Category Archives: Boomers

Your Employees Can’t Retire. They’re Broke!

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Today’s guest post comes from my fellow HR Blogger, Mike Haberman of Omega HR Solutions. This is definitely a hot topic, as we have so many Boomers in the workforce. I love this guy Mike. Off to the races……

I read an interesting combination of articles. The first described the very poor outlook for older workers who have become the majority of the long term unemployed. The second was the results of a survey called the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey which showed that many workers don’t plan on retiring. So the result is that workers are opting to work longer, the issue is staying employed.

No money to retire

The first article, Sustained Unemployment Rises, shows that the ever increasing numbers of the long-term unemployed are older workers. Because they are exhausting any and all saving they will not be able to retire if and when they do become re-employed. Imagine the pain of being 57 years old and moving back into your parents’ home in order to be able to live?

Not ready to retire

The second article dealt with the retirement survey. Some of the results of that survey include:

  • The 13th Annual Transamerica Survey found low levels of ‘retirement readiness’ among workers, and for many, saving enough to retire by age 65 may be unrealistic.
  • 69 percent of workers agreed that they could work until age 65 and not save enough to meet their retirement needs.
  • Most workers plan to either work past age 65 and/or work part-time in retirement.
  • Few workers (20 percent) have a back-up plan if they are forced into retirement sooner than expected due to life’s unforeseen circumstances.

These two situations are adding up to be a societal disaster. I am part of that Baby Boom generation that did a poor job of saving for retirement. I have been making up for lost time but I know that without work that would be very difficult to do and without work what was saved would rapidly disappear.

One other result of that survey was that many workers would change jobs for a better retirement plan than they currently have. You may want to review what you are offering; it may become the key to retaining your employees. You also may want to offer education to your employees on the value of that retirement. Many employees are very uneducated about what they have or will have at retirement. For many that is a real eye-opener.

About the Author:

Michael (Mike) D. Haberman, SPHR is a consultant, writer, speaker and co-founder of Omega HR Solutions, Inc.  He has been in the field of HR for 30 years as both practitioner and consultant. He specializes in compliance issues for his small business clients but happily discusses many HR subjects. He is the author of the blog HR Observations which can be found at http://www.omegahrsolutions.com and he has been writing blog posts on a full spectrum of HR topics for over six years. He is an active user of Twitter and can be found at @mikehaberman or @HRComplianceGuy. He has been an instructor in HR for 14 years and has helped many people achieve their PHR or SPHR during that time.

Now that we’re mobile, what’s your PMC?

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I’ve been doing a lot of research lately as to what companies are doing in the way of staying engaged with their employees and customers, especially now that we’re all mobile.

Most of what I have been reading is that though companies are realizing their employees and customers are already online, they are not quite sure how to incorporate it into their culture.

While I was visiting my family back in Alabama, I noticed my daughter kept getting texts from her boss as to her availability to work, times and so-forth. I realized that getting on the text band wagon at work could be both a useful and annoying tool.

It gives immediate access to recipients and could be used to stay continually engaged with mobile employees who are out in the field, changes in shift updates (as in the case of my daughter) and if one used a little creativity they could easily alleviate costs and headaches by going mobile.

The way we communicate is evolving. Here are a few new stats:

  • 94% of Gen Y own cell phones
  • 6.5 Trillion SMS (short message services – text, mobile, web) messages were sent in 2010
  • 8,000,000,000,000 Text messages will be sent in 2012
  • In 2012 more time will be spent accessing the internet via mobile than the computer

I think something to keep in mind  is staying true to your company’s culture and where it’s headed. And also looking at the demographics of your employees (millennials, boomers, etc.).

I know that email is so 2010 and I personally get so many emails I can hardly sift through them. I prefer texting over emails and phone calls. In fact, I wish I could change my voice mail to say “This is Susan. Please hang up and send me a text.”

So what is your Preferred Method of Communication?

Boomers, Networking and Baby Showers

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Since I am on the road traveling, I thought I would pull one of my guest posts out for you guys this week: Take it away – Joan.

A NOTE TO MY FELLOW BOOMERS - Back when you and I began our professional lives, the term “networking” was not in widespread use. We got our jobs and presumed that if we worked hard and long at them, we would stay working. No one spent time deliberately trying to cultivate a professional network for future job opportunities. If you had a professional network, it was created as a necessity of your particular job.

The economy was shifting underneath us, though. The country was gradually moving from manufacturing goods to providing services, and technology allowed businesses the flexibility of geographic moves and fewer employees. So when the economic bubble finally burst a few years ago, many of us had no professional network to turn to when they lost their job.

Yes, there are job boards and job fairs and even old-fashioned want ads. But statistically, most people get jobs through referrals. In fact, around 60% of all jobs are filled by referred candidates, because studies show that they make better employees.

But being referred means having a network of people willing to refer you to their boss, colleague, or acquaintance. And it is your responsibility to make sure that the world, or at least as large a network as you can grow, knows you are looking for work.

