...Aging Workforce Challenges Stacy P Durham Southern New Hampshire University Abstract 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. Keywords: aging workforce Aging Workforce Challenges Management is facing some key issues within their environment. Probably one of the most important and daunting is dealing with the aging workforce. “Workers over the age of 55 are an increasingly large portion of the workforce” (Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A., 2013, p. 41). With such a large pool of workers that are older, leaders are going to have to focus on different styles of management behaviors when dealing with the age gap. The percentage of workers over the age of 65 is increasing at an alarming rate. Due to waning economic security, longer life expectancy, and second careers, projections are that there will be 20 million workers over the age of 65 by the year 2017 (Perry, L.S., 2010, p. 22). Companies...
Words: 1051 - Pages: 5
...Treasure Trove of the Aging Workforce Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyze the diverse workforce with a focus on age diversity. The factors include challenges that can occur in an organization, how to overcome these challenges and benefits of a diverse workplace. This paper is organized by answering three questions around age diversity. The answers consist of various literature reviews and personal insight. Treasure Trove of the Aging Workforce It was once known that the retirement age was 65. That is no longer the case. Employees are no longer retiring, mostly due to the outlaw of mandatory retirement. In addition to not having retirement regulated, people are healthier today due to medical science so they can work longer. With the aging workforce occurring there can be challenges that need to be overcome in order to effectively run an organization in todays world. Aging Diversity What changes in employment relationships are likely to occur as the population ages? Researchers suggest employers have mixed feeling about the aging workforce, however many can be positive. Positive changes in employment relationships that likely will occur can be the increase in work experience, job satisfaction, a strong work ethic, commitment to employer, and to quality of work. Pearson and Judge (2015) state, “ They bring to the job a higher skill level earned through years of experience, remember the organization’s history and know the aging customer base.” However...
Words: 1256 - Pages: 6
...-You Worried About Yesterday: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Workforce. New York: Public Personnel Management publications, Vol. 33/4/ 361. Introduction The demographic dynamics, economic and social consequences of aging workforce in the developed nations particularly Europe and United States presents significant challenges for the coming decades. In the recent times this topic has developed a sense of urgency and is receiving much attention from researchers, policy-makers and the popular media. Without a pro-active approach and appropriate action, the sustainability of social and economic security would be at stake and a labour and skill shortage will become a global issue. European policies have increasingly started to focus on raising the labour-market participation of ageing people, restricting or abandoning possibilities for early labour-market exit, and increasing the age at which people are eligible for pensions. In the article ‘Today is the Tomorrow -You Worried About Yesterday: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Workforce’ Nancy B. Kiyonaga draws the attention to the crucial issue of aging workforce. She has also tried to suggest a solution ‘workforce and succession planning’ as the tool to this critical challenge especially in the public sector organisations which are more vulnerable to the affects of the aging workforce. Nancy B. Kiyonaga herself being the director of Workforce and Occupational Planning and adjunct professor of public administration...
Words: 1078 - Pages: 5
...The Aging Mainframe Workforce Fowill. H. (2016) Western Governors University WGU Student# 000519534 The Aging Mainframe Workforce The impact of the rapidly shrinking mainframe workforce should be a national concern, since it has the potential to impact every aspect of one’s daily live. Most people are oblivious to the amount of times their daily activities interact with applications running on mainframes. Consider every financial transaction done has a high probability to use mainframe systems. Every stock trade, insurance company interaction, groceries checkout, health care systems, or gas station transaction, all these activities require an application potentially written in COBOL, or Assembler running on a mainframe. The shrinking mainframe...
Words: 895 - Pages: 4
...Aging Population in Modern Workforce Southern New Hampshire University September 13, 2014 Abstract This paper refers to the changes current workforce relationships have to go through, due to the constant aging of their employees and population in general. I will discuss the changes that are most likely to occur, how the aging of the workforce affects managers and companies, what policies eliminate age discrimination, the importance of diversity in workforce, and what actions companies can take into consideration in order to maintain a well-balanced, diverse and satisfied workforce. Aging Population in Modern Workforce Changes in Workforce: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Companies and workers have been around for centuries, and the labor force has had a gradually but significantly change. It wasn’t until the 1940, after World War II, when the workforce started to change; 28% of American women was in the workforce (United States Department of Labor, n.d), and the number of workers per retiree was 45/1 (ncpa.org, 2012). Now, the women workforce comprises 57.7 % (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013) of the USA workforce and the seniors (65 +) consist of a 25% of the USA workforce (Gallup Economy, 2014). Over the next 5 to 10 years, we are expecting to experience an increasing rate of the senior population in the workforce. “This group is expected to be nearly 40 million in 2018, an increase of 43%. As a result, this age cohort will compose nearly a quarter of the labor force...
