By: Barbara Bowes

Well-known professor of economics and author of the now famous book, Boom, Bust & Echo, David K. Foot first brought to our attention the fact that demographics has a tremendous impact on both our economy and our social structures.

One of the most defining demographic cohorts is the baby boomer generation. For instance, baby boomers who entered into the workforce in the 1960s brought about increased salaries and new health and social benefits such as improved company pension plans, employment benefits, hospital insurance and public pensions.

Today, this group of citizens is also known to control a large part of total personal wealth in Canada. They typically own their homes, have large savings plans, and low expenses. They travel more frequently than others, they are sophisticated shoppers and today, they are looking more for convenience. From a personal perspective, baby boomers are also looking into holistic and alternative forms of medicine. They want to have fun and enjoy life.

And, the baby-boomer generation is also going to continue making a big impact on our economy. In fact, everyone is just watching and waiting to see whether the prediction of a mass exodus of baby boomers from the workforce is really going to happen. On one hand, governments are fearful that their tax base will erode while health care and social services will increase. On the other hand, most employers are very concerned that key employees will leave and their knowledge will simply walk out the door, thus threatening the viability of the business.

At the same time, research conducted by Statistics Canada as early as 2002 demonstrated that many healthy retirees would have continued working if they had been able to reduce their work schedule. In fact, in my practice as a human resource consultant, I am meeting an increasing number of people who have retired from one career and are excitedly entering another career field with great enthusiasm. All they want is challenge, intellectual stimulation, opportunity and flexibility.

With the shortage of skilled workers, employers need to look toward baby boomers as a good source of labour right at their front door. In fact, many organizations are beginning to do just that. They are establishing special recruitment programs to attract older workers, they are making changes to their work structures and offering a variety of opportunities for flexibility.

We are beginning to see phased-in retirement, job sharing, flextime and compressed work weeks. Many businesses and organizations are examining their workflows and scheduling, and they are redesigning jobs and benefit plans and offering phased-in retirement or permanent part-time work.

The retention of older workers is becoming a critical issue and as such, we can expect to see research studies on best practices in a number of fields. For instance, Seven Oaks Wellness Institute, already a leader in workplace health and healthy organizational services, is well into a two-year federally funded study and demonstration project directed at identifying best practices for retaining highly skilled older nurses and other health-care professionals.

This Retention of Older Worker project is intended to identify opportunities and barriers for retaining valued older workers, provide evidence of best practice initiatives, and then pilot and evaluate some of these strategies. The first stage of the project has included a broad literature review, a survey of stakeholders and focus groups of front-line managers as well as retirees. In addition, the study included an survey of employees over the age of 45.

Seven Oaks General Hospital provided a good study subject and was a good place to start as the facility does have an aging staff demographic. Their initial statistical analysis identified that 48 per cent of their staff are over the age of 45, 32 per cent over the age of 50 and five per cent who are immediately eligible for retirement. As well, 60 per cent of the staff who responded to the internal survey were from the nursing profession which in and of itself, raises some pretty scary risks.

The focus groups of front-line managers identified that the key interest of older workers still on staff was the ability to have flexible work options. In addition, they sought a work environment that recognized and valued their experience and skills, as well as the application of financial incentives and work-load relief.

As well, the project leader reached out and held focus groups of retirees. This group suggested they would be interested in less physically demanding work and less paperwork. As well, they identified that they saw work as a form of social connectedness and would consider work if it was an opportunity to impart knowledge through mentoring to younger staff.

The literature research conducted by the study group found several best practices that are being piloted at Seven Oaks General Hospital. One key project was the development and implementation of a retirement planning education program. At the same time, a strategy to attract older workers is also being piloted. This includes offering temporary assignments, consulting and/or contract work.

One particularly interesting pilot study is the "older worker leave" pilot project through which employees might be offered an opportunity to take either a 12- or 24-week temporary leave.

As well, a retirement/succession planning project has been designed to create opportunities for job shadowing. This will also include formal training, mentoring and knowledge transfer. Experienced workers will be allowed to leave their routines occasionally for the purposes of contributing to the retention of knowledge.

The two-year study at Seven Oaks Wellness Institute is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the experiments and development of best practices related to the recruitment and retention of older workers. I am confident that employers and employees in all industry sectors will use their creativity and ingenuity to develop innovative programs and incentives that will be beneficial to all concerned. After all, didn't those baby boomers change the world in the 60s?

Source: In depth: Canada 2020, The Baby boomers tab, Pierre Fortin, UQAM, July 17, 2006. CBC News, Retaining Older workers Study, Statistics Canada, October 26, 2004, Flexible Work Options, Kim Bush, Context Institute, 1996

Barbara J. Bowes, FCHRP, CMC, is president of Legacy Bowes Group and author of The Easy Resume book: A Transferable Skills Approach. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .