Aging of America to force changes in the workplace

[15 February 2008 - News-Gazette] America's population is aging, and the nation's employers need to deal with it, a Naperville consultant says. The baby-boomer generation is beginning to retire, and that ultimately will leave the United States with a deficit of younger workers, Bill Forssander said at a Champaign County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday at Urbana's Holiday Inn. Between 2002 and 2012, the U.S. population 55 and older is expected to grow by 49 percent, while the population under 55 is projected to grow only 5 percent, he said. The main reason: a huge drop in the birth rate over the last half-century that stands to leave not only the United States, but also Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and China, short of workers. Two workers are expected to exit the work force for every person entering it, he said. As a result, employers must figure new ways to attract and retain older workers, said Forssander, the founder and president of Coda Consulting Group. That means helping older employees stay current with new technologies and building a reputation for their companies of being truly multigenerational, he said. Forssander said older workers tend to have "more balanced" emotional circuitry, though it sometimes takes them longer to process things. That's why judges, counselors and senior diplomats tend to be older people, he said. At the same time, employers must remember that today's workplace has four generations in it, each with different values, preferences and approaches. More