Upcoming HR Trend: Retirement of Baby Boomers

Retirement of Baby Boomers
Keith Brown, HR Consultant, United Kingdom, Member
As a baby boomer I think the biggest challenges are around knowledge transfer and the increasing use of robotics. Many jobs will be replaced by automated systems, and jobs will be created in technical fields that we currently cannot conceive.
What will the world of work look like for millennials in 10/20 years time? What skills will be needed?

Millennials - Generation Z
David Wilson, Manager, Canada, Premium Member
Hi Keith, I agree that companies need to ensure knowledge is transferred from boomers to subsequent generations. The question is how do we ensure knowledge is transferred by boomers to Generation Z.
I remember at their age, I was less than impressed with the older generation, until I met a consultant who showed me that if I learned from my elders, I would be able to provide better services to my clients. The consultant also told that I needed to listen to learn.

Young People Should Listen to Experienced Colleagues
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
To me that consultant seems to be a wise person David…
💡I sometimes ask young people: What do you prefer: Spend 5 years to explore this issue yourself from scratch or listen carefully to my experiences and advice for 10 minutes? Perhaps there could be a possibility for you to accelerate your career by multiple years? Sometimes that makes them think.

Retirement of Baby Boomers and Age Management
Damijan Andjelkovic, Director, Slovenia, Member
Great topic David, really an actual one.
My good friend Prof. Dr. Vlado Dimovski has research this topic and give it a name "Age Management". It is no secret that Europe is entering a trap of having too many people in pension, which will live on average until they are 85-87 years old. At the same time there will not be enough young people as a work force. I would bet on these activities:
- Create a business environment (culture climate) in which baby boomers will be treated as equal as X, Y and Z generation, are facilitated to fulfill their Ikigai (reason for being) and will be efficient also after their 65 years.
- Absolute as @Jaap said, take care for mentoring and coaching - transfer the knowledge, know how, people-business partners needs, wants and desires to the young ones. This activity should be planned ad least 3 years before retirement of a baby boomer.
- Work with mixed generation teams all the time. Heterogenous teams are not just based on the skills and competence of the team members, but also on their age - values.

What is Ikigai?
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
@Damijan Andjelkovic: In the article named Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei ("Ikigai: the process of allowing the self's possibilities to blossom") Kobayashi Tsukasa says that "people can feel real ikigai only when, on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed toward self-realization.


More on Ikigai.
Source: Kobayashi, Tsukasa (1990-04-04). "Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei". Nihon Keizai Shinbun. Tokyo.