A new study warns that employers around the world are facing a critical loss of talent over the next decade as baby boomers retire.
That loss of experienced workers, Manpower Inc. warns, could be crippling for companies.
"Our population is aging rapidly, birth rates are declining and employers need to start asking where their workers are going to come from in the future," said Lori Rogers, Manpower's Canadian vice-president of operations.
The Manpower survey of 28,000 employers across 25 countries, including 1,300 in Canada, found just over two-thirds have no plan to recruit or retain older workers. Among Canadian firms, only 17 per cent said they have recruitment plans aimed at older workers and 24 per cent have strategies to keep their most senior employees.
Keeping the workers with the most experience is a thorny problem, Rogers said, because they're also the staff financially most able to retire.
The secret, she said, is flexibility, including part-time or contract work, and more telecommuting. Spicing up that recipe, she added, is the need for continuous training and early retirement incentives for those whose skills are no longer needed.
"Savvy employers are going to find ways to keep these people, otherwise your intellectual capital is going to go out the door," Rogers said.
Naresh Agarwal, of McMaster's DeGroote business school, said the Manpower study points again to a problem that has been looming for Canadian firms for many years.
"Many sectors of our economy are facing a human resources shortage now, and it's going to get worse if the current situation isn't changed," he said. "With the population trends we have in this country, this issue is going to continue to be a problem. And older workers are becoming a very important source of additional labour."
Today, he noted, the average retirement age of a worker is between 61 and 62, compared to 65 just a few years ago.
Flexibility, he added, is a critical way of appealing to this group.
"If the only choice is between working zero hours and 40 hours, then many older workers are going to choose to quit," he said.
Research by Statistics Canada has shown a willingness by older workers to stay in the paid labour force longer.
In 2005, the agency reported 68 per cent of men aged 55 to 64 had jobs, up from 59 per cent in 1998. Among women the number was 51 per cent, compared with 41 per cent six years earlier.
Jobs companies will find most difficult to fill
in the future:
1/ Sales Representatives
2/ Skilled Manual Trades (primarily carpenters, welders and plumbers)
3/ Technicians (primarily production/operations, engineering and maintenance)
4/ Engineers
5/ Accountants
6/ Labourers
7/ Production Operators
8/ Drivers
9/ Management/Executives
10/ Machinists/Operators
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 24, 2007)
(Source: Manpower Talent Shortage Survey 2007, 2007 Hot Jobs
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