I recently attended a baby shower. As luck would have it, I ended up sitting next to a woman who had recently left the hospital accounting department where she and the hostess worked together, and was in the market for another job.

“I’m an HR consultant,” I told her, “and maybe I can help with your search. Do you have a business card or other contact information with you so that I can put the word out on my network?” Sadly, she had nothing to give me other than her name and piece of paper with her phone number scribbled on it.

In the job search world, this woman didn’t exist.

The lesson here? Treat every event in your life as a potential networking event. 

Networking means establishing conversations with people you meet, being prepared to explain your needs if the opportunity arises, and offering to help them if possible. It’s never too late to start, and there are many opportunities to network that you may not even consider. Use them all, and develop a network even if you are employed, because, as a wiser person than me once said, you should expect the unexpected.

Oh, and carry a business card with you. Always.

About the Author: Joan Ginsberg, JD, SPHR

From police officer to law professor to HR manger, Joan has traveled a unique and interesting career path. Recognizing the common and vital thread running through those fields – a commitment to communication and honesty – Joan has fully embraced both in the new and exciting field of social media management. She writes about HR and workplace issues at her blog Just Joan ( www.joanginsberg.com)  and Women of HR. (www.womenofhr.com) She is the president and co-owner of Castanet Social, a social media services company for small business, and the Director of Social Media for the Human Resources Association of Greater Detroit (HRAGD). She is highly active in the online HR community through social media outlets like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

joan@joanginsberg.com

@JoanGinsberg  (Twitter)

JoanGinsberg (Facebook and Google+)

PSU, Generations and Culture

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Today’s guest post is from one of my online friends in the HR Vendor world, Chris Capozzi. Chris and I have been connected online for awhile now, engaging and so forth, and had the chance to meet IRL at this year’s Illiniois SHRM State Conference. Take it away….

Are there lessons we can learn from Penn State?

Is there a generational consideration that should be given to Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky and others involved in the allegedly horrific crime committed on the campus of Penn State University?  Did the perspective on life that is shown from their generation lead to the actions of the alleged cover up in this case?  Could we learn more on what this teaches us about similar situations?

The answer is yes.  The generational perspective in this case comes from a generation known as the tradionalist group.  This group is from the WWII era and Coach Paterno, born in 1926 falls right in the middle of this group while Coach Sandusky born in 1944 is on the edge of the baby boomers. Let’s examine the key characteristics of this generation and see if this sheds some light on the relationship between these two individuals.

The tradionalist generation are loyal to the employer and expect loyalty in return; possess strong interpersonal skills, enjoy flextime so they can work their own schedule; believe promotion, recognition and raises should come from job tenure. They build a legacy – expect a lifetime career with one employer or at least in one field and have a sense of personal responsibility to work.

Coach Paterno was the leader of this program for over forty years and developed a culture of loyalty from those involved. The corporate culture within the system was solely directed by his life experience.  He has built a legacy but regardless of all the good will that he has built over the years his moral judgment will be forever in question.  While we may never know the truth and circumstances in this tragedy, what we do know is if the culture were different within this team all of the cases that occurred after 2002 could have been prevented.

What would this legacy look like in the corporate world?

The leader that has been in place for decades setting a culture of “this is the way we have always done it” and expects everyone to fall in line with the culture the leader has built as his legacy.  In this company if a scandal was brewing we would see the leader take care of it and expect that he can handle the situation in the way he knows best.  The leader would know that if such a scandal was public his reputation and legacy would be destroyed.

Can we learn from this?  Sure we can. Has this happened before in the corporate world and a different direction taken?  Yes it has.  Think back to 1982, potassium cyanide was placed in Extra-Strength Tylenol throughout Chicago. Seven individuals died from this form of terrorism. Johnson & Johnson (the makers of the pain reliever) could have simply taken Tylenol off the counters in the Chicago area. Instead, the company immediately recalled Tylenol from the stores nationwide. Consumers, advertisers and other businesses praised J&J for its swift actions. Today the company is one of the most well-liked companies by consumers (Bickel, 2011).

Will Penn State University be able to recover from this scandal?  Yes, if they put safe guards in place to ensure this can never happen again.  The school must work to create a safe environment for all staff, students, and visitors. PSU will need to carefully create a standard of operation procedure in reporting and handling such situations in the future.

Future leaders of the institution will need to have a greater understanding on the impact that child safety and the handling of this situation will have on the future enrollment of students and families supporting youth camps on campus.  A policy is not enough.  A culture change is needed and respect for people should be at the foundation if they indeed want to return happy to the valley.

About the Author:

Chris Capozzi is the Director of Business Development for Legacy Business Cultures whose workshops, train-the-trainer programs, and employee climate surveys have touched thousands of organizations, millions of employees, managers and leaders across the globe. Legacy Business Cultures and its partners have been the experts in helping shape organization culture Worldwide for over 14 years. Connect with Chris on twitter @chriscapozzi.