Conference Board Job Satisfaction Survey Finds Older Workers as Dissatisfied as Others

The Conference Board's report on job satisfaction suggests that Americans of all ages and income brackets continue to grow increasingly unhappy at work. However, the Board noted that the extreme dissatisfaction of younger workers could bode ill for multi-generational workforces:

"These numbers do not bode well given the multi-generational dynamics of the labor force," says Linda Barrington, managing director, Human Capital, The Conference Board. "The newest federal statistics show that baby boomers will compose a quarter of the U.S. workforce in eight years, and since 1987 we’ve watched them increasingly losing faith in the workplace." Twenty years ago, some 60 percent of that generation was satisfied with their jobs. Today, that figure is roughly 46 percent. Barrington adds: "The growing dissatisfaction across and between generations is important to address because it can directly impact the quality of multi-generational knowledge transfer-which is increasingly critical to effective workplace functioning."

Interestingly, even if older workers might seem more satisfied, that may be masking some other issues. As one response wrote:

Older workers who are in the age group typically most satisfied with their jobs, aren’t. They stay because the value of their investments and 401(k)s have fallen so far they can’t afford to retire; they have fewer options due to age, and are less likely to relocate for work.

Source: Conference Board News Release (January 5, 2010)

Other Reactions: John Zappe ere.net Blog Poat (January 19, 2010)

Survey: Web 2.0 and Social Media Tools May Help Knowledge Retention in Oil Industry

A survey of collaboration tools in the oil and gas industry conducted by Microsoft and Accenture finds that 53% of those surveyed reported that aging workers are retiring in increasing numbers, despite the economy. According to Claire Markwardt, a Houston-based partner with Accenture, employees are retiring because they still see more benefits in accepting the lump sum offered by several oil companies to employees that reach a certain age than in staying longer in their work and waiting to see their retirement plans rebound.

Even though 70% believe that collaboration and knowledge-sharing are important for driving revenue, cutting costs, and contributing to the health and safety of workers, according to the "Oil and Gas Collaboration Survey 2009," the tools primarily used to retain the knowledge and intellectual capital from retiring workers are largely older methods, such as electronic file shares (64%), databases or repositories (58%), and written documents/physical files (58%); in addition, "almost a quarter of respondents reported exit interviews as the tool used most often to capture knowledge from these workers."

Asked to suggest better means of transferring knowledge, the respondents overwhelmingly supported new collaboration technologies. The most beneficial social media tools cited were:

• Internet portals (81%);
• social networking sites (58%);
• video or photo sharing (56%);
• blogs or mini-blogs (44%); and
• wikis (43%).

Sources: Accenture News Release (February 19, 2009); CattleNetwork.com "Older Oil Workers Still Retiring Despite Economic Crisis" (February 19, 2009)

Remote Service as Means of Bridging Knowledge Gap in Manufacturing Industries Beset by Aging Workforces

One tool being put forward to assist manufacturers faced with rapidly aging workforces, approaching retirement age, and insufficient younger, skilled workers to replace them is to use technology to bridge knowledge gaps. Thus, in an article in Industry Week, Brian Anderson, Vice President of Marketing, Axeda, advocates the use of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology to provide remote service of equipment.

His advice follows up on research published in Manufacturing Insights, "The Aging Workforce--Impact and Opportunity" (April 2008), demonstrating that the gap between retiring workers and younger workers is characterized as a knowledge deficit and recommending technologies that can help bridge the divide, and initiate seamless workforce transition.

Anderson argues that with a remote service solution in place, "equipment up-time is increased, resulting in fewer field service visits to customers. This reduces personnel needs, and the need to hire new workers as older workers retire." It also helps centralize workforce skills, captures knowledge, and optimizes the workforce.

Source: Industry Week "The Aging Workforce Challenge: How Remote Service Can Help Product Manufacturers" (November 19, 2008)

Survey: Corporations Falling Down on Knowledge Transfer Practices

According to the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), only 29% of responding organizations report that they incorporate retirement forecasts into their knowledge transfer practices. Furthermore, i4cp found that only a third add "skills gap analysis" into those forecasts, less than half say they train their managers to identify critical skills, only 23% are educated in critical skills transfer, and most companies admit they do not formally measure the effectiveness of their knowledge transfer practices.

"For all the public gnashing of teeth about the impending retirement of all those knowledgeable, hard-working Baby Boomers, relatively few organizations are doing much about it," says Jay Jamrog, SVP of research at i4cp. "They're going to wind up in a mad bar-the-doors scramble in the near future if they don't start trying to tap the knowledge of their most knowledgeable Boomers."

The i4cp survey--"Taking the Pulse: Productivity/Efficiency" (available to i4cp members only)--reports that training is the most conventional way to transfer knowledge in organizations (82% reporting it as an ongoing practice), followed by coaching (55%), and mentoring programs (44%). In addition, there was little consensus about which part of the organization handles the management of knowledge transfer initiatives with 41% saying the initiatives are "managed individually by different business sectors," 39% reporting that initiatives are handled by corporate, and 20% using a combination of corporate and business-sector options.

Looking to the future, the study found that there are a number of up-and-coming practices in use and being considered. "Communities of Practice" are utilized by a third of all responding companies to transfer knowledge, and the use of Webcasts and services such as "Lunch and Learn" and "SharePoint" are on the rise.