Words: 949 - Pages: 4
...community of our society, yet one that continues to struggle with diversity. Diversity is not new to the United States. This nation has always been a union of various cultures and has gone through repeated periods of uneasiness as the world’s melting pot. Some examples of diversity are race, religion, age, class, lifestyles, gender, language, education, and etc. Our advantages in having a country that is so diverse are creativity and innovations, provision of a broader range of skills, providing better service to diverse customers, and recruitment of the best talent from the entire labor pool. Problems we face with diversity in the workplace are “Glass Ceilings”, “The Good Ole Boys’ System”, stereotypes and assumptions. In today’s workforce more companies are employing managers with little to no prior management experience. Having poor strategic planning and leads to organizations who fail there employees and fail to provide workplace ethical issues. Fisher, Anne. Are you stuck in middle management hell? Fortune Magazine. August 15, 2006, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ Marching Side By Side. (1997, April). Online Newshour. Retrieved July 26, 2006, from http://www.pubs.org/newshour/bb/military/april97/coed Zdechlik, Mark (2004). U.S. military faces recruiting and retention challenges. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/07/06 Vote Match: Require companies to hire more women & minorities. Retrieved September...
Words: 276 - Pages: 2
...ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR BUS 311 Proposed Topic for Research Paper Gilbert Lee Gragg March 4, 2015 Topic #1. Newport News shipbuilding recurring racial and ethical issues regarding treatment of non-white workers. Topic #2. Consistent questionable treatment of employees at Newport News Shipyard. Topic #3. Preferential treatment of white employees over black employees at Newport News Shipyard. I worked at Newport News Shipyard in 2008 as a security guard and unlike recent cases state, treatment showed all workers showing disrespect and racial based jokes at the other group’s expense. A noticeable difference was the education in which the black work force lacked over white counterparts. Such a large workforce with considerable educational and historical backgrounds can lead to tension, especially when a group feels at a disadvantage. I plan on interviewing some of the management staff, equal opportunity representatives and possible employees in relation to the proposed topics of interest. There are few articles regarding the topics listed, however research conducted by interviewing employees and staff at the shipyard should and will yield the proper amount of needed evidence to conduct a thorough paper. This topic is of interest to me, because I would like to delve deeper into the organizational and psychological aspect to see if only people of non-white origin have wanted to search for a monetary gain and if it should be the company or the individuals...
Words: 266 - Pages: 2
...Multigenerational Workforce in Difference Industries Lingwen Meng Lee University Abstract The multigenerational diversity in workforces in different industries is getting larger in the last decade. Not only there are a major shifting of young workforce to professional industries and non-professional industries, but there is a growing in size of elder workforce in the most popular industries. This fact is creating many changes and challenges in communication between different generations at work. Keywords: multigenerational workforce, business communication Definition According to Department for Professional Employees, the young workforce is defined as people aged 20 through 34 who are working at the moment. On the other hand, the elder workforce is the people aged above 35 who are working. In 2013, young people were estimated to be twenty-seven percent of the professional workforce. Research On a macro scale, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, the total number of young workers in all industries was 49 million people out of 144 million employees in the U.S, which is 34 percent of the total workforce. The total number of elder workers in all industries was 95 million people out of 144 million employees in the U..S, which takes 64 percent of the total workforce. The amount of elder workers was nearly double the amount of young workers. Young workers with less education than associated degree are...
Words: 1540 - Pages: 7
...become commonly referred to as the “melting pot.” Every day this country is becoming more and more diverse and acceptant of other cultures. This is becoming more and more prominent in the workforce as well. Not only are people from all around the globe able find work in the United States, but women are also becoming more dominant in the workforce. Although there is still a lot of speculation as to whether or not women and men are getting equal treatment and pay, many women today are finding themselves suffering from little to no discrimination in the workplace. In today’s society, people also tend to stay in the labor force longer. Recent studies show that more elderly people are working longer than in previous years. With more women, elderly, and culturally diverse people working, communication between workers can become quite challenging. Therefore, it is important to practice improving communication abilities in the company through the application of diversity skills (Linn, 2013). A.1. Demographic Changes One demographic change that we see regularly today is the work force becoming more culturally diverse. Every year the numbers of culturally diverse employees are growing more and more. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by race, Caucasians made up the majority of the workforce as of 2013, counting as 79% of all working Americans. African Americans accounted for 12% of laborers, Asians counted for 6%, and American Indians and Alaska Natives made up only 1% of...
Words: 3362 - Pages: 14
...Women gaining power in business The role of women in the workforce has increased dramatically over the last several decades. If we look at women these days, women have become very successful in balancing between both work and family to build a strong foundation for their children and future generations who may want to be just as successful, ambitious and accomplish the same goals. Women these days have so many more opportunities that they never had before, this opens the doors for women to achieve anything in terms of business. Women are gaining power in business these days because there are more women going into the workplace, women getting better education and finally women are getting hired more than men because they are paid less. Certainly, roles of women these days are different than what they were back in the days. Women had a very small role in business back in the days, we see a lot more women in the workplace these days. Today, women only take some roles in consideration. Staying home and taking care of the house is no longer women’s number one priority. Instead, working outside of the home whether its part time or full-time is much more popular. A large percentage of women these days choose to be in the workplace, to be independent and support their families rather than staying home. A lot of families depend on the mother’s income especially during these tough economic times. Years ago, not a big percentage of women were seen in the work force. During...
