In today’s tight labor market, many managers and business leaders are grappling with the difficulty of recruiting and hiring quality candidates. Exacerbating the challenge is the nearly three million people who retired early due to the pandemic as well as 10,000 baby boomers who reach retirement age daily. And this rate of baby boomers reaching retirement age will continue through 2030.
Combating the retirement wave requires organizations to construct a unique hiring strategy that focuses on upskilling current employees, mentoring and intentional recruitment. Doing so not only prepares the company for continued success, but it can also ensure knowledge and skills are not lost.
Upskilling
Business leaders should identify and outline the specific skillsets at risk of being lost due to a retirement wave. The crucial step of taking inventory of the current skills and talents possessed by the soon-to-retire workforce allows management to create upskilling opportunities. These initiatives are aimed to prepare new and current employees to fill the potential void left by retirees and ensure a smooth transition of knowledge and expertise.
Current employees may be eager to tackle upskilling opportunities so they can grow in their careers and elevate the company. It is important for leadership to foster a culture of learning centered around career development and positive incentives. Often, additional training benefits include higher pay, greater responsibilities and even more choices in an individual’s career. By encouraging participation and supporting progress, management can successfully motivate high-performance employees on the road to upskill.
Mentorship
When long-term employees retire and the organization does not prepare for their departure, it can negatively impact the remaining workers who may be forced to pick up extra work and spread themselves thin to rapidly familiarize themselves with new duties. Additional impacts to companies involve a large knowledge gap with the departure of key leaders and decreased morale.
Training goals can help prepare employees and the organization for a smooth transition. Opting to embrace mentorship programs can build a deep bench to call upon should there be unexpected turnover, a retirement wave or resignations among leadership.
Working with mentees on a frequent basis enables mentors to learn about their strengths, aspirations, emotional intelligence, leadership abilities and more. This one-on-one relationship gives the organization insight into current talent and their abilities, but also allows management to plan ahead for any training or recruitment needs.
Mentorship programs work together with upskilling. Pairing promising employees with mentors whose skills are unique and critical to the organization’s success can set the mentee up for future success. These programs should be approached with long-range goals in mind, not just to fill an immediate knowledge gap. Developing a mentor-mentee program that encompasses everyone in the organization will build up the talent for any need and strengthen the company culture.
Intentional Recruiting
Successful recruiting should rely on understanding the business and the unique skills needed for each position throughout the organization. Managers and business leaders must identify the skills that are preferred for each position so the hiring team can accurately target viable candidates.
To take recruiting efforts to the next level and find skilled employees, organizations should make a concerted effort to increase their referral and networking efforts. Referrals are one of the best tools in a recruiter’s quiver. Current employees are already aware of the organization’s culture and workforce needs, plus they will know if their referral could be a good culture fit for the company. Another way to increase recruiting efforts is to bolster the organization’s networking efforts, which can provide a larger pool of potential recruits already working within the industry. Networking also helps facilitate more referrals from credible sources.
Whether the retirement wave is coming or is already here, organizations can prepare themselves by taking these active measures. If done correctly, should a retirement wave strike an organization, these steps can make for a more seamless transition from one generation of leaders and managers to the next.
Don Alix is a district manager with Insperity, a leading provider of human resources offering the most comprehensive suite of scalable HR solutions available in the marketplace.
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