UPI

June 17, 2005

 

Chamber of Commerce weighs in on retirement

By Andrew Damstedt

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has recommended four ways to redesign public policies to accommodate a maturing workforce and retirees.

Speakers at the "Voice of Business on the Mature Workforce" forum this week discussed the challenges facing the United States as older workers become the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. The recommendations will be presented at the December White House Conference on Aging.

"This is a great opportunity for the business community to come together and help design policy for the restructuring of our workforce," said Susan Meisinger, president of the Society for Human Resources Management.

The four recommendations that will be sent to the White House are:

-- allowing greater flexibility in retirement plan design and management;

-- removing unnecessary rules and regulations in the private pension system;

-- developing phased retirement programs, and

-- creating a bipartisan commission to address the issue of mature workers.

Dorcas Hardy, chairman of the White House Conference On Aging Policy Committee, said one goal of the conference is to assess how best to use the abilities of the older workforce, which consists of the 78 million baby boomers and 40 million seniors. The first early wave of baby boomer retirees will come in 2008 when they reach age 62.

"The big picture (for the conference) we are concerned about flexibility and interested in receiving ideas on how to be flexible, also disincentives that exist and how to overcome them and incentives that employers should consider providing," Hardy told United Press International.

Randy Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told UPI the business community has been overlooked at the White House Conference on Aging in the past and the forum was a purposeful attempt by the White House to obtain input from the business community.

"There is a long road between designing the recommendations and getting them implemented," Johnson said. "Start with the ideas we have to move forward. It takes a while."

He did not see the recommendations sparking much opposition now because of their broad nature, but once they get to the details of the structure -- like defining what burdensome regulations are -- disagreements likely would arise.

"The mega issue is how is the country going to support an older population generally," Johnson said. "The overall issue facing the mature workforce is figuring out incentives to keep people in the workforce who want to work but don't want to work full time."

Ken Dychtwald, president of Age Wave, a firm that advises Fortune 500 companies on mature workers, said the baby boom generation has consistently transformed life stages and consumer trends. He said the "idea of a long life is something we are getting used to" -- a concept that is historic as well.

"The word retirement does not fit with what we are seeing," Dychtwald said.

A 2005 Merrill Lynch study reported baby boomers rejected a life of full-time work or full-time leisure when they retire, but 42 percent said they would like to cycle between periods of work and periods of leisure.

Speakers talked about "unretirement," "recycling" and "phase retirement" as new definitions of retirement and said there must be ways and incentives for businesses to incorporate these ideas to sustain the mature workforce.

"Why not round up an army of elder people to help build our society and world" by creating volunteer opportunities? Dychtwald asked.

"Employers need to be more creative in practices and policies in hiring, training and training older workers," said AARP CEO William Novelli. He said AARP is working with businesses, such as Home Depot and Borders, that have grasped the idea of employing older workers and have policies to fit seasonal schedules, part-time work and phased retirement options.

The U.S. Department of Labor has estimated the number of workers over age 55 in 2012 will grow by 50 percent and 40-year-old workers will make up half the work force.

Deputy Labor Secretary Steven Law said a mature workforce is an important opportunity for the United States to remain competitive in the global economy.

"Mature workers are more reliable and more skilled than younger workers and work without supervision and are more likely to be drug free," said Sara Hart, director of benefits at CNF Corp., a company that transports raw materials to manufacturers.