- Home
- >
- Research
- >
- Taleo Blog
07/16/07
“What, Me Worry?”: Denial and the Aging Workforce
Late last year, WorldatWork, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and Buck Consultants conducted an Internet survey on the aging workforce called The Real Talent Debate: Will Aging Boomers Deplete the Workforce? Nearly 500 organizations contributed responses on the significance of baby boomers retiring from the workforce. The findings are interesting in the seemingly deep sense of denial combined with a significant feeling of potential risk. Here is the odd combination of conflicting results:
- Only 42% think the issue is significant with 60% saying there is no associated business risk. Yet 62% believe that cost increases resulting from the loss of an aging workforce are highly significant and 87% believe the aging workforce’s knowledge preservation is important. When does an issue become really significant or important? After the fact?
- 93% believe aging workers want to remain in the workforce due to financial reasons. But 80% have not bothered to survey their aging workforce about their intentions. So how do they know?
- 52% see the loss of senior leadership as the greatest risk in the loss of mature workers. However, more than 50% do not proactively recruit mature workers. When will they decide to do something about it?
Confused? We think this report underlines the potential disconnect between perceptions and reality. Only proactive efforts inside your organization with structured talent processes and metrics will provide the answers you need to proceed with succession plans and talent depth charting.
Just because it won’t happen for five years doesn’t mean it should take your organization that long to figure it out.
Taleo Blog - Talent Management Solutions
Taleo's Talent Management Solutions Blog is about developments in Talent Management - from its definition and practices - to the latest research in the field.
![]() |
| Alice Snell Vice President, Taleo Research Send a comment to the author at research@taleo.com |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||
Search
Archives
- December 2008 (1)
- November 2008 (5)
- October 2008 (6)
- September 2008 (6)
- August 2008 (6)
- July 2008 (7)
- June 2008 (7)
- May 2008 (8)
- April 2008 (9)
- March 2008 (8)
- February 2008 (9)
- January 2008 (8)
- more...
Recent Posts
• Latest Research
- Smaller Businesses Perform
- Successful Succession
- Advantage: Talent Management
- Compensation Connection
- Generation Y: Faster Impressions
- CIOs Experience Software as a Service Success Stories
- Perception Gap: HR vs. Business POV
- HR Practices Drive Business Performance
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor
- Talent Economics: Supply & Demand
- Recruit and Retain at All Levels
- Recruiting Performance Report: Pluses & Minuses
- 2008 Magic Quadrant for E-Recruitment
- Don’t Lose Your Head When You Tighten Your Belt
- Hiring Diversity: Good for Business
- HR’s Role in the Age of Talent
- Unified Talent Management in the UK?
- Succession Planning Strategies
- Screening and Assessment Usage
- Foster Creativity So Talent Can Power Innovation
- Talent Management: Top Business Priority
- Online Jobseeking: Tipping Point in the UK
- Hiring Diversity: Knowing Where You Stand
- Taking It From the Top: Boards Concerned About Talent Management
- Gartner Reveals CIO Thinking for 2008
• Talent Management
- Give Thanks to Your Talent
- Country Competitiveness
- Workforce Reductions: The New Transparency
- Planned Succession
- Reviewing Performance Reviews
- Turnover Housekeeping
- Passion for the Game
- Talent and Brand Connection
- Don’t Worry, Get Connected
- The Talent Grid: The Platform is the Service
- Award-Winning Talent Innovation
- 100,000,000 Candidates Served
- Catching Generation Y: Career Sites and Social Nets
- Olympic Talent Management
- Managing Tomorrow’s People
- Innovate Recruiting to Drive Innovation
- The Mismatch Problem
- Compliance: No Excuses, No Joke
- Learn How to Y
- Greener on the SaaS Side
- Future of Talent Management
- Stuck in the Middle
- Sourcing from the Inside Out
- Strategic Is As Strategic Does
- The Talent Age on the Front Page


