WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

Thanks to a colleague for tipping us off to an excellent post by Mark Miller at his 50+ Digital blog, on “The Economic Cost of the Shrinking Workforce.” Miller laments that despite clear signs that coming talent shortages will hurt the economy, “employers are doing little or nothing to retain older employers with more flexible work arrangements–and many continue to actively push out older workers due to their higher salary and benefit expense.”
Citing the feared executive “brain drain” and worries about Social Security, he goes on to decry, “What a disconnect. Boomers say they want to keep working past traditional retirement age, and U.S. economic health depends on it. When will employers wake up and start implementing policies aimed at keeping older workers on the job?” When indeed. And, when will they start realizing they need new ways to keep those workers engaged, productive and contributing to their success?
It’s time to get this topic on the national agenda. Miller notes that U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who chairs the Senate’s special committee on aging, has said, “We need to begin a national discussion to change the way we think about retirement.”