The Weil Perspective
Lessons From Kilimanjaro
By James Weil, Managing Director – Successful Aging

I recently returned from a trip to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the continent’s tallest freestanding mountain. And even though I had read a lot about climbing, spoken to others who had made the climb, and trained hard, I knew my actual experience would be unique to me and quite personal. I was right. Kilimanjaro tested me in every possible way—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Upon “summiting” the mountain, exhausted and exhilarated, I looked down at its base, nearly 20,000 feet away, and was struck by a realization that is at once absurdly simple and deeply profound:

You climb big mountains in one way and one way only. By making slow, steady progress.

I believe the same could be said about the business challenges posed by America’s aging workforce. The best way to summit these challenges is to take a measured approach consisting of slow, steady steps. After all, the aging of the workforce is arguably the Kilimanjaro of Human Resources issues, as it will increasingly impact every aspect of HR in the coming years: recruiting and retention, benefits and compensation, diversity training, work/life, etc.

Here are a few of the measured steps that all employers should consider when approaching their own aging workforce challenges:

Step 1. Commit to dealing with the aging of your workforce as a strategic workforce management issue.

As employees age, their values, work goals, personal needs, hopes and fears all shift in important ways. As a result, they present an entirely different set of workforce management issues than younger employees do. They won’t be motivated by the same incentives, for example. Older employees might become more “reliable” over time (e.g., absent less often than younger workers), yet they might seem more resistant to change. They’ll likely become increasingly dependent on your HR staff for information (e.g., pension and long-term medical information). None of these issues are insurmountable. But they do require that you think about your aging workforce strategically. “Baby Boomers” account for over a third of the nation’s current workforce, and roughly 76 million of them are now entering mid-life. That makes the aging of the workforce a strategic issue for everybody.

Step 2. Develop a plan that involves all of the appropriate departments and functions in your organization.

Keep in mind that conquering your organization’s aging workforce issues must be a team undertaking. While the responsibility for dealing with these issues might ultimately rest with Human Resources, it’s the organization as a whole that is affected by and must make progress on these issues. Unless you coordinate your efforts as a team, you’ll never reach your goals.

A useful way to begin sketching out your plan is to ask yourself some key questions. Is there a clear, shared understanding of the aging workforce management issues your organization faces? To successfully scale these issues, what changes in benefits, compensation or other HR practices might be appropriate? Who should be involved in creating these changes … from which departments and divisions … at what point should they be involved? How should your efforts be communicated with employees? The list goes on.

The point is a detailed plan of attack will be essential to successfully summit your particular workforce challenges. Your plan should anticipate how best to retain valued employees who might be considering early retirement, just as it will need to address how to make early retirement an attractive option to less effective employees. Toyota recently offered early retirement to several hundred employees, positioning “retirement” as a time for people to take charge of their lives more fully than ever before and freely explore their options. The company also gave employees the tools and information necessary to do so, along with the usual financial and benefit information offered in a retirement program. Toyota’s strategic planning and well-thought-out approach paid off: by appealing directly to the sensibilities of their older employees (50 and above), the company achieved 175 percent of its target for the offering.

Step 3: Keep your options open where retirees are concerned.

According to a host of experts, including U.S. Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, a severe labor shortage will hit American business within the next 10 years. In fact, some sectors are already feeling its effects. In a recent survey of 2,700 Human Resources professionals, conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 62 percent of those surveyed said their companies had already rehired retirees as consultants.

Retirees are an experienced corps of workers that can be tapped if and when necessary. And they can be used in a variety of capacities—as full-time, part-time or seasonal workers, for example, or as mentors for younger workers and new hires. They can also be used as lobbyists, grass-roots campaigners and advocates in their local communities. Older employees possess in-depth company knowledge and are often extremely dedicated to their work since their responsibilities as parents are behind them. Maintaining a relationship with these seasoned resources is a low-cost, high-return proposition.

The aging of your workforce will create important strategic challenges for your organization but they don’t have to be insurmountable. Take it from someone who has been to the mountaintop … slow, steady progress is the only way to go.