Alert to Wisconsin's Employers: Are You Ready For The Future?
By Carleen MacKay

Posted on 3/15/07

This Census Department graph fairly screams that the time has arrived for Wisconsin’s employers to determine how to attract, develop and retain the workers who will help Wisconsin build its future—who will help Wisconsin progress toward the time when the youngest generation will be ready to step into our shoes.

Beyond the picture painted by this graph, study after study suggests that Wisconsin will be at the forefront of demographic change in America, and that 50 to 55 year-olds will dominate growth in the working-age population. We cannot rely on immigration alone to meet the need for a highly skilled or educated workforce in America. Rarely is this need fulfilled by first generation immigrants. Nor can we outsource or offshore our future.

Business Leaders: Don’t get caught with your plans down!

1. Do you know what the workforce in your community looks like—by age group?

2. What is the population doing? Are people cashing out and moving away?

3. Do you need to create new ways to work, such as temping, flexible scheduling, telecommuting?

4. Do your recruiters understand the advantages of hiring mature workers? Are they smart enough to see through the myths and biases associated with aging?

5. Are your training and educational programs developed and widely promoted to all employees, regardless of age? (Yes, Virginia…you can teach old dogs new tricks, but you do have to teach them!)

6. Do you offer mentoring services up, down and across organizational boundaries?

7. Have you institutionalized ‘transfer of knowledge’ programs? Is your succession planning real?

8. Have you considered incentives to delay retirement or to make ‘phased retirement’ a reality in your firm? Are you aware of the savings associated with implementing such incentives?

9. Have you introduced specialized career planning for prospective retirees to enable them to contribute by working, in some capacity, long after they leave your company? (Helping people plan for the future is a terrific retention strategy.)

10. Have you created a retiree job bank in order to attract experienced workers for high-priority projects?

Wisconsin’s employers can plan now, and plan smart, by better aligning their organizational goals with what mature workers need and want. It’s that kind of planning that will help ensure Wisconsin’s future.

Carleen MacKay is a Subject Matter Expert of the Mature Workforce at Spehrion