KnowHowKM: U.S. Companies Remain Unprepared for loss of Baby Boomers’

According the talent management study, The Pressures of Talent Management, by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work At Boston College, U.S companies are not prepared to deal with the exodus of aging workers.

"The out-migration of an entire generation of workers will upset the entire balance of the workplace... Knee-jerk reactions to today’s challenging economic reality aside, US companies need to start planning strategically for workforce sustainability. The current abundance of older worker talent and experience is going to dry up, and businesses will very soon need to fill hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.” - Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Director of the Sloan Center on Aging & Work and report co-author.

Highlights

• "Four of every 10 employers (40%) surveyed anticipate the aging of the workforce will have a “negative/very negative” impact on their business over the next three years."
• "Two-thirds (68%) of employers surveyed reported not having analyzed the demographics of their workforce (“not at all” or only “to a limited extent”)."
• "77% stated that they have not analyzed the projected retirement rates of their employees (“not at all” or “to a limited extent”)."
• More than half of the employers surveyed (56%) have not assessed the skills that their organizations need (“not at all” or “to a limited extent”)
• Leading employers are coming to realize that ongoing knowledge management is the key to both smooth succession and to positioning their organizations for economic recovery.
• By 2012, adults aged 55+ will constitute 19.1% of the labor force, compared to 15% for those under 25 and 66% of those 25–54 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Toosi, 2004)

“Regardless of which factors are driving an organization’s decision-making, workforce planning is simply good business, because this approach helps to ensure that the right people with the right skills are in the right jobs at the right time,”  - Stephen Sweet, co-investigator of the Talent Management Study

The Pressures of Talent Management (PDF)

"Despite Warnings, U.S. Companies Remain Unprepared for Baby Boomers’ Exodus"- Sloan Center News

Sloan Center on Aging & Work At Boston College

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