MAY
2000
Is
the Workforce as We Know It Coming to an End?
WATCH
OUT: Baby-boomers are turning fifty years old at the rate
of one every seven minutes.
That’s
great news for pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare
providers, who will see an unprecedented demand for their
products and services over the next 30 years. Baby-boomers
have more disposable income than their parents did, and they
want to be around to enjoy it.
For employers
in general, however, the greying of the population is bad
news indeed. According to The Wall Street Journal, the number
of adults under 45 years of age will shrink by 12 percent
over the ten-year period ending 2006, while the number of
jobs will grow by 19 percent.
It is
those, of course, in the 30 to 44-year age bracket who historically
have entered the ranks of middle to upper-level management.
For the next several decades, there simply will not be enough
of them to go around.
For the
short term, a portion of the gap will be filled by Boomers.
With the recent lifting of restrictions on how much outside
income a Social Security recipient can earn, some older employees
may elect to retire at a later age. Others, however, will
want to use their 401(k) money to take advantage of leisure
activities.
Taking
the place of Boomers in the workforce will be the so-called
Generation X – those born since 1970. Not only are there
fewer of them, they also have significantly different attitudes
toward work.
Getting
to Know the “Whatever” Generation
The Baby
Boom, which followed the end of World War II, produced a generation
of workers seeking “better” jobs than their parents
typically had held and, through them, a higher standard of
living. Among other things, they strove to generate the kind
of income that would buy a house, provide for the college
education of their children and ensure a comfortable retirement.
Moreover, until corporate downsizing began in the 1980s, they
were extremely loyal employees.
Boomers’
children – also known as the “Whatever”
Generation – march to a somewhat different drummer.
Often
having been born into more affluent conditions than the way
their parents started life, they don’t so much aspire
to wealth as expect it. (It’s not, “What can I
earn if I work really hard?” – but rather, “How
much does this job pay, and what is the hiring bonus?”)
Work
to them is a means to this or that end – as opposed
to being an end in itself. Nonetheless, since Gen-Xers tend
to work at things they enjoy, they often do an extremely good
job – and may be worth the BMWs and stock options so
increasingly showered upon them, particularly if they are
employed in the New Economy.
They
don’t, conversely, like repetitious or relatively low-paying
jobs, which means that accounting firms have trouble finding
auditors, while manufacturers struggle to hire engineering
graduates for the factory floor.
Last
but not least, they are far less loyal to their employers
than the Baby-Boom Generation tended to be. One obvious reason:
they watched their moms and dads outplaced by companies to
whom their parents had devoted all or much of their careers.
Less obvious: As Michael Lewis wrote in the March 5 issue
of The New York Times Magazine, many companies unwittingly
have turned relatively loyal employees into wary investors
by giving them stock options, stock-purchase plans and outright
stock awards.
“Rather
than think,” Lewis writes, “I need to stay here
and do my best because I have an investment in the company,
they think, I am going to keep a close eye on this ship, in
case it starts to sink and my options become worthless.”
Given
the abundance of available jobs and the explosion of online
computer technology, it’s no trick for an employee –
on the job or off – to obtain instantaneous stock quotations
or scan a favorite electronic job bank for open positions,
carefully matched to his or her specifications.
Mastering
the New Employment Marketplace
Employers
today must learn, therefore, to cope with several trends:
- An
aging workforce (which will continue through the century’s
first quarter);
- A
smaller pool of replacement workers; and
- Increased
job mobility.
Coming
out ahead will require a multi-pronged approach.
Companies,
first and foremost, will need to become nicer places to work.
How well do you treat the valued employees you have? And how
well do you treat the job candidate who, for instance, took
days out of his or her life to interview – only to be
left in the dark for week after week as to whether an employment
offer will result? Common courtesy and civility can make many
other problems disappear.
So if
there’s a web site or chat room devoted to “flame
mail” about your company from disaffected workers, it’s
probably safe to assume there’s a problem. Conversely,
if your employees like where they work – and whom they
work for – they are far less susceptible to employment
ads, headhunter overtures and the daily dose of job postings
on Internet employment sites.
Second,
any company with an unspoken “up and out” policy
should re-examine it. It’s against the law to discriminate
against older workers, but their jobs can be eliminated or
they can be offered handsome rewards for early retirement.
If such practices ever made sense, they make little or no
sense today. Compared to Generation X, older employees often
possess an invaluable knowledge of the organization and its
history, make terrific mentors and are far less likely to
pursue other employment opportunities.
Third,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.5 million
Americans lost their jobs in
1999
– due to lack of skills, as opposed to lack of work.
The 1970s view of the unemployed as “damaged goods”
is no longer valid. The purchasing manager for a Big Three
auto-maker who loses his job when the company moves his function
online may have highly useful skills at another, smaller company.
Last,
take heart from the fact that Gen-Xers are far less homogeneous
than they may appear on the surface. Not all sport nose or
navel rings. Not all expect to be millionaires by the time
they are 30. They probably are less structured in the way
they like to work and far more suspicious of corporate twaddle,
so provide more flexible working conditions and shelve those
messages about better products for better living. “Let’s
all make money” would be a more compelling motto to
them.
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