By Mark Miller | June 21, 2018
The
demographic trend is no secret: the populations of the United States and other
major industrial countries are getting older, and fast. That means workforces
are aging too, but employers are doing surprisingly little to prepare to meet
the challenges or adapt to employees’ needs.
In the
United States, the 65-and-over population will nearly double over the next
three decades to 88 million by 2050 from 48 million, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau.
By
2024, one in four U.S. workers will be 55 or older, according to the U.S.
Department of Labor, more than double the rate in 1994 when 55-plus workers
accounted for just 12 percent of the workforce.
Many
workers will face a financial need to keep working past traditional retirement
ages, while others will want to work in order to stay engaged, notes Jonathan
Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of “The Happiness
Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50.”
“People
are getting to their sixties with another 15 years of productive life ahead,
and this is turning out to be the most emotionally-rewarding part of life,”
Rauch said. “They don’t want to just hang it up and just play golf. That model
is wrong.”
A survey
of human resource professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management in
2016 revealed a short-term mindset along with a lack of urgency among employers
in assessing and planning for aging workforce.
Just 35
percent of U.S. companies have analyzed the near-term impact of the departure
of older workers and just 17 percent have considered longer-term impactions
over the next decade, according to the survey.
Most
employers do not have a process for assessing the impact beyond one or two
years, and the majority said they do not actively recruit older workers at all.
Alex
Alonso, senior vice president of knowledge development at Society for Human
Resource Management, thinks employers have sharpened their focus in this area
since the survey was conducted.
“In
most boardrooms, there is urgency around the topic these days, but the
conversation is around how to sustain the enterprise, with a focus on how to
manage a multi-generational workforce,” Alonso said.
Age
discrimination, while difficult to prove, persists. Yet research over the past
decade has gone a long way toward debunking stereotypes about older workers –
that they are less productive and energetic, and less able to learn or solve
problems.
But the
bias continues.
Forty-one
percent of companies around the world surveyed by Deloitte Consulting said they
considered aging of their workforces a competitive disadvantage. The finding
varied by country.
“It’s
somewhat of a cultural issue,” said Josh Bersin, a principal at the consulting
firm.
Employers
such as Deloitte Consulting are starting to wake up to the issues as the labor
market tightens, Bersin said. “I spend a lot of time with human resource
departments around the world, and they are starting to realize that one of best
talent pools they can recruit from are the people they already have.”
Alternative Careers
Leading-edge
employers are starting to think about creating alternative career routes for
older workers that feature more flexible assignments and schedules, creating
opportunities for them to mentor younger workers and offering phased
retirement.
Deloitte,
for example, now has a new set of professional career paths available for
employees who are not on the track to become partners but have important
specialized knowledge.
Among
major manufacturers, automaker BMW is often cited as an innovator in valuing
the skills and experience of older workers. The company has implemented changes
to its production lines aimed at improving ergonomics of its work environment
and promoting age-neutral language in the workplace.
The
Columbia Aging Center at the Mailman School of Public Health in New York City
has been honoring “age smart” employers for the past three years. Winning
companies actively recruit and promote older workers, provide flexible work
schedules and mentorship opportunities.
For
example, one company honored this year, accounting firm PKF O’Connor Davies,
actively hires older accountants when other firms compel them to retire. Of the
firm’s 700 workers, more than 250 are over age 50. The firm offers flexible
work options, including shorter work weeks.
“We’re
definitely seeing growing concern about the drain of human capital among larger
companies, and interest in new models for older workers that retain them
longer,” said Linda Fried, dean of the Mailman School and head of the school’s
Aging Center.
Fried
acknowledges that some employers worry about the higher compensation and
healthcare costs associated with older workers. She has proposed changing
Medicare’s rules to accept older workers, allowing them to shift away from
employer health plans. Other researchers have proposed incentivizing employers
by creating a 40-year cap on the total years of work requiring payroll tax
contributions to Social Security.
Changing
attitudes also will be important.
“There
is a lot more talk in business circles about the human capital value of older
workers, but we’re still in early innings,” said Paul Irving, chairman of the
Center for the Future of Aging at the Milken Institute. “It takes time for
things to percolate.”
(Reporting
by Mark Miller Editing by Lauren Young and Matthew Lewis)
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