In 18 months, the first baby boomers will hit early retirement age, the beginning of an unprecedented exodus of workplace talent. This problem has been dubbed the "2001 Problem," and could cause more havoc on business than the much-ballyhooed Y2K bug.
More
workers are opting for retirement at younger ages. In many factories, unionized
workers retire in their mid-50s. That means the oldest members of the generation
that exploded beginning in 1946 are now ready to leave the work world behind.
According to the July 12 Wall Street Journal, "Until recently, the biggest
retirement worry facing companies was covering pensions and health-care costs.
But the stock market has helped solve that problem by enriching pension funds.
The big concern now is whether they can find the right people to fill a likely
rash of openings."
For
example, at the Cummins Engine plant in Columbus, Indiana, 655 of the plant's
1,100 workers will be eligible to retire over the next five years. "That's
not turnover -that's a tidal wave," said John King, president of the Roster
Network, which helps Indiana businesses prepare for such trends. King said that
many skilled jobs are driven by what the Journal article calls "voodoo
knowledge." "Voodoo knowledge is all the information that is known
only to the person who does a particular job - someone who knows the quirks of a
finicky machine or process or computer network and can coax and cajole it into
performing," King said. "When these folks head out the door, the
company experiences a costly 'brain drain. '" Even companies with younger
workers will be affected as businesses court workers from other companies to
replace retiring boomers.
The solution? "Just like the Y2K problem, the solution to the '2001 Problem' is advance preparation and contingency planning - specifically, job-description documentation and knowledge-management training," King said. "You need to have workers document what they do and how they do it, so when they leave, you're not blindsided."