Steve Lohr's column in today's (Sunday) New York Times (Ideas and Trends - For a Good Retirement, Find Work. Good Luck.) is a good overview of a key subject -- what to do about the aging workforce. For two reasons, the answer may be "work longer." First, many workers may not have the funds with which to retire comfortably (or even uncomfortably). Health care cost being the biggest anxiety. The second reason is that those older workers constitute a key asset. Their skills and tacit knowledge represent a large investment. But, as Lohr points out, many employers are reluctant to higher older workers. And some public policies, such as early retirement incentives -- including an earlier but reduced Social Security payment -- work against retaining older workers.
That is not to say that some companies don't value their older workers. Take this example from Lohr's article:
Judy McCrickard, a 64-year-old administrative assistant in Racine, Wis., plans to retire at the end of 2010, when she will be 66. She works for S. C. Johnson, a household products company that the AARP rates as one of the best employers for workers over 50.
But Ms. McCrickard has also kept up her end of the implicit bargain, by regularly upgrading her skills. When she joined the company in the 1960s, there were no computers in offices. But through courses offered by the company, she has become fluent in budgeting, financial planning and project management programs. Today, she is essentially a project manager, not a secretary. Her latest project was to design and manage an internal Web site for contingency planning across the global company to prepare for emergencies like a pandemic.
The key, as much as anything, is attitude. Learning new skill, keeping up with the changes; all of this indicates a desire to continue. On there other hand, there are those who are simply putting in time until they can get that pension.
This is an example of a major attribute of the future workforce: diversity on all levels. For older workers, some will kick-back early and some will keep going forever.
In either case, it will be be important for the I-Cubed Economy to tap into and capture that intangible knowledge floating around in the heads of those older workers -- both retired and actively working. Thus, retirement may not be complete retirement. For some, it will be an opportunity to move to a role of mentor and "senior statesman." Along with the policies Lohr talks about, we also need a set of policies (public and corporate) to encourage this new (but actually traditional and ancient) role.
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