"Recarreering" Boomers

Some snips from an article at Workforce Management dot com. Seems we're missing opportunities at talent by assessing hires by Job Title and dismissing valuable skills in the process. Moral: Don't judge a book by it's cover. And stop going the same damn shelf every time....

By 2012, the group of workers ages 55 and older will grow to 19.1 percent of the total workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In some cases, the assumption has been that this group will retire, causing both a "brain drain" and a labor shortage for business.
In fact, there are few formal surveys of this group that reveal what their intentions actually are. However, two separate surveys of business executives in various age groups, conducted earlier this year by Korn Ferry, suggest that half will work past age 64. And three out of five anticipate making a major career change before retirement.

The article makes note of lots of issues. The "old dog/new tricks" cliche doens't really hold any more when it's difficult to get "new dogs" to hang around long enough to build their own professional "gut" or experience. Stubborn old farts are the least of your worries if the alternative is younger workers who just don't dig the "dues paying" thing. Retention and churn and satisfaction come up too...

Two organizations that are in the early lead
A CIO who was a gynecologist. A nurse who now leads patient-care projects in IT. Both of those sound like unusual career-changing success stories, but they’re not so rare at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The health care institution has grown by hiring and retaining a large number of knowledge workers who made just such shifts.

M.D. Anderson is a research-driven organization and has been increasing staff by 20 percent annually in a field that competes heavily for talent. Jim Dorn, chief HR officer, estimates that 5 percent to 10 percent of the 1,100 faculty researchers on the M.D. Anderson staff have expressed an interest in changing their careers. They’re an elite group of employees--Ph.D.s and M.D.s.

"In most cases they still like what they do, but they express a need to take on new challenges," Dorn says. Dorn’s team supports the process with career counseling and a plan that he customizes to the needs of each employee.

Recareering is recalibrationof personal and professional goals? Fair enough.

"Sometimes boomers are overqualified and could be a good match for an area where they have no experience but are well suited" based on their skills, Barton says. The best practice for evaluating job-switching candidates includes the use of assessments that measure a person’s attitude and aptitude for the position, rather than relying on experience as a differentiator, she says.

"Most companies need assessments and technology to make great job placements and to encourage employee retention by offering recareering opportunities," Barton says.

Boomers drive the trend; companies benefit
As companies have become leaner and put their focus on what’s happening in the business in the short term, the concept of retaining employees by offering career changes is not often at the top of the agenda. More experienced employees can offer greater productivity and reduced learning curves through their ability to transfer the knowledge they already have to the new concepts they’re learning.

"Boomers can do more in less time; they have already made mistakes before and now they will avoid them," CareerXroads’ Crispin says. "Businesses have institutionally and unintentionally discriminated against people aged 40 and above. The boomers need to be ready to articulate why they bring value with their extra experience."

The boomers themselves have the ability and the responsibility to drive the change that they want, Crispin says. At more than 70 million strong, they have reputation for pushing change. If they want new careers, history says that they will probably get them.

If knowledge is the New Labor, guess boomers are the New Bricoleurs.