Conference Board To Launch Maturing Workforce Rresearch Initiative.

A grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies USA, Inc. is enabling the Conference Board to launch a three-year program to study the inclusion and engagement of late-career workers in corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Specifically, the Board intendes to examine the practices and policies of major employers and business community leaders and related concerns and needs of today's mature workforce and to share promising practices for creating and maintaining a workforce inclusive of all generations.

The maturing workforce initiative at The Conference Board will convene separate Research Working Groups on mature workforce issues in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Marketplace opportunities related to the aging U.S. population will also be addressed in research from the Consumer Research Center at The Conference Board.

The Conference Board work will look at mature workers in two distinct roles-as employees and as potential retirees. It will focus on problems facing mature workers, the costs and value of mature workers, the hidden values of their job satisfaction, the impact of rising healthcare costs on these workers, emerging opportunities from aging consumer markets, prospects for building a better intergenerational workplace, and models for retirement. It intends to create new strategies to help major employers leverage the skills of employees who are late into their careers. The initiative will also periodically issue timely briefings and updates.

Source: Conference Board News Release (June 7, 2006)