Source: Institute for Corporate Productivity Press Release (July 9, 2008)

Study: Most Organizations Not Prepared for Talent Shortage Fueled by the Retirement of Baby Boomers

Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., has released a whitepaper finding that most organizations, particularly larger ones, are not ready for the pending talent shortage caused by the looming retirement of 78 million workers age 55 and over. The paper--"Managing Talent in the Face of Workforce Retirement" (available free with registration)--summarizes key findings of Knowledge Infusion's "2010 Talent Readiness Assessment," which indicates, among other things that:

• Organizations with more than 2,500 employees indicated that approximately 1 in 5 workers are over the age of 55;
• Over 50% of respondents said the retiring workforce will cause a knowledge/skill gap; and yet
• Less than 30% of organizations who responded had a retention plan in place.

Adam Miller, President and CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand, said: "Companies need to proactively assess their organizations and determine a plan of action before this threat becomes a reality. Understanding the overall goals of the organization and which employees are key to achieving these goals including their role, skills and level within the company is important to implementing a retention plan."

Source: MarketWire Press Release (September 25, 2006)

Knowledge Management and Changing Workforces

Jim Murphy, Research Director for AMR Research, writes that, with the urgency of an aging workforce facing companies around the world, "it’s easy to lose a sense of balance. Stemming the brain drain, for many companies, means putting every ounce of effort into capturing what’s in an employee’s head before she walks out the door. HR organizations exert extraordinary effort here, urging departing employees to use their dwindling time to document their knowledge and cram it into a repository."

However, he says that a lack of consideration for transfer and reuse parts of the knowledge management (KM) process can stymie efforts and that, once in the repository, there’s little guarantee that the valuable knowledge ever emerges again. Thus, companies "have got to think ahead. Better KM strategies must account for and capitalize upon the skills and expertise of the incoming workforce, along with the tools they’re already accustomed to and adept at using.

On April 3, 2006, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST, AMR Research will conduct a live webcast on The Aging Workforce.

Source: "Harnessing Potential: Knowledge Management and Your Incoming Workforce" AMR Research (March 23, 2006)

Chief Information Officers Can Help Prevent Baby Boomer Brain Drain

Wtih the oldest baby boomers six years away from retirement, Susannah Patton, writing for CIO suggests that corporate chief informaton officers should be taking "a leading role in preventing baby boomer brain drain by being prepared to respond quickly when management decides the company needs a KM system to help retain crucial knowledge." She discusses projects at Rolls Royce, Northrop Grumman, and others to ensure that knowledge didn't disappear with retiring employees. Among other things, she provides "3 Easy Steps for Preventing Brain Drain":

1. Identify your vulnerabilities. "Many companies don't know where they are most vulnerable to knowledge loss," says David DeLong, author of Lost Knowledge: confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce. One way to get around this is by doing an age profile of your workforce by work unit or by function. Determine the average age of employees in each unit and identify who's likely to retire or leave the company for other reasons.

2. Identify types of knowledge at risk. Use interviewing and social network analysis software to find out what knowledge is most valuable. This will help you decide where to focus your knowledge-retention efforts.

3. Choose your tactics. If you're focusing on transferring "tacit" knowledge, or experience that is hard to catalogue, establish mentoring programs or communities of practice that bring older and younger workers together for extended periods. If you need to document information quickly before key employees retire, start developing databases and other repositories.

Source: "Beating the Boomer Brain Drain Blues" CIO: Beating the Boomer Brain Drain Blues (Feburary 3, 2006)

U.S. Companies Fail to Capture, Transfer Critical Workforce Knowledge and Skills

According to a survey of more than 500 full-time U.S. workers between 40 and 50 years of age conducted by Accenture, 45% of those employees said that their employers do not have formal workforce planning processes and/or tools in place to capture their workplace knowledge. In addition, 26% percent reported that their organizations will let them retire without any transfer of knowledge. However, 34% reported that their companies hire retired employees as contractors so those former employees can transfer their knowledge and skills to their replacements. Kathy Battistoni, a partner in Accenture’s Human Performance practice, said “Companies should take three critical steps to meet the challenge of transferring knowledge from retiring employees.”

First, they must understand the extent of the problem, including the skills at risk, and their organization’s ability to tackle it. Second, they must develop a strategy to capture and transfer core skills from retiring employees and to identify, attract and retain new workers with critical skills. Finally, they must manage and measure the progress of the entire effort. The bottom line is that leaders in this arena know that capturing critical workforce knowledge and skills can’t be left to chance.

Source: News Release Accenture May 10, 2005

Preventing Crucial Knowledge Leaving with Retiring Older Workers

Anne Fisher writes about a few companies that are working on ways to capture the knowledge of older workers and disseminate it to younger workers before it's too late. What they're doing may offer a blueprint for other companies.

As the "old white guys" depart in droves, plenty of human resources managers fear that the younger workers won't be ready to step up and run the show. Boston-based consulting firm Novations Group recently surveyed 2,900 HR people and found that only one-third are confident that they have enough talent in the pipeline to keep their businesses humming as boomers bow out.

Among the practices Fisher highlights to avoid the brain drain are (1) traditional mentoring, (2) "communities of practice"-—companywide groups that meet, in person and online, to share information, (3) "action learning teams"--which put people together from several disciplines-—manufacturing, sales, marketing, legal, finance—-to solve particular problems, making sure to include young managers who participate along with older and presumably wiser colleagues, and (4) retain older people--at least part-time--until they've had a chance to teach others what they know.

Source: "How to Battle the Coming Brain Drain" Fortune (March 21, 2005)