Are You Smarter Than a CEO?

Despite employee shortages, companies keep rushing older workers to the exits.

Photo by Tarik Haiga on Unsplash

What’s wrong with this picture?

• Last fall the U.S. had 6.5 million unemployed workers but 9.5 million job openings. In manufacturing, health care, education, and wholesale and retail trade, there are more positions open than qualified candidates to fill them.

• A worldwide survey of employers reported that 77% of companies report talent shortages.

• The average retirement age of American workers is 62. More than half of retirees say they retired sooner than they had expected.

• About 11,200 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day. Each worker who retires represents years of institutional knowledge and organizational continuity walking out the door.

• Three out of four current workers in one survey expected to continue working after retirement; in fact, only 30% of retirees actually do.

• Four out of five Baby Boomer employees would like the option of retiring gradually, but only 16% of U.S. employers offer a formal or informal phased retirement option.

If you can see the problem and the obvious solution, then you must be smarter than 84% of America’s CEOs, who are doing little to stanch the bleeding of highly qualified, highly experienced employees leaving their jobs – often against their will – because company policies require it. Meanwhile these same companies bemoan how many jobs requiring skills and experience go begging.

Something is wrong with this picture, all right. You don’t need an MBA to put together what the numbers are telling you.

1.      Many older workers want to keep working.

They like working. They like having a place to go every day. They like having other people to talk to. It gives them purpose. And they have seen others who stopped working and didn’t know what to do with themselves.

Also, some older workers need to keep working. A study by the Boston College Center for Retirement Research reported that nearly half of working-age households are at risk of reducing their current standard of living in retirement. They don’t have enough savings to keep them comfortable without a steady income. If forced to retire from their current jobs, they’ll seek part-time or full-time work elsewhere to keep their families afloat.

2.      Workers would really like options other than flipping a switch – employed one day, retired the next.

Neil Costa, the CEO of a digital recruitment marketing agency, makes a case that “Flextirement” – a word he coined – is destined to be the future. Flextirement would let employees choose to semi-retire, working part-time hours on a key initiative, a specific project, or as a mentor for promising younger talent. His proposal, he says, strikes the balance between the needs of employers and of employees. “The employee receives flexibility to retire in the capacity that works for them, and the employer retains valuable knowledge to be passed on to Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z as well as the company as a whole.”

The response from corporate America? Crickets. At present, says Cheryl Evans, director of the Milken Institute, “the onus seems to be on individuals.”

3.      Older workers have a tough time getting jobs because ageism is a real barrier.

The same ageism that drives HR directors to force older employees to retire also makes it difficult for older adults who want work to find it. “Just because retired people are looking for work doesn’t mean they’re going to find it – despite strong hiring figures,” says a report from Korn Ferry. It notes that HR executives hesitate to hire older workers because of doubts about their technological savvy. “When we’re 55 or 60, it’s very easy to say, ‘I’m going to work part time,” says Brent Weiss, co-founder of a consumer financial technology company. “But when you’re in your 60s, where do those part-time jobs exist?”  

4.      Retirement isn’t what people expected.

A two-week vacation may be great, a two-month vacation even better, but a 20-year vacation? When most 60-year-olds can expect to live into their 80’s or beyond, a two-decade retirement of leisure and frolic strikes many as a recipe for boredom and dissatisfaction. Those in good health often turn to part-time work, or “unretiring,” to give their days structure and perhaps meaning.

All these factors should send a clear message to corporate America. But to this point, says Michael Clinton, author of ROAR into the second half of your life, the corporate leaders who are paying attention are approaching the issue “with a 20^th century mindset when finding solutions requires 21^st century thinking.” In particular, he notes, “There’s an institutional and systemic ageism that has been ingrained in corporate policies and it typically begins when employees are in their mid-50’s. The drum beats louder as they move into their 60’s.”

Maybe I should be a CEO.

Oh wait – never mind. I’m past my sell-by date.