A DIFFERENT WORLD
In decades past companies were able to examine reams of information about employment practices from dozens of sources. Hundreds of regulations, interpretations and acceptable procedures directed the way companies operated. Increasing benefit costs, healthcare, compensation and dozens of new laws and entitlements changed the way business was done. It was a complex set of procedures but there was some order. Government studied, cataloged and offered some fixes to cope with most employment problems and businesses complied. There was always a steady stream of younger workers entering the workforce.
TODAY IT’S DIFFERENT. Companies are making wholesale changes in the way they do business. Looming questions about the new regulations, banking controls, the healthcare legislation and hundreds of other economic issues force companies to sit tight and proceed slowly. New business models are being created to compete in a world that is changing rapidly. Inventories, production schedules, marketing, distribution channels, employee compensation, benefits and even the kinds of jobs offered are being scrutinized in order to compete in the ever expanding international marketplce. Companies are reinventing themselves every day. Many of the standards practices used in the past won’t, or can’t, work today. Critical to any company today is an aging workforce and a limited supply of younger workers making many of the usual recruitment tools once used almost obsolete.
Seasoned workers, 50 and older, are struggling to find new opportunities for work. They do this through a complex set of activities that include learning more about technology, considering other careers and even reinventing themselves. Two or three decades ago they answered help wanted ads and maybe even had a resume. They looked for careers and expected long term employment to provide income, an identity and a future.
For many seasoned workers in the 21st Century job security has been shaken by the worst recession in their lifetimes. They've lost jobs and found themselves in a much different world. Finding a job is a new experience. Technology is forced on them. They are a generation who may not have the necessary skills needed by employers. The Internet, something new and astounding, complicated by unusual technologies is much different than the technologies they have used in past employment.
The new technologies are being learned at an amazing rate by seasoned workers. They learn differently. Every detail learned needs to go through a complex problem solving process developed over years of practice. Put the new, learned technology skills with the seasoned worker's ability to solve problems and employers benefit with an expanded selection of reliable workers.
THE LOST OF IDENTITY: There’s an unpleasant loneliness people face when important parts of their lives disappear. Even the retired person loses their identity and soon discovers that some new activity is needed to restore healthy, productive living habits and a new sense of self. Work has always been the catalyst, it enrichs lives and gives each day more meaning.
What the world is discovering is the emergence of very healthy, well educated and reliable older worker who is not yet ready for traditional retirement and the “Golden Years”. Couple the availability of these seasoned workers with the shrinking supply of younger workers, and companies may very well have the best selection of reliable, gifted employees ever. According to the US Department of Labor the average career today will last 3.7 years. How many careers could a healthy, well educated 50, 60 or even 70 year old still have? How might they help in a company?
REINVENTION: Climbing out of the current recession is going to require reinvention by companies and their employees. Employees will have to adapt to new technologies. Companies have to update and modify business models to accommodate their most important resource – their employees. These are new opportunities to achieve even more progress and growth. Adapting to the reliable, seasoned employee is a necessity, and a bonus at the same time – but some concessions are necessary.
Many companies are evaluating their employment packages. New, more creative offerings to employees are not only necessary, but critical if they want the brightest and best. The long battle over healthcare will continue but it marks the beginning of the end of a system that has had workers settling for a job just because of health insurance. The 21st Century workforce will also include many people who have the benefits of Medicare. Worker movement from job to job will be increased leaving companies fewer options to retain employees. Companies will have to offer new compensation and employment packages to retain and attract reliable people.