Sometimes – just sometimes – it seems like within the recruiting industry we all turn into Chicken Little. It’s like a 100 million little chicks running around chirping “The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The Boomer’s are leaving and Generation Y is upon us – what will we do?!?”
I’ve been reading a lot of stats lately on Generation Y and how influential they’re going to be on our
workforce and blah, blah, blah. Most recently in the Washington Post Magazine, there was a front page feature titled “The Coveted”. No quibbles with the WP – they were spot on in the article, and the lengths that employers will go to secure top Gen Y candidates is amazing! To be quite honest, I truly enjoy my Generation Y cohorts in the workplace – they bring a lot of value. But am I ready to put the Boomers out to pasture? Not quite.
I’m feeling quite skeptical about the concept that we are immediately replacing the Baby Boomer generation and that we need to be in a panic about it! And apparently I’m not the only one not ready to jump on this bandwagon. First of all, take a look around at the economy – how many people are saying it’s a great time to retire? No, they’re hanging onto their jobs, stability and most importantly, benefits. According to the Herman Trend Alert for June 11th, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data that suggested unemployment is the highest it’s been since October 2004. The Herman Trend Alert also says, “….that employers are holding on to their skilled, experienced workers and those with lower skill levels are considered more expendable and easier to hire back–as employees or contractors–when conditions improve.”
So there’s an interesting thought – these Boomers have a wealth of experience – you need that in your workforce! Truly you do – as much as you need incredibly tech savvy whiz kids, you do need the senior staff – for a variety of reasons.
So – you want Boomers, and you’re trying to figure out how to attract them? You’re going to have to expand your search beyond your Generation Y targets on line, check out these stats from JWT to get a better handle on your Boomer audience. Using Viewzi.com I found these great sites the other day that specifically target this demographic:
Retiredbrains.com Workforce50.com 2young2retire.com seniors4hire.org retireeworkforce.com Retirementjobs.com Yourencore.com Execsearchs.com Dinosaurexchange.com Jobs4point0.com ThePhoenixLink.com Seniorjobbank.com
Let’s allow the Boomers to fade into the sunset when they’re ready to go, and not bum rush them out the door. They’re still going to be heavy consumers in our economy, and we’ll need them to spend their cash to get us all out of the current state of affairs economically – and you’ll need their insight to keep your company in touch with their demographic.
And remember – age is a part of diversity too!!
Kelly is the Recruitment Manager for Westat, a leading social science research organization headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.