Why The Aging Workforce Has Hurt Productivity

Many employers view the old employers especially the baby boomers as too rigid, failing health, lack of enthusiasm, afraid of new technologies, do not want to learn new training (stuck in old ways), and expensive to keep. Many aged people are viewing job advertisements with pictures of younger employees. In addition, the aged are facing high cost of medical insurance and healthcare. With the obstacles in the job market, the aged could possibly experience social isolationism, low self-esteem, and financial hardship.

Economic factors will play a role in baby boomers working beyond the age of 50. Due

As we begin to enter an aging America many positive effects will foreshadow, like having more experienced workers, changing perceptions of how we think of the aged and aging, them being active in the community, and obtaining their place in society. In observing the history and how far we have come along with regards to our views, government funding’s, and where they will live can only improve as future elderly come into existence. So much as 40 years into the future there perhaps will be modifications to reduce working hours to 4 days a week. Changes like this would shift our demographic work style that would ease us into our older years and living longer and happier lives. This growing demographic that’s estimated in the future will play a

While these aspects of society certainly do impact a nation with a growing older population, they are not the most problematic. Financial instability of the country should not be the spotlight of concern, but as people are living longer, people should be more concerned with that the typical life should look different in the future. With this in mind, the article proposes other areas of concern: lack of incentive for volunteering, little to no new education for older adults, and massive technological change with no way for older generations to learn how to use it. If these areas are not provided with change, it will ultimately lead to economic hardship for the elderly, due to the lack of new education and technological knowledge, which would, in turn, able them to work longer. If older generations were able to stay in the workforce longer, our aging society, which people believe may eventually not have a large enough work force, would be able to avoid this presumed

By 2020, approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years or older and employers have yet to come to grips with this fact. The aging population will affect the workforce through retirement and those continuing to work. Medicare and Social Security are very likely to undergo profound changes. Some who reach the age of 65 will not be able to retire due to the fact that they require outside income. Retired or not, the aging population will contribute heavily to the consumer market. Their demand for leisure-time pursuits and professional services will fuel local labor markets. This boom in the service sector may replace many low-skilled or unskilled jobs. The aging of the population will be far more dramatic that ethnic

It no stretch to see that the majority of workers nowadays are above forty. The population of youth is unable to get the jobs to support themselves and the seniors are given them instead due to more work experience and the fact that the better part

“Baby Boomers ranked the highest when it comes to being a productive part of their organizations (69% of respondents agree), "hardworking" (73% of respondents agree), a "team player" (56% of respondents agree), and mentoring others (55%)” (Giang, 2013). In view of the aforementioned citation, it delivers a perspicacious frame of reference into the purpose of this case assignment. A case assignment that will be evaluating the aging workforce from a human resource (HR) mindset. Along with a deliberation, of the increased worthiness baby boomers provide a company. When said, company is acquiring contemporary employees with unique skills. In their efforts, for compensating for the impending loss, they will have to endure upon the departure

However that is not the case in today’s society amongst seniors. Seniors still have the desire to work or they actually have to work in order to sustain their own well-being. In this article it discusses the motive for what drives seniors to continue working, “Polling of CARP members shows that about half of seniors want to work and half need to work, Eng says. Those who choose to work enjoy the sense of engagement and contribution that paid employment brings” (Luke, 2014). This context ties in with the age stratification theory, which states that it “focuses on the movement of age cohorts over the life course” (Novak et al., 2014 p.26). Seniors wish to continue working which will cause conflicts between two age cohorts. Age cohorts are defined as a group of people born in the same period of time (Novak et al., 2014 p.26). Baby boomers are individuals born after World War 2 and the younger individuals are either from the MTV generation or boomerang generation Younger generations whom are searching for job opportunities will be facing further competition. The notion of old age in previous is to stop working and retire. However this article states that “The idea in the past that at a certain age you just quit — you stop working, stop dressing, stop getting engaged in politics — is changing,” The agenda for seniors now is to continue working rather than

Indeed, older workers have plenty of experience with the clear understanding in organizations. Therefore, they have the capacities to make good decision quickly and less mistakes. Refer to the book of Lois Lowry, people in the community always ask the Giver for advice since he has the memories that is consider as wisdom (130). Similarly, that critical thinking and wisdom have gained through the years in jobs lets older workers delivery top quality as well as helps companies avoid the repetition of mistakes. In tough marketplaces, it is important to realize that older workers are the source that bring profits to companies because after working for a long time, they have built good relationships as powerful strings to connect loyal and potential customers with companies. Under those circumstances, older workers ' productivity is much more or at least on par with younger workers.

