Report: How the aging population will affect the workplace

The year 2030 marks an important demographic turning point in U.S. history according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 National Population Projections.

By 2030, all baby boomers will be older than age 65. This will expand the size of the older population so that 1 in every 5 residents will be retirement age.

“The aging of baby boomers means that within just a couple decades, older people are projected to outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history,” said Jonathan Vespa, a demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau. “By 2035, there will be 78.0 million people 65 years and older compared to 76.4 million under the age of 18.”

Businesses, take note: There will be 2.5 working-age adults for every retirement-age adult by 2060, an expected decrease from 3.5 working-age adults for every retirement-age adult in 2020.

With an aging population, a rise in automation, and the decrease in permanent work, the next couple of decades are going to be truly transformational for the US workforce. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Prepare for an increase in turnover

With millennials being a more transient, adaptable, and flexible generation than those before, employers will have to prepare for a more fluid workforce.

As older employees, who are traditionally more loyal, retire, those that replace them will be much less likely to stay with each company for a long period of time. Turnover will increase and the notion of life-long employees will rapidly disappear.

Accommodate an older workforce

In a recent SHRM survey, very few organizations reported having a formal strategy for retaining (4%) and/or recruiting (3%) older workers.

That has to change.

Employers will have to offer more flexibility (work location flexibility, career flexibility, work hour flexibility, and work schedule flexibility) and iterate benefits packages to better suite the older generations.

Improve efficiency of process

It’s going to be increasingly important to be efficient and effective in critical business employment processes, such as employee onboarding and offboarding, knowledge-transfer, and capitalization on experience.

Organizations that don’t invest in improving and innovating their HR teams will quickly fall behind.

Ultimately, HR professionals will be at the forefront of their organizations’ efforts to meet these challenges and must take the lead by helping their organizations prepare for a more demographically diverse workforce.