How important are workers 50 and older to a nation’s
economy? Steve Wing will tell you.
"Without older workers, we wouldn’t have a company," he
says. No small statement when you consider Wing’s enterprise
is CVS Caremark. If his assessment is accurate then the United
States would lose its leading provider of prescription drugs in
the event the Baby Boomers Wing speaks of stopped clocking in for
work. CVS, which fills more than one billion prescriptions a year,
isn’t alone in its reliance on older workers, nor is the
United States. Far from it, in fact.
For that reason, Galt Global Review is beginning a regular series
focused on “The Maturing Workforce”, which promises
to remain a hot business topic in the coming years.
On Feb. 4, a published survey of European companies revealed employers
expect a spike in the number of workers in their 50s by the end
of this year. The same survey foresees a future where Europeans
older than 40 will hold a majority in the workforce for the first
time since the inception of labour
reports.
In Canada, the trend to a more mature workforce is already underway.
Of the 370,000 new positions created in the labour market in 2007,
half of the jobs went to men and women aged 55 and over, according
to Statistics Canada. That performance drove the number of 55-plus
employees in the nation to 2.5 million, or approximately 15 percent
of the workforce.
For the economies of the world, the fact the Baby Boomers continue
to work rather than turn in their keycards for good is a plus.
Years ago, many economists predicted a severe labour shortfall
when the generation born between 1946-65 reached retirement age.
While the need for workers does exist in many countries the labour
problem isn’t as dire as some predicted, thanks to the Boomers.
They pick up the slack and the loose change that comes with it,
as well as spend what they make instead of stowing cash in savings
accounts. The situation works for them, their employers and the
economy, but the question remains - why aren’t they retiring?
It’s the end goal of being on the job for most of your adult
life, isn’t it?
Not necessarily, says Barbara Jaworski. She is the president of
the Toronto-based Workplace Institute and recently told the Financial
Times that Baby Boomers have salient reasons for not wanting to
rest on their wealth. "As people are entering their 50s, they're
entering a second adulthood and they have no intention of sitting
back in a rocking chair," says Jaworski, the author of “Kaa-Boom:
How to Engage the 50-Plus Worker and Beat the Workforce Crisis”.
The reasons Boomers give for their desire to keep working vary
from financial need to disinterest with idleness to simply wanting
a place to go during the day. However, there’s a basic economic
tenet at play, too. With the supply for workers short, the incentives
keep rising for anyone who wants a position. For example, Home
Depot has teamed with the American Association of Retired Persons
and its Canadian counterpart (CARP) in an attempt to lure mature
workers onto its payrolls with flexible schedules and a compelling
benefits package. The retail giant’s recruitment campaign
is succeeding. It reports that 25 percent of its workforce in Canada
is over 50.
"The labour crunch has affected us a little bit," says
Richard Clatney, a human resources manager at one of the Home Depot
locations in the prairie province of Saskatchewan. "We have
to be a little more diligent finding the people that are right
for us."
Despite being willing to work, the Boomers possess another trait
employers cherish: ability. As Wing from CVS told Workforce.com,
the companies who hire or retain workers in their 50s and 60s gain
employees who are generally easier to manage and train. CVS operates
6,200 pharmacies in the U.S. and 16 percent of its workers are
over 55 – up from seven percent in 1992. Wing, the director
of government programs for CVS, says: “Many older people
have a work ethic and sense of civility that the younger generation
has not learned yet."
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