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Outplacement Podcast: How HR Can Manage the Current Generational Shift

July 14, 2017 by Josh Hrala

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The generational shift currently underway in the workforce – with Baby Boomers exiting en masse and Millennials pouring in – is one of the biggest challenges facing HR departments all over the country.

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It’s also the topic of today’s Outplacement Podcast, which takes a deep look into how HR departments can plan for the Baby Boomer exit while retaining Millennial talent to fill the positions they leave behind.

Here’s a little background information:

Right now, an estimated 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day, a rate that is expected to continue for at least the next decade.

Since, until recently, Baby Boomers have made up a large swath of the workforce, their rapid exit is causing a major problem when it comes to workforce planning.

HR departments are now left with a smaller Gen X population that isn’t large enough to fill all of the roles left by the Boomers, meaning that many of the roles will fall on the shoulders of Millennials who are just starting to develop their talents.

At the same time, some Baby Boomers are postponing their retirements for various reasons. While it may seem like everything about retirement comes down to money – because many of us only ever consider the financial side of retirement – it’s actually a lot more complicated than that.

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The Boomers who postpone retirement – known as reluctant retirees – often are far more concerned with lifestyle change than they are with finances. They want to retire happily with a strong social circle and spend time doing things they love.

However, without a proper plan, many people simply put off retiring for far too long because the sudden change can be quite stressful, which is bad for them – after all, people should be able to retire after many years of hard work – and the companies they work for. How? Because without the turnover caused by retirement, organizations can stop growing at a proper rate, slowing the spread of new ideas and setting up companies to fall behind in the future.

As you can see, there are a lot of issues at play here. There are, at once, too many people retiring and also not enough people retiring, which both impact how Millennials – the generation that is now the biggest part of the workforce – develop into the leaders they need to become.

So, what is the answer? Check out the podcast for an in-depth discussion.

Want help with your workforce planning? Check out our guide today:

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Josh Hrala

Josh Hrala

Josh is an HR journalist and ghostwriter who's been covering outplacement and offboarding for over six years. Before pivoting to the HR world, he was a science journalist whose work can be found in Popular Science, ScienceAlert, The Huffington Post, Cracked, Modern Notion, and more.

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