Over the next few years, the aging population will lead to a 'retirement tsunami', with millions of baby boomers leaving the workforce within two decades. In Australia, the ratio of employed persons to retirees will be cut almost in half, falling from 5 to 2.5 workers for every retired individual, according to Treasury data. In the US, "baby boomers in a big lump are leaving the labor force," according to Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor. In short, there won't be enough new talent entering the workforce to keep up with those leaving it.
Boomers
Posts Tagged Boomers
It is hard to go on line and not read an article, blog, post or tweet on Millennials. There is, if you will, Millennial mania.
It is true that Millennial employees are now about 1/3 of the workforce and that percentage is rapidly growing. But even I can figure out the math on this one: 2/3 of the workforce is composed of non-Millennials. There is another way to describe them: older employees.
On April 2, We Know Next chatted with the Executive Director of the SHRM Foundation, Mark Schmit on "The Aging Workforce."
In case you missed it, here are all the tweets from the chat:
The U.S. workforce – like that of many countries around the world – is aging. HR professionals and other business leaders are understandably growing increasingly concerned with how they will replace these exiting workers, especially those with high in-demand skills and education.
There has been lots of talk lately that companies are increasingly looking to hire older workers. But, which types of employers are actually doing the hiring and what kinds of jobs are they filling?
One way to answer those questions is by taking a close look at AARP’s recently released list of the 50 best employers for workers over 50. They are firms and organizations with programs to help retain, retrain and recruit older workers.

Aaron Kesher, Principal Consultant for deepSee Consulting, explains how organizations can flourish by leveraging a workforce with a wide range of age groups.
Shaken by the realities of the Great Recession, American workers have adjusted their visions of retirement, according to the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey released in May 2012 by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. And most said they would switch jobs for a better retirement plan.
The growing problem of long-term unemployment among older workers in the U.S. was the focus of a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on May 15, 2012. The hearing coincided with the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) release of a report that found the number of workers age 55 and older who have been unemployed more than six months has doubled since the recession began in late 2007.
"Every generation needs a new revolution.” – Thomas Jefferson
On May 16 at 3 p.m. ET, We Know Next conducted a lively and insightful #NextChat discussion on "Creating Generational Engagement with Reverse Mentoring" with Next Official Blogger, Microsoft's Ross Smith and his reverse mentor Prem Kumar.
Ross and Prem shared their experiences with reverse mentoring and explained how leaders should think differently about managing multiple age groups.
“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” – George Orwell
When your alarm goes off each morning, and you roll out of bed to schlep off to work, you are entering a community that’s unprecedented in human history (even if it doesn’t feel that way on a Monday).
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. - George Orwell
Mentee perspective – Ross
I am 48 years old and started working on software before my mentor, Prem, was born. Prem’s research on Gen Y was intriguing, particularly his
recommendations around reverse mentoring, and I asked if he would be MY mentor a few years back.
Note: This series is based on the paper My Generation.
Generational and life-stage issues affect us both consciously and subconsciously every single day.
A survey by Lee and Hecht Harrison tells us that “70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers’ abilities and nearly half of younger employees are dismissive of the abilities of their older co-workers”.
Despite improvements in the U.S. economy, the hangover effect from the 2008-09 recession and slow economic growth continue to erode employees’ retirement confidence and overall financial wellness, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers 2012 Financial Wellness Survey.
Employees’ financial stress remains high: Overall, 61 percent of employees find dealing with their financial situation stressful, and more than half (56 percent) reported that their stress level related to financial issues had increased over the past 12 months.
“We know caregiving is associated with loss of retention, reduced productivity and higher stress,” said Drew Holzapfel, director of global commercial development at Pfizer Inc. This impacts caregivers’ wages, Social Security and pension benefits over the course of their career at a time when they need to be saving for their own retirement, he explained. Additionally, it impacts organizations as they experience a loss of talent.
There is an explosion happening all around us. We are getting grayer as a society - much grayer. As a result, organizations are faced with a diversity-related challenge. Younger managers, on a much broader level than ever before, are finding themselves in the position of having to supervise older subordinates.