Surviving the Brain Drain of Retirees
A very wise Japanese proverb says that ‘Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” A current twist on this proverb could be “Averting a disaster without a plan is a daydream. Disaster without a plan is a nightmare”. Recently, we’ve seen how true this is in a number of natural, world-wide disasters.
So what would your organization be like if a disaster struck? Just picture the confusion, mess, and frustration, not to mention the loss of productivity and business. We know we have the equivalent of weak levees, old worn out rusted pipes waiting to break, and economic tidal waves occurring, but what are we doing about it? We all get caught thinking ‘that was someplace else…it will never happen here’. But are you aware of and are you planning for any type of major impact on your business that is coming more subtly, but no less disastrously.
I’m speaking of the impact on your business of the retirement of the baby boom generation. The US has a co-dependent relationship on this generation – we’re all banking on our 401K’s and other government and IRS-sanctioned retirement programs while the economy is banking on our continued spending. Even though those that are still in the work force won’t aren’t as likely to leave as soon as they had hoped and some may come back for part-time positions, now is still the time to prepare for the eventual impact of large numbers of retirements from your organization. Consider this series of questions and just imagine the preparation you need to be doing NOW.
- How many of your senior leaders will be retiring in the next 5 years?
- How many individual contributors in critical roles will be leaving?
- Are the sales people who really make your sales numbers in this generation?
- Do you have a leadership development plan which identifies and grooms the next generation of leaders?
- Are the skills you need to develop in your next generation of emerging leaders quick and easy or do you need to plan for a long development period or on making strategic hires?
- If you need to make strategic hires, where is this talent? Do you know where to find these individuals and what it will take to hire the skill sets and talent you will have to replace? Are you sure these talented replacements are even available?
- Do you have a robust, complete, up-to-date set of policies, procedures, and practices in place so that new leaders coming in know ‘how things get done here’ and so continuity of service won’t be lost in the process?
- To what degree will your product and service development suffer as this generation of expertise leaves your organization?
- Have you planned ahead for the impact on your financial position to provide the retiree benefits your organization offers? Due to your current financial situation and the cost of supporting larger numbers of retirees, do you need to rethink your retiree benefit package?
- And the big one, what if the person who will be retiring is the owner, President, GM, CEO or YOU. Do you have a succession plan and, if so, are you using the plan you have to replace the top person.
Hopefully, you have a solid answer for every one of these questions. Well run organizations do. My point is not to scare you, but to prompt action if you aren’t already well prepared. Just like when Katrina hit New Orleans, the Army Core of Engineers knew the levees were weak, the City of New Orleans knew it didn’t have an adequate disaster plan, considerable investigation had been done following 9/11 about disaster preparedness, but plans and the ability to execute them were not in place. Don’t let your organization get caught in the ‘disaster without a plan nightmare’ situation.