The Workforce Is Changing; What Are You Doing About It?

The oldest of the 78 million US Baby Boomers are now reaching retirement age. Some will want to keep working — either full- or part-time — and others will have no other economic choice. But the vast majority will leave the workplace, creating a management challenge and a workforce vacuum. The group of 48 million Gen Xers is too small to replace the legions of exiting boomers, and the young, tech-savvy generation behind the Gen Xers (known as the Millennials or Gen Yers) has entirely different work expectations from earlier generations, which complicates the picture. To avoid putting their businesses at risk, information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals — particularly collaboration specialists, knowledge managers, and learning managers — must work with human resources (HR) and business managers to plan for the future. As one generation hands the baton to another, I&KM professionals, in collaboration with these other roles, must focus on understanding their businesses' workforce demographics, implementing succession plans, and analyzing their workers' generational work practices, patterns, and attitudes toward technology.