Super Bowl XL is officially the site of the first successful protest movement of the Aging Baby Boomers – the right to rock ‘n’ roll all of our lives. The Stones, whose players’ average age is 63, entertained the NFL, whose players’ average age was 26. Here’s the story that I’ll bet you do not know about. The “misguided” Super Bowl planners tried to exclude anyone over 45 from the corps of 2,000 dancing, celebrating extras who took to the field to perform. It was “too physically taxing” a NFL spokesperson told a Detroit newspaper – “You have to attend rehearsal and be able to stand for long stretches of time.” It wasn't long before the idea of barring people because they were too old and decrepit to cheer their gyrating, cranking elders struck the irony bone. Now….you know - the rest of the story! Rock on!

THE CONTINGENT WORKFORCE – A Global Competitive Advantage
Look out America. Here comes the world.

Extraordinarily high U.S. labor productivity growth rates are over in the U.S., at least for now, according to a January ’06 report by The Conference Board. “Though still healthy compared with many other developed nations, the productivity growth rate slumped to 1.8 percent in 2005 (1.1% in the last quarter of 2005) in the United States, down from 3% in 2004. U.S. performance is still good compared to Europe, but emerging countries are rapidly moving up. Sustained productivity is especially strong in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. And productivity growth in China and Poland has climbed to about 8 percent.”

You’ve heard about jobs going to Mexico, China and India, but take a look at Bulgaria, South Africa and Brazil for offshore up and comers.

We have a cost-affordable option at home. It is time to come to grips with the fact that organizations must remain profitable and will pay market-driven prices for market-valued contributions. The mature worker offers one alternative to offshoring. Use their services when and as needed. Pay them for the value of this contribution. And, if that pay is less than they have been making, consider offering them other benefits. For example, the opportunity to continue to learn might suggest an educational benefit as an enticement.

ASK THE S-AGE
…and receive good, but somewhat unexpected, answers to frequently asked questions.
Can you offer a few suggestions as starting points for our firm to begin to prepare for the future?

Do you know your firm’s demographics by age and gender as well as by years in a given position? As men are preparing to retire, look at the mature women, who have worked patiently at their sides, as candidates for replacement. Many of these women know almost as much about the men’s jobs as the men themselves knew and they may have years to work before they can afford to retire!

Is your first response during hard times to get rid of mature employees under the guise of offering enhanced early retirement packages? You may enjoy greater savings by offering phased retirement at all times, good and bad. But, of course, this requires that you calculate the costs of re-recruiting and training as well as measuring the savings in payroll that phased retirement offers. Can you measure the cost of lost goodwill? Before you layoff mature workers, scan your customer base and be careful about the message you send to customers if they, too, are mature. Do the math and consider the consequences before you have the need. It’s called strategic workforce planning!

What systems have you put in place to capture knowledge? Many employers collect data. Few capture knowledge. 80% of real knowledge may be in the minds of your long-term employees. They leave…. knowledge leaves. Here’s a thought. As your experienced workers “retire” – setup your re-engagement plan. Stay in touch with these folks. Keep them engaged in their hearts (Happy Valentines’ Day) and they will, on occasion, be delighted to share what’s in their minds for reasonable financial remuneration, of course.