant challenge. Industries such as manufacturing and technology are less likely (34% and 23%, respectively) to perceive this issue as a significant challenge.
The departure of senior leadership was identified as the greatest potential risk associated with the exodus of mature workers (52%), followed by the departure of middle management (41%), and technical talent and knowledge workers (39%).
“It‚Äôs more than just a problem of not having enough bodies to replace retiring boomers,” said James Sowers, Managing Director of Buck Consultants‚Äô human resource management practice. “The real challenge is transferring their knowledge and talents to succeeding generations of workers.”
Sowers noted that the survey respondents are currently using or planning to institute formal mentoring programs (57%), knowledge gap analyses (69%), and intergenerational work teams (44%) as strategies to address this talent transfer challenge.
However, more than 80% of respondents, regardless of industry, have not surveyed their mature workers to determine future work preferences or intentions. Forty-two percent have not even identified who is responsible in their organization for knowledge transfer and knowledge management.
“Solving the problems posed by the aging workforce is going to require out-of-the-box thinking,” said Ryan Johnson, Director of Public Affairs for WorldatWork. “We need to get rid of the idea that retirement is freedom from all work, and change it to the notion of retirement as freedom to do different kinds of work.”
To address retention of retirement-eligible workers, 48% of respondents currently offer flexible work schedules and 23% plan to adopt them. Forty-two percent currently offer consulting assignments to older workers. Forty-seven percent offer or are considering phased retirement, and 43% offer or are considering alternative job design.
Other key survey findings include:

• Cost increases associated with knowledge and skills transfer resulting from the loss of aging workers are perceived as being highly significant by 62% of respondents.
• Aging workers want to remain in the workforce because of financial reasons (93%). Correspondingly, benefits are reported to be the most impactful aspect of job quality (86%).
• While mature workers are valued for their knowledge, reliability, and dedication (74%), more than 50% percent of respondents reported they do not proactively pursue mature workers in recruiting.