Aging Workforce: The Issue of an Aging

¶ … Aging Workforce:

The issue of an aging workforce is one of the major growing challenges that organizations and industry experts face. This issue not only presents an actual safety challenge but also a huge opportunity to address other socio-economic forces. For employers seeking to maintain a top-notch workforce, the issue of aging workforce is not only a challenge but an opportunity for employees who may want to earn extra income in retirement. In the United States, the aging workforce accounts for one-third of the country's workforce and are set to retire by the end of this decade (Reeves, 2005). However, the country faces a challenge regarding the lack of enough younger employees to replace the aging workforce. Consequently, industry experts need to radically rethink about recruitment, retention, adjustable work plans, and retirement due to labor shortages in major industries.

Dealing with Labor Shortages:

According to Ip (2011), the United States shortage in skilled employees can be adequately addressed through leveraging the aging workforce (p.27). Leveraging the aging workforce is regarded as a means of engaging these employees properly in order to provide significant solutions and cost savings. Actually, the failure to properly engage the aging workforce will contribute to numerous threats o future growth and productivity in the country. The aging workforce is usually viewed as an issue to be addressed rather than asset to leverage.

Unlike younger workers, the aging workforce tends to be more motivated and focus on quality despite taking fewer days off from work. The intrinsic motivation and focus on quality by the aging workforce is attributed to fact that these people have mastered the mechanisms of the workforce over time. Leveraging the aging workforce is seen as an effective way of addressing labor shortages in the United States because the actual effects of retaining experienced employees are all positive. The labor shortage in skilled workforce can be dealt with adequately through leveraging the aging workforce because there are relatively fewer younger workers entering the workforce. The need for this approach originates from the generally huge number of baby boomers facing retirement and the need to increase the workforce by 58 million employees in the next 30 years in order to maintain current productivity rates.

However, there are other alternative approaches that can be used to address the shortfall in skilled workers due to the increase in older workforce. First, the problem can be addressed through increasing the number of students and degree holders in math and science. The shortfall in graduates of these subjects makes it difficult to overcome the challenge since projected challenges are expected to involve employees with specific skills. Secondly, the labor shortages in skilled workers can be addressed through developing means for older workers to pass their knowledge and skills on to younger workers (Reeves, 2005). This can be achieved through making concerted efforts toward integrating older and younger employees.

Effects of Changing Physical Workplace to Accommodate Aging Workers:

As people grow, they inevitably change in several ways across physical, attitudinal, cognitive, cultural, medical, and psychological areas. In the working environment, changes tend to take place across the physical, physiological and psychosocial abilities for older workers (Perry, n.d.). These changes in the abilities for older workers are the basis with which the physical working environment is changed in order to accommodate these workers. The process of changing the physical working environment to accommodate older workers is based on an understanding of the differences between aging workers and younger employees. In most cases, this challenge is usually addressed through designing a proper workplace design that addresses the needs of the aging workforce.

Since the accommodation of older employees is significant in the inevitably changing workforce, the development of a suitable workplace design for older workers helps in increasing the productivity and safety of the entire workforce. While there is a great need to change the physical working environment to accommodate older workers, there are some side effects associated with this process. First, the organization is likely to face difficulties in efficiency of its operations due to the new workplace design. These difficulties are likely to occur during the initial stages of the implementation of the new workplace design. Moreover, the difficulties are attributed to the probable resistance that is likely to occur from the workforce, especially younger employees. Secondly, changing the physical working environment is likely to result in huge costs or expenses for the organization. The extra costs or expenses are associated with the purchase of new equipments to promote training and the need for additional training. Third, there are safety issues that are likely to occur because as the workforce ages, people become increasingly susceptible to injury (Ip, 2011, p.29). The increased susceptibility to workplace injuries and illnesses is likely to pose significant challenges to an organization.

Overcoming the Challenges of Older Workers:

The aging workforce face physical challenges that can be classified into three major categories i.e. decreased resilience, joint movement and arthritis, and poor circulation ("Hand Protection for Older Workers," n.d.). However, these challenges can prolong an employee's years of meaningful employment if addressed properly. Despite of results of grip-strength testing in the classroom, older workers seem to have dexterity, agility, strength, and movement challenges. Some of the most notable challenges for older workers include decrease in ability to grasp, decrease in precision of movement, decline in range of motion, erosion of muscle strength, and weakening of the ability to control and muscle endurance.

In order to prolong the meaningful employment years of older workers, it's important to develop effective strategies to address these challenges. The first strategy to help in dealing with the challenges is a proactive approach in developing key workplace design guidelines. The proactive approach helps to tackle the challenges through critical consideration of occupational health and safety guidelines. Secondly, employers can overcome this perceived problem through developing effective administrative and engineering controls. The administrative and engineering controls are actions taken by employers to lessen probable harmful effects through appropriate policies, strategies, and procedures.

Training Programs for Older Workers:

While older workers have the basic responsibility of updating their own knowledge and skills, employers need to ensure equal access and design training to be effective for these workers. Effective training strategies for older workers are crucial in extending the years of meaningful employments by these workers. There are four major factors to consider for training to be most effective to older workers i.e. pace, context and relevance, focus, and self-direction (Committee for Economic Development, 2000, p.40). Pace involves the duration it takes for older workers to complete training tasks while context and relevance helps in providing practical ways for older workers to learn. In contrast, focus of the training would be on developing skills the older worker already possesses whereas self-direction deals with promoting self-directed learning of the aging worker.