The Integrity News
Vol. XIV No. 8
ISSN 1081-2717
"objective risk management services"
October 27, 2005
The oldest baby boomers will be eligible for Social
Security in the next 24 months. Companies are
worried about losing the boomer's experience,
people skills, work ethic, understanding of what it
takes to get the job done, and ability to train younger
workers. Many baby boomers are these companies'
best and brightest employees.
Leading edge companies are worrying now about
preserving their "corporate knowledge" and they
are trying various techniques to pass knowledge
on to the younger workers.
Several years ago we pointed out that by the end
of this decade, the U.S. will have a labor shortage
of up to 10 million workers. We reminded our
readers then, that any new workers for the next two
decades had already been born. Companies that
are accustomed to being able to "find someone new",
have not begun focusing on this impending labor shortage.
Employers that do see the coming problem are
devising flexible working arrangements, providing
medical and dental insurance benefits to part time
workers, offering long-term care insurance, and
allowing employees to gradually reduce their hours
as they move into retirement.
Mature workers often want to keep working but
at a pace that is ratcheted back from a full time
position. These workers want the health insurance
benefits as much as they want the paycheck.
Some companies with multiple locations even allow
certain categories of employees to transfer between
locations so that they can realize better weather
conditions and possibly even spend time living
near friends or relatives. Other companies, where
possible, are building their schedules around
employee's needs. Some companies are already
toiling hard to retain their experienced workers.
The majority of workers would like to reduce the
number of hours they work as they ease into
retirement. And, a significant number would like
to continue to work if they could have a reduced
schedule.
You should be planning for this mass loss of
talent. You should also be thinking of how you
are going to select and train their replacements.
The Integrity Center, Inc. has been enhancing its
recruiting, background checking, employee file, and
payroll systems to accommodate the new flexibility
that our clients will need, and the increased number
of part-time workers that they will have.
To discuss handling this employment sea change,
feel free to call
The Integrity Center, Inc.
at (972) 484-6140.
Helping you with
your Risk Management and HR Automation is what we do.
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