Public Partnerhsip Releases Survey and Teams with IBM To Launch Initiative To Lure Older Workers to Federal Employment

The Partnership for Public Service and IBM have launched an initiative to help match government’s critical hiring needs with the talents of baby boomers looking for encore careers where they can find interesting and challenging work. The initiative--"FedExperience Transitions to Government"--is a response to the hard hit the federal government is taking in the war for talent, as more than one-third of the full-time permanent federal workforce gets ready to retire or leave in the next five years.

As a pilot initiative with the U.S. Department of Treasury, the goal of IBM and the Partnership is to identify, recruit, and hire interested IBM employees and retirees and match them to key federal government jobs.

“FedExperience is a win-win-win,” said Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service president. “Boomers get their second career where they can find meaningful work, our government gets the talent it needs to fill looming shortages and the American people get a government that has the talent to service its people.”

At the same itme, the Partnership released a report that lays out the case for, and barriers to, connecting baby boomers with federal job opportunities. Findings of "A Golden Opportunity: Recruiting Baby Boomers Into Government" include:

• Older, experienced workers are planning to continue working: 71% of workers age 55–59 reported they plan to work for at least six years; 29% for 11 years or more.
• Old workers’ skills align with government’s talent needs.
• Older workers are interested in government service: 53% of older workers surveyed are at least somewhat interested in federal government work.
• Experienced workers who enter government service like it.

Source: Partnership for Public Service News Release (January 17, 2008)

IBM, Universities Collaborate on Technology Tools to Assist Older Workers

IBM has announced that it is collaborating with researchers at the University of Dundee School of Computing (UK) and the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine to develop open source software technology tools to accommodate the needs of older workers to help them adapt to and remain productive in the changing workplace of the 21st century. In particular, the focus is to support maturing workers who have age-related disabilities by finding new ways to increase their comfort level and ability to use technology, to develop and integrate structures, systems, tools, and processes that facilitate the inclusion of more people, irrespective of their age, abilities or personal challenges.

"This collaboration is a superb opportunity for the group in Dundee to apply our wide experience of research with older people, and of developing better ways of accessing technology, in an exciting new transatlantic partnership with IBM and the Miller Medical School in Miami," said Professor Peter Gregor, Head of the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. "The open source focus makes the challenges particularly rewarding because it means that knowledge gained and systems developed will be available freely to the people who need them and to other developers."

Source: IBM Press Release (November 18, 2007)

IBM Changes U.S. Pension Plans Effective in 2008

IBM has announced that it has changed its U.S. defined benefit pension plans and that it plans to redesign its 401(k) savings plan, effective in January 2008. Specifically, as part of IBM's global strategy of shifting the future focus of retirement benefits toward the more predictable cost structure of a 401(k), IBM plans include:

• stopping the accrual of future benefits in the company's defined benefit pension plans, and fully preserving all retirement benefits that employees will have earned as of December 31, 2007;
• redesigning its 401(k) savings plan by giving current pension plan participants an annual company-funded contribution of as much as 10 percent of their pay;
• assisting nonexempt pension equity plan participants to save more by providing an annual special savings award of 5 percent of pay to their 401(k) savings plan;and
• ensuring 100 percent employee participation in the 401(k) savings plan by opening accounts for employees who do not contribute to the plan, and annually depositing the automatic company contribution of 1 to 4 percent of their pay directly into these employees' accounts.

Source: News Release IBM (January 5, 2006)

IBM Unveils Portfolio of Accessibility Technologies

At its annual PartnerWorld Conference, IBM introduced a range of solutions and developers' tools that open up the Internet and other information technology to the aging workforce and people with disabilities. Among other things, IBM demonstrated n is its talking Web browser, the Home Page Reader version 3.04, a tool for developers to test Web pages for accessibility early in the prototype and design stage as well as after the content or application has been deployed. Among the products designed to help businesses meet both growing regulatory requirements and the needs of employees and customers who are elderly, IBM specifically points out that seniors and first-time Internet users appreciate the simple user interface provided by IBM's "Easy Web Browsing" for computer users who have low vision and can use the mouse. IBM offers more information on IBM's accessibility information technology for employees, customers and Business Partners on its web site.

Source: Press Release IBM (March 2, 2005)