Aging Workforce: Risks, Influences, And Approaches

Introduction

Population is a key factor in determining a country’s economic development and demographic changes will bring many economic and social impacts. However, with the aging of the population, the productive function of the population will decline and the economic society will also undergo major changes. This paper focuses on the changes in the pattern of China’s “Population-Economy” and explores the profound impact of population aging on the labour market. The decline in demographic fitness will not only hit countries like United State, the Western European countries, or Japan, but also the upcoming societies in China or in the Eastern European countries. In many of these countries, during three or four decades the average age will grow from about 40 years not to about 50 years.

Where experts are needed, this may result in an increase of the workforces age of between 5 and 10 years in only one decade. One of the first things companies can do to implement a workplace culture focused on development is to encourage employees to have open conversations about their goals, strengths, weaknesses and skill set. It’s common for hiring managers to ask employees “Where do you see yourself in five years?” when applying to work at a company, but those in charge can do so much more than that. Instead of only asking employees about their career insights during an annual review, companies should let their staff know that it’s okay to talk about wanting to move up the ladder or gain more responsibility in their current position. Rather than giving staff members the impression that they have to wait several years to obtain management positions, support those who want to learn more leadership skills and find positive ways to give feedback on how someone can improve on certain tasks and abilities pertaining to their job. Companies should always be on the lookout for entry-level employees who have the potential to be the future leaders of their business.

Issue

Risk of Falls

Due to the decline in vision or balance, aging workers may experience more falls in the workplace. In fact, falls are a leading cause of death for people 665 and older, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Other factors that increase the risk include increase the risk include fatigue, muscle weakness, decreased range of motion and flexibility, and side effects from medications. For example, dizziness.

The Quality and Quantity

The most intuitive feeling of the populace aging is the aging of populace will reduce the amount of labour supply, causing a shortage of worker. The “labour shortage” has emerged in recent years has verified this view from the other side. However, after research, it is found that this is not the case. The impact of populace aging on the number of labours is very limited, but the collision on the age structure of worker is very obvious. The Population Age Pyramid is a bar chart showing the composition of the population’s gender and age, reflecting previous and present demographic trends in a given region.

Population growth and employment output

Due to the imperfect investment market environment, the increasing willingness of workers to work, the backward education concepts, the link between wages and service age, and the imperfect social security system is imperfect. The labour participation rate has been at a high level but it has shown a downward trend in recent years. With the gradual deepening of the population aging, the labour participation rate of the elderly population will gradually increase, and the proportion of the elderly population will gradually ease. The increase of the elderly population has a significant effect on the employed population.

Employment pressure

After the population is getting bigger and bigger, the employed population is declining and the young employed population is declining. Therefore, the impact on the labour force is relatively large. Therefore, some of the heavily aging countries in the West are basically countries that lack labour. China is a country with a large population. It is now a country with a very labour-intensive country. As the depth of aging increases, it will have an impact on the labour force. 2. 5 Health coverage An aging workforce often means an increase in health insurance claims as more serious health conditions typically affect older workers. “The average health costs of a 64‐year‐old may be two to three times those of a 40‐year‐old,” comments Jeff Marquardt, EVP Employee Benefits, Johnson Insurance. And as retiree health benefits have been reduced or eliminated, some workers may stay on the job longer primarily for access to the health plan. Those who put off retirement increase the time that their employers have to bear some of the burden of their high health care costs. Some companies find that providing employees with access to financial and health insurance counsellors can help workers plan for their health coverage and associated costs.

Factors Leading Or Influencing Such Aging Workforce

Flexible, half-retirement

Although retirement reform remains stagnant at the policy level, companies are being more proactive about modifying employee exit schemes. For example, Scripps Healthcare has installed a phased-retirement program: Retirees work part time, while drawing a portion of their retirement funds, so they still effectively earn a full salary and benefits. Meanwhile the company avoids having to hire expensive temporary workers and retains talented employees in areas where skills are scarce. WellStar Health System offers a similar option for employees who have been with the company at least ten years. Workers prefer jobs that offer more flexibility over those that offer more vacation days. To the extent possible, give workers a say in their schedules, work conditions, work organization, work location and work tasks. Although not all older workers are feeble, companies can and should adapt for those who need some extra support. BMW has made inexpensive tweaks to workplace ergonomics for older employees as described in this post. Another example comes from Xerox, which recently introduced a training program to teach better ergonomic health strategies and raise awareness about the normal aging process. Unilever UK has also instituted a wellness program designed to prolong the working life of its older employees. As older employees leave, their talent, knowledge, deep relationships and extensive, on-the-job training exits with them. These are elements that simply cannot be replaced through the hiring of recent college graduates. As one respondent indicated, “The ‘graying’ of the workforce has many seen and unseen consequences that will take a heavy toll on corporations and industries that fail to recognize and understand it. You can NOT replace a valuable senior employee with two June grads and call it even…There is knowledge and practicality that can ONLY be gained ‘on-the-job’ and that point cannot be over emphasized. ” As older employees retire, some employers are discovering that they are losing valuable institutional knowledge and competencies. Workers of all ages are looking for ways to balance work and life obligations. Many older workers are members of the “sandwich” generation and must provide care for parents and children, and even grandparents and grandchildren.

