Managers: Are You Ready To Replace Your Star Performers?

It has already begun.

The mass move of baby boomers out the door of your business. Experience, and knowledge on the hoof. Stampeding at an ever increasing rate into retirement. In most cases a costly loss of manpower, and brainpower.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that soon the fastest growing part of the U.S. workforce will be age 65 and above. In fact by 2014 this age group will comprise close to 20% of the workforce, up from about 15% today.

It sounds like the older worker will have a nice job market -- right? More of the seniors being employed.

So what's the problem? Employers will need them because more of them will retire than can be replaced.

BUT while the opportunity to work, may improve, their desire to work full time may diminish. Then there is the health issue. It is a fact that as we get older we tend to have more health problems. Generally speaking. If it is not your older employee who is having heath problems....it may be the employees' family member such as spouse, aging parent or close relative.

Several years ago I managed a large operation made up of 10 departments each managed by one manager. All reported to me. One morning as I was walking through the plant one of the managers, Tom, came up and said," I was thinking while driving to work that I'm ready to retire...next Tuesday." My response was "Gulp." Tom had earned retirement, had the years, but had recently told me that he wanted to continue working for a few more years. Of course I was surprised. He said," You know my wife has been ill and I've decided that I need to retire now."

After the shock and surprise I went to work finding a replacement for Tom. It took 3 weeks and set us back by at least that much. Lesson learned.

Back then I only had one person (Tom) in an organization of 150 who was eligible for retirement. The scenario in many businesses today is very different with large numbers of baby boomers reaching retirement age every day!

The effect then was bad and I imagine it can be much worse when there are many people ready to retire at about the same time.

Prepare now.

Here are some things you can do now to prepare for the loss of your experienced people:

1 - Identify the employees who are approaching retirement and talk with them about their plans for retiring.

2 - Tell them of your concerns about replacing them and ask for their help in giving ample notice of their leaving.

3 - Inform your Human Resource department of impending needs for replacements.

4 - Begin now to network with other managers who might have qualified candidates to back fill your future openings. Also stay close to outside professional organizations who might be a resource for candidates.

5 - Depending on the size of your situation set up a tracking chart by name, skills/qualifications, pending dates and possible replacement resources.

You will find that people will be happy to help you manage this situation as most will see a benefit for everyone in the organization.