In other words, hordes of working people are retiring, planning to retire, or thinking about retiring.
Who are these people? Very often, they’re the people in your organization who best know the whys and wherefores of your projects and procedures. They’re the ones who have so internalized tasks and deliverables that they’ve never even written the steps down. They’re the ones who remember why a certain project succeeded and why another failed and how that affected the company’s direction. In short, they are the holders of what’s known as organizational memory.
And they’re retiring.
What can you do to capture their knowledge? How can you make sure they don’t take the organizational memory with them?
Using Baby Boomers as Trainer/Mentors
One approach is to harvest the Baby Boomers’ knowledge by utilizing them as trainer/mentors. This role can be presented to them as an honor, which, really, it is, since it acknowledges the importance of what they know and what they can share.
Establishing Written Procedures
Establishing written procedures can be more difficult to manage and less effective. A lot of people don’t like taking the time to write down instructions, and without the give-and-take that occurs during training and mentoring, they may assume that people will understand certain difficult points or already know how to do certain steps.
It’s important to make this a company-wide initiative rather than focusing on older employees. Otherwise, they may feel that you are secretly planning to let them go.
Establishing Consultant and Part-Time Opportunities for Retirees
Perhaps the best option, if it fits with your organization’s culture, is to retain relationships with retirees by offering them the opportunity to be consultants or to work part-time. Realistically, no matter how many sets of instructions a person writes down, or how many people she mentors, she cannot cover everything she has learned in her decades of experience. And it’s not just the older worker’s knowledge that’s important; it’s also her ability to synthesize her knowledge, experience, and instincts to come up with the correct response to a particular situation at a particular moment.
Luckily, it won’t be difficult to entice Baby Boomers to maintain a working relationship with your organization. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, roughly half of Baby Boomers have considered delaying retirement, due to uncertainty about their financial situations and the economic future of the world at large. (2)
How does your organization make sure that retiring Baby Boomers don’t take your company’s organizational memory with them? And how do the potential retirees respond?
Sources:
(1) http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=1150
(2) www.pewsocialtrends.org/2009/05/28/most-middle-aged-adults-are-rethinking-retirement-plans/
Wendy Caster is a writer specializing in finances, health and wellness, and organizational management. Her short movie, Second Glance, is making the rounds of film festivals.
--Wendy Caster
Wendy Caster is a writer specializing in finances, health and wellness, and organizational management. Her short movie, Second Glance, is making the rounds of film festivals.
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