The globaly increasing life expectancy and declining natality show a clear direction of demographic trends - the number of older people will soon greatly exceed the number of young people. This trend is confirmed by the current UN studies stating that it cannot be expected that the development turnes back to the original situation when the young prevailed. The trend should be followed not only by states and governments but also by private companies and their talent management programs. The problem is that many talent management programs still do not reflect the current demographic prospects.
Preparation for managing the workforce dominated by the elderly requires revisiting many existing standards and procedures. Harvard Business Review brought a summary of topics that to be reviewed and questions that you should answer would in this context.
Compulsory retirement
How do you want to make your workplace attractibve for older employees to stay with you longer than they need?
Linear careers
Today's approach to career management anticipates that employees should receive more and more responsibility. Do, however, older people want more responsibility? Would not they appreciate gradually descreasing responsibilities?
Working arrangements
Do not you restrict yourselves in obtaining the widest possible pool of talent? Do you offer flexible working arrangements?
Targeting recruitment on young people
Do you really know how to recruit people? Are you looking for staff of all ages and using different sources for the search?
Upward career advancement
How can you offer older people more money and more diverse work without promoting them?
Prestigious job titles
People have a natural barrier to change job roles when the title does not sound so prestigious as the current position's title. It is related to the upward management of careers. So, how to begin the transition from prestigious titles such as "vice president" to task-related titles such as "leader of xz initiate"?
-kk-