July 12, 2006

The new wisdom: Persuade older workers to stay

Managing Books: Ideas

By Harvey Schachter

The new wisdom: Persuade older workers to stay

HARVEY SCHACHTER

Workforce Crisis

By Ken Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson, and Robert Morison

Harvard Business School Press, $40.95

Companies know how to shed mature workers through early retirement programs. Many have been doing that, almost instinctively, during the past 15 years, whenever they hit a bump in the road. But they will have to learn the opposite instinct, how to persuade older workers to stay on the job, if they want to avoid a coming work force crisis.

That's the argument of three consultants -- Ken Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson and Robert Morison -- who say that a shift in the age distribution of the general population means we'll soon run out of sufficient workers. From 2000 to 2020, the normal working age population of 20- to 64-year-olds in Canada will grow by only 16 per cent, less than 1 per cent a year, and, in the following 30 years, the expectation is that it will stay essentially stable.

Although companies are exporting some jobs through outsourcing, we can expect to have too few work force entrants to replace the labour, skills and talent of the baby boomers set to retire in coming years. The number of workers nearing retirement is staggering: Employers should be planning for a doubling of the proportion of workers 55 and older in coming years, and their imminent retirement unless prevailing practices change.

"Companies will need mature workers soon enough -- well before the end of the decade in most industries in developed countries," the authors observe. "Older workers as well as the already retired will become a key source of your skilled labour. In sectors such as petroleum and aerospace engineering, the impending skills shortage is only a year or two away; in others, such as health care, it's already here."

That will mean developing a reputation as an employer of choice for mature workers, which won't happen overnight. Companies will need to adjust their policies and practices for hiring and retiring, cultivating an environment that clearly welcomes and values mature workers. "We recommend starting now, climbing the learning curve, and branding your enterprise as truly multigenerational," the consultants say.

Instead of early-retirement programs, they recommend thinking about the end of retirement. You need to open new recruitment channels to find mature workers and offer them attractive employment deals, while rooting out the entrenched age biases that exist in most companies.

Instead of being preoccupied with advertising a job opening on the Internet, start thinking of placing notices on bulletin boards in elderhostels, seniors centres, country clubs, and retirement communities. Check those ads to make sure you aren't unconsciously biased to youth with words such as "high energy" and "fresh thinking," instead of "knowledge" and "expertise."

Similarly, review your candidate screening and interviewing techniques to ensure that they fit mature workers, who may not feel comfortable in interviews building something with Lego or answering obscure questions.

The authors cite one British bank that realized its psychometric and verbal-reasoning tests intimidated older candidates, and opted instead for role-playing exercises to gauge candidates' abilities to handle customers. Britain's largest building society now develops short lists through telephone interviews to reduce the chances that applicants will be rejected because they look older.

Companies will also have to implement flexible retirement policies, allowing older staff to adjust their roles and schedules as they approach age 65 and move past it. The authors call retirement at 65 a "quaint, 20th Century custom," born of economic necessity in the Great Depression, that needs to be junked. Many boomers would prefer to continue working after that age, if the company would only provide flexible alternatives, and growing companies likely will have to provide those opportunities to avoid staff shortages.

At the same time, of course, companies will have to recruit -- and keep -- younger people, and meet the needs and reduce the frustrations of mid-career workers. Those issues have drawn more attention in recent years than the boomer retirement issue, and are developed at length in the book, with good explanations of the issues and astute ideas, although I found the more general chapters at the end of the book on shaping the new employment deal uninspiring. The book is also primarily American in perspective, so some of the issues -- such as medical care benefits, or retirement laws -- are different here.

In addition: Famed pollster Daniel Yankelovich has a sensitivity to public opinion and experience on many boards of directors, which he brings together in Profit With Honor: The New Stage of Market Capitalism (Yale University Press, 189 pages, $26.95).

He argues for a new stewardship ethics at the top that improves the company's long-term profitability and advances the broader public good. He distinguishes his approach from corporate social responsibility, since its advocates aren't concerned about profit, and he is jaundiced about regulations to change corporate behaviour, preferring an ethical revolution from within.

It's well-argued and a surprisingly easy-to-read book, given the topic.

Just In: What Would Wally Do? (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 224 pages, $23.95) is the latest compilation of Dilbert cartoons from the wicked pen of Scott Adams.

In Leave Your Nose Ring At Home (Career Press, 224 pages, $19.95), personal development consultant Joe Swinger shows young people how to make a powerful first impression in job interviews.

The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit (Adams, 215 pages, $19.95) by Paula Peters covers issues of interest to small business such as logos, brochures, newsletters, web sites and tag lines.

Harold Evans, author of The American Century, presents a history of two centuries of American innovation in They Made America (Back Bay, 694 pages, $25.95), now out in paperback.

Carmine Gallo, a corporate presentation coach, helps you command attention in 10 Simple Secrets of The World's Greatest Communicators (Sourcebooks, 234 pages, $31.95).