No matter how talented or skilled an employee may be over another, workplace history has revealed more than just a few times that the younger applicant is often the one to win the job rather than the older generation. Age discrimination in the workplace has become a touchy subject for a while. It is a touchy topic because even though it might not be directly said it is apparent that the younger person is chosen more over the older worker in a lot of cases. Ageism is defined as, “Prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person’s age also known as age discrimination” (google 1).

An aging workforce indicates that the average age of workers is increasing. This means that the present majority of workers in the United States are older than the majority of workers in previous years. Currently, 20% of workers are over the age of 65 and by 2020, 25% will be over the age of 55 (Overview, 2015). From 1994 to 2014, employees aged 65 to 74 increased 126% and employees 75 and older increased 117%. Regardless of what the actual numbers were in 1994 vs. 2014, this extreme increase means that the aging workforce is not slowing down anytime soon. Between 2012 and 2022, employees aged 65 to 74 are said to increase by another 72.1% and employees 75 and older are projected to increase by another 85.2%. Also, work schedules of employees

“People are working longer. Not always because they want too but because they have too.” (CITATION) Those who were planning to retire or have retired, found that what they had saved for themselves was underestimated. Therefore, resulting in them having to go back into the workforce. However, there is a lot of controversy over this topic and allowing elders who have retired back into the workforce. Not only because of agism, but it is said that they are “Steeling jobs from the undergraduate.” (CITATION) It’s proven that “for every baby boomer in the workforce, it would take 2 students to replace them.” (CITATION) But this gives no reason to discriminate against and turn away from elders in the workforce, especially when they are qualified for the job. Nonetheless “It is a real challenge to start a new occupation when you are older and especially getting back into the workforce and with a new job.” (CITATION) Elders who have have been working for majority of their lives begin to identify themselves with there jobs, and “there is stigma when you identify yourself with your title and career and suddenly don't have it.” (CITATION) Conrad Black is an example of this. He is one of the elders at the Round Table Discussion and he was “Hired, Fired and NOT retired” (CITATION) One of the guest speakers at the discussion, talked about how he was involuntarily

Aging population can be used as an advantage to increase economic rates growth by keeping them employed as long as possible (Nankervis et al. 2006, p.55). People who are working in a knowledge fields may increase their performance with age, however for more physical positions there is an opposite possibility of low performance with increasing age (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). Consequently, specific jobs may have lack of professional employees. For example by separating workers and using older workers as experience type that can teach and train young employees, as well as use their knowledge will benefit organization in different departments. Also by using younger workers as routine workers or in more physical positions that are hard to perform for older employees will give them opportunity to earn more experience and will keep older employees working as well (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). It is necessary for human resources to distribute their workforce accordingly and to provide required training for their young and old employees.

There seems to be many key issues that come along with an aging workforce. Not only do companies and management have to worry about losing qualified workers as they come into retirement age, they are finding out that the pool of qualified workers is getting smaller. Also, many of the retirement eligible workers are staying in the workforce. Management is forced to look at this aging population in a multitude of ways to figure out how to keep their own productivity and profitability on track. I will look at different thoughts about the aging workforce and how management can cope with the changing landscape.

Whether to allow retired citizens to continue working after passing their retirement age is still a huge doubt in our current society. Organizations may not want to re-employ them as they may be unfit for the job due to their physical limitations. However, re-employing them will greatly benefit them. I will be giving my opinions and suggestions for this concern in this blog post.