How should you fill positions vacated by baby boomer retirements? Manufacturing Business Technology hits it on the nose as to “why the urgency?” in the answer of Bill Martin, President of Fortune Personnel Consultants of Greensboro:

” “It’s there because people of retirement age typically are in management or technically complex positions. This is particularly the case in technical manufacturing positions, where the learning curves are steep,” says Martin.

But then Ron Herzog, President of FPC, begins to explain the process used to fill the positions:

“Companies need new employees in those jobs now to develop the skills needed by the time the boomers retire. The urgency is real,” Herzog maintains. “Many of our clients are manufacturing companies, which are expected to be among those hard hit due to the high instance of employees older than 45 years in management.” “

Note the “need for new employees…to develop the skills needed by the time the boomers retire”. Seems to say that the only way to fill these positions is to hire younger workers.

Bill Martin’s response to the “how to” question is similar:

“”Our clients haven’t been able to find enough qualified grads to fill this pipeline, so they’ve partnered with us to find people to back-fill the pipeline with two to three years of experience. Just about 20 percent of our recent placements have been baby-boomer replacements, and we expect that number to increase.”"

Wow- what about all the people who will be retiring in 10-20 years? Is this group left out because they cost too much? Or because they typically don’t have the technology skills required? Or, is it because they tend to be less flexible in the way they do things? Why is there a miss in relation to older workers replacing retiring workers? Is it driven by the myth that young workers will work for the same company for many years? What do you think?

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