Words: 1057 - Pages: 5
...Cambodia Cambodia is a small country bordered by Thailand and Loas on the north and Vietnam on the east and south. The country has a rough population of 15 million and is the size of Missouri. The country consists mainly of grainy plains ringed by mountains and has two large body of waters Mekong River on the east side and in the center Lake Tonie Sap, which is the storage basin of the Mekong. Cambodia’s main language is 95 percent Khmer and then French and English are the other 5 percent. Their labor force is 8.8 million est. in 2012 with 75 percent of it being agriculture. The industries that they focus on mainly are tourism, garments, rice milling, fishing, wood and wood products, gem mining and textiles and that’s how the country gets a living. They also have almost 45 percent of women employed in nonagricultural sectors, which is very low for a country of any size. The country also has a very low percentage of females that have seats in their national parliaments with 20 percent so it shows that males dominate the work force and the nations power of voting for decisions. The Quantitative figures of this country and their labor force participation rates for men and women are actually very close over all despite the idea of men over taking women in the working fields. The figures actually show that men of Cambodia are actually 90.9 percent for primary completion rate. The women actually have the upper hand with a percentage of 91.7 and that’s above the men...
Words: 601 - Pages: 3
...Over the years, many women have graduated out of colleges and universities, hoping to enter the workforce. Although, there are some workforce in the industries where there have shown low presence of growth, whereby quarter of these women stopped working and moved to being part- timers, according to Baig (2013). Yet, when it comes to sheer numbers, women’s participation rate in the labour force has increased greatly, from 30.3 million in 1970 to 72.7 million over four years. In Brunei, as stated by Ishak (2008), women’s participation rate in the workforce has also increase dramatically from 20% to over 59% today. The establishment of the Women’s Business Council in Brunei in 1999, aims to support business women of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for women to help themselves grow personally and professionally though leadership, networking education and national recognition, it is said that almost 50% of all micro, small and medium enterprises in Brunei are made of women. From there, to be on an equal standing with the men can be seen, be it in terms of salary or position. Hence, women today began to accept the equal opportunity given to men and women, due to the factors such as people’s prejudice towards working women, government policies such as the Legislation on Women in Brunei and others. These women do see themselves as a part of the “bread-winners”, a role usually hold by the men. Quality Work-Life balance, as stated by Cherrington...
Words: 443 - Pages: 2
...{text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} Standing on the main corner of a Sydney or Melbourne street one can hear various and different languages and dialects from around the world. Recent decades have coincided with the rapid globalisation in Australia society, due to a main reason is the government’s immigration program as skilled worker migration. This program has been very much impacted on Australia labour force. According to Australia penetrates into the ageing society, a serious skilled labour shortage is occurred in many industries. {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} Especially, the nursing industry is mainly affected by the aging population issue. Because of falling mortality rate, life expectancy and declining fertility rate, demand for nursing workforce is rapidly increasing in number. So, the solution that the government came up with the shortage of nurses was the General Skills Migration where overseas nurses can work in Australia. Through the skilled worker program, as many as number of lack of nursing labour force could be replaced by immigrated nurses. Introduction Understanding and respect for different culture is one of valuable moral principles in these days as multiculturalism society. According to Bennett (n.d.), multiculturalism is defined that the emergence of the term is strongly associated with a growing realisation of the unintended social and cultural consequences of large-scale immigration. The influx...
Words: 2435 - Pages: 10
...birth. The Army would discharge a female soldier once it was determined she was pregnant as well confirming societies views that a mother needs to be home with her children. Finally marriage was used as their third justification for these limits. This justification assumes women marry and that the man’s job should be in the public sphere and the woman should remain in the home. All three of these reasons might have been seen as reasonable in early history because women were treated as a possession but with today’s society none of these justifications hold true. Today with divorce rate so high and more women are put into the place of single mother raising children alone the need for equality in the workforce is even greater. Since 1955 the number of women in the workforce has risen from 27% to over 70% and mothers with children under six years old have risen from 18% to over 62%. (InfoPlease). Men are still paid higher...
Words: 522 - Pages: 3
...some of the onus on lower level employees will lead to a higher level of performance in the work place because employees will have to analyze and make decisions on their own that influence quality and performance. Decentralization also helps to promote a leaner organizational structure that is able to work more effectively. This leads to what is known as "Six Sigma" which is all about doing more with less. Staff that can make decisions wisely for the benefit of the work place without costing the business time and resources to make those decisions is valuable. Perfect decisions may not always be made and mistakes may occur but employees will learn from their mistakes and evolve to become wiser, more skillful and more capable. An educated workforce is more effective than one that needs to be monitored constantly. Typically in a business, the operating level knows more about how to control the processes then the ones further away from the action. Empowering employees means challenging themselves which will often lead to them rising to the occasion (goal congruence). Empowering the lower level is about motivating employees to care about their jobs. Being able to see how what they do as lower level employees ultimately affects the overall well being of an organization encourages that hard work. Involving the lower levels of an organization promote unison between "top level" and "shop level" workers and...
Words: 739 - Pages: 3
