Retrain or Rehire--A Workforce Dilemma
Based on an article in the March 2004 Harvard Business Review, most baby boomers want or need to continue working past “traditional” retirement age. The question is: “Will they want to work for you?”
If this segment of the workforce leaves your organization, they take a strong work ethic and a high level of institutional knowledge that is not easily replaced or grown overnight. They have experience that can help the organization grow, weather tough times, and serve as mentors to younger employees. However, in many corporations, older employees are not given training and development opportunities that allow them to add to their skill base.
If your organization is expecting a large number of retirements in the near future, you may want to consider some of these retention strategies and activities:
• Make mentoring a formal component of their job description
• Offer “Boomers” the full range of training and development opportunities rather than assuming
they will be leaving
• Institute a knowledge transfer program to glean their experience
• Modify retirement and benefits packages to make them more flexible
• Allow for a reduction of hours over time or use project based assignments
• Consider job-sharing options
• Look at all human resources practices to ensure they reward and value experience and skills (e.g., recruiting, selection, performance management, succession planning, and compensation).
If you would like to learn more about succession planning or retention strategies, please contact Kammy Haynes.
Making Selection Part of Your Process Improvments
A client recently indicated that he did not think their selection system worked anymore. This was intriguing since it had been validated and re-validated. He said that the department had been re-organized, training had changed and people were being evaluated and compensated on a different set of metrics. Performance on these metrics was not highly correlated with test scores. Therefore, the tests must be broken.
It's important to understand the interdependency of your organizational and HR systems. It's a good bet that system and process changes will require a close examination the effectiveness of your selection system(s). Think of it as another important piece of the puzzle.
For more information on updating your selection procedures, contact Warren Bobrow.
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