The Impact of the Aging Workforce on Public Sector Organizations ...

www.equaterra.comGet to what matters.Informative measures on retirement are critical but so aremeasures that indicate how <strong>the</strong> organization is prepared torespond to rapid retirements, increases in turnover, changesin demographics and a younger workforce. How much doesrecruitment cost and does it result in quality hires well suited forspecific positions? Do employees feel like <strong>the</strong>y’re prepared uponcompleting training? How flexible are areas like recruiting, staffingand training? Many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> measures examined in this research arekey tools in not only understanding <strong>the</strong> current workforce but alsounderstanding how well an organization will deal with change.Organizations should be cautious not to consider <strong>the</strong> agingworkforce in a vacuum but ra<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> context <strong>of</strong> annualturnover, potential or likely demographic changes and o<strong>the</strong>rcircumstances that may impact <strong>the</strong> organization and itsemployees. Some organizations may never experience a rapidpersonnel loss through retirements, especially with somebaby boomers working longer to build pensions or preparefor retirement. However, a shift in jurisdiction populationcould lead to fewer qualifi ed candidates for those vacanciesleft by regular turnover.incorporate new systems. IT may be an important tool withinan overall strategy but it should not be <strong>the</strong> only tool. Fur<strong>the</strong>r,organizations need to be thoughtful on <strong>the</strong> expectations fornew IT systems and applications to insure <strong>the</strong>se tools will helpachieve <strong>the</strong> desired results.An effective knowledge management strategy begins withunderstanding what knowledge is at risk and how losing thisknowledge will impact <strong>the</strong> organization. This is not a simple taskand will require a somewhat systematic review, especially withindividuals that have deep institutional knowledge from longtenure with <strong>the</strong> organization. Organizations report a variety <strong>of</strong>strategies to capture institutional knowledge from job shadowingto peer-to-peer knowledge transfer. Organizations must considera variety <strong>of</strong> methods when assessing how to capture thisinformation and how to pass it to o<strong>the</strong>r employees.Likewise, organizations should not rely on IT systems andsolutions to respond to changes in both <strong>the</strong> workforce and<strong>the</strong> community. Most public sector organizations alreadystruggle with failing legacy IT systems or are not able to fullywww.ipma-hr.orgPage 15