Think Twice Before Laying Off Your Experienced Workforce

The United States’ workforce is at a critical juncture and this statement is true for both the private and public sectors. Some of the reasons are well known by many. Other reasons are only understood by the few. Today we will address one of the reasons that must be understood by all if we are to thrive long term.

The U.S. faces a serious shortage of qualified workers!

The shortage of workers is NOT about the lack of sheer numbers of people from one generation to the next. The shortage is principally the result of a serious lack of workers with the needed skills a developed nation requires in order to compete.
Need an example? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offers a good one! They make the case that jobs requiring only a GED or high school degree are disappearing. They quantify their claims in a number of ways – but, here’s the bottom line!

In 1991 fewer than 50% of U.S. jobs required highly skilled workers. By 2015, the BLS estimates that 76% of U.S. jobs will demand highly skilled employees.
Recall we stated that, in keeping with our points-of-view, (www.agelessinamerica.com), a few early adapters understood how critical this situation had become and is becoming. Kudos to Civic Ventures (www.civicventures.org) as theirs was one of the few powerful voices as far back as 2005 when they said “Doomsayers see the aging boom as a problem, a costly gray wave. [We see] it differently—as the springboard for an America made better by experience.”

And, just a few weeks ago, from across the pond in another aging nation, Kevin Condon, a well known employee benefits specialist, warned of an impending “knowledge crunch.” He continued his warning by stating that “the knowledge crunch is the threat which commerce faces through the loss of its intellectual capital. Second only to cash flow, knowledge is of immense value. At a fundamental level it is what differentiates one business from another.”

In Summary, we repeat our list of high needs in terms of developing and retaining the maturing U.S. workforce while handing over the reins to future generations!
 We need a working population of well-educated, highly skilled Boomers and Traditionalists in order to cross the bridge to America’s competitive future.
 We need knowledge transfer and succession planning practices if we are to prepare our younger generations to take up the challenges as time and circumstances take their inevitable toll on the mature ½ of the U.S. workforce.
 We need to understand that it is long past time when employers and mature workers have a right to give, or expect, full-time employment or compensation as defined by the social contract of time.
 We need more HR Leaders to be part of a business strategy to continue to recruit, develop and retain, in some capacity, the oldest members of their workforce.
 We need to debunk the many myths about older workers and replace them with the advantages and facts associated with lifelong brainpower.
 We need to commit to teaching the children well if we are to overcome the shameful results of education in our lower grades throughout the nation. No excuses acceptable by or from parents...teachers’ unions and others who must prepare children to earn their right to thrive in the future.
 We need to act now!

IT’S UP TO US! WE WILL GET THE FUTURE WE EARN!