Prioritizing older-worker skills in hiring and promotions

Companies like Vodafone are putting more emphasis on employees’ loyalty, track records, competence and common sense, all commonly found in older workers. Vita Needle does the same, noting that loyal older employees not only enhance the company’s reputation, but also yield higher quality work and attention to detail. B&Q (winner of the 2006 “Age Positive Retailer of the Year” Award) says that it hires for soft skills, such as conscientiousness, enthusiasm and customer rapport, which senior workers also seem to show in abundance, while Home Depot famously looks to older store clerks for the experience-based know-how that customers demand. And these aren’t just perceptions: A report from the Sloan Centre on Aging & Work at Boston College has found that, compared to younger workers, older workers do have higher levels of respect, maturity and networking ability. It’s bad for workers at every age. Consider sit/stand workstations and walking workstations for workers who traditionally sit all day. Provide onsite physical activity opportunities or connections to low-cost community options. These include promoting physical activity, healthy meal options, help in quitting smoking, risk factor reduction and screenings, coaching and onsite medical care. Respondents were also concerned about the loss of leadership knowledge, skills and abilities. However, as the following comment suggests, some leaders view upside of the situation: “The upcoming retirement of much of our upper and middle management will create a gap in leadership but will also bring a welcome opportunity for new leadership,” states one respondent. Even in the face of legitimate concerns, there appears to be some consensus that opportunities are couched within the realities surrounding an AWF. While respondents report concern over the AWF’s effect on talent and leadership, the concern is intermixed with the understanding that this type of situation offers opportunities to enhance leadership and improve the level of talent within their organization.

Approaches To The Management At The Work Place

Invest in Employee Career Development

Company need to view human capital differently. We are seeing a fundamental shift in the changing nature of the employer-employee relationship as organization seek to attract and retain good employees in a declining labour market. Employers are willing to make an investment in developing their employees are more likely to retain their top talent. In fact, some organizations are using internal career coaches to help employees with career development. "A principal cause of employee turnover is the lack of attention to career opportunities," said Alex Avery, a member of the HR Leadership Program at GE in the Cincinnati area. "An individual career coach can offer more attention to individual employee career paths," Avery said, noting that this one-on-one interaction can enhance performance, build commitment and decrease turnover. Google's Guru-plus employs 350 internal coaches in 60 offices worldwide to address career management, leadership training and employee well-being, among other topics. Coaching sessions range from one to eight sessions per employee and are conducted virtually using Google Hangouts. Another option is for HR to work with managers to review their employees' job descriptions and, if necessary, redesign those jobs to enrich or enlarge them, though Duxbury said she is concerned that corporate leaders' overemphasis on operational efficiency can undermine managers. "The whole American economy runs on doing more with less," Duxbury said. "Younger people don't necessarily want management roles because it's not a good job for work/life balance. " She advises employers to find ways to make managerial jobs more attractive. By hiring more support staff, employers can free up talented employees up for more important management responsibilities.

Build a Mentoring Culture

There is little question that may experienced workers will be leaving their jobs in the next decade. And that giant sucking sound you will hear is all the knowledge being drained out of organizations by retirement and other forms of turnover," DeLong said. Mentoring and coaching are two of the most effective ways for Boomers to transfer their knowledge and expertise to younger, less experienced employees. "Many Baby Boomers would love to take on coaching and mentoring roles where their whole job is knowledge transfer," Duxbury said. "Mentors elevate and escalate knowledge transfer, which is useful in shortening a learning curve," added Julie Kantor, president and CEO of Two mentor LLC, a management consulting firm in Bethesda, Md. , that helps organizations build mentoring cultures.

NASA's phased retirement program allows retiring employees to work on a part-time basis in training and mentoring their replacements. The assignment ends when their proteges are able to fulfil their responsibilities. NASA also invites recent retirees back for similar purposes, highlighting how an alumni network can become a treasure trove of mentoring resources and possibilities. Statistics show that mentoring can have myriad organizational benefits: It reduces turnover, increases job satisfaction, develops employee capabilities and demonstrates to employees that the organization is invested in them. As an HR professional in health care and sales organizations, Rene Petrin discovered that many companies weren't doing enough to develop their employees. Petrin launched Management Mentors Inc. , a consulting company in Waltham, Mass. , that helps organizations develop mentoring programs. He views mentoring as a vehicle that enables organizations to implement a strategic game plan around recruitment, retention and professional development. While mentoring often occurs informally in organizations, Petrin sees a qualitative difference when the relationship is structured and formalized.