Commentators tend to look on the reinvention of “retirement” — or more accurately, the phenomenon of unretirement — in quantitative terms: here’s how many people are not retiring at 65, or are retiring and then returning to the workforce, or some hybrid in between.
This lens also gets applied to the reasons why it’s happening: costs of living, inadequacy of retirement plans, need to produce more money over a longer period of time, thanks to longevity. Yes, there’s a nod to qualitative factors — working longer turns out to be a boost for longevity — but most of the discussion is still around numbers.
But what about the actual work experience? Do “older” workers bring something to the party that “younger” workers may not? Is this becoming more recognized? Are employers beginning to pay more attention to the qualitative nature of a multi-generational workforce? If there are advantages, what are employers doing to maximize them?
As the population of older workers continues to climb — no argument there — these questions will become more important (and you can expect to see us cover them more frequently). That’s why we were interested in this report from Gallup, that there has been a marked decrease in engagement on the part of younger employees, but not Baby Boomers.
Gallup contrasts the percentage of “engaged” employees and “actively disengaged” employees to arrive at a “positive engagement ratio” — how many engaged employees are there for every actively disengaged one. There are stark contrasts by generation.
Baby Boomers – Since March, 2020, the percentage of engaged Boomers increased from 34% to 36%, while the percentage of actively disengaged fell from 17% to 15%. This gave Boomers a positive engagement ratio of 2.4.
Gen X – The percentage of engaged employees dropped from 35% to 31%, while the percentage who are actively disengaged increased from 17% to 18%. This brought the Gen X positive engagement ratio from 2.1 to 1.7.
Older Millennials – The percentage of engaged employees dropped from 39% to 32%, while the percentage of actively disengaged jumped from 12% to 17%. The engagement ratio crashed – from 3.3% to 1.9%.
Younger Millennials and Gen Z – The percentage of engaged fell from 40% to 35%, while the percentage of disengaged increased slightly, from 13% to 14%. The engagement ratio fell from 3.1 to 2.5.
While the percentage of actively disengaged employees is fairly constant among all generations, all within the band of 14% to 18%, the declines in engagement among the younger generations are serious. In Gallup’s words: “Post-pandemic engagement trends vary widely across age generations, with younger employees feeling the most detached from their work and employers but baby boomers remaining engaged.”
The rest of the article focused on how to improve engagement among younger workers, but we’re also seeing an increasing number of articles and reports on the benefits that older workers bring to the party, and how to retain those workers and take advantage of their skills and experience.
A good example is this article, How to Keep Baby Boomers in the Workplace, which describes the situation accurately right off the top: “Many of the working baby boomers hold leadership positions and when they retire, their knowledge goes with them. Employers need to deal with it before they’re left scrambling to fill the hole left by baby boomers in the workplace.”
The article offers a number of ideas and examples, like better healthcare and eldercare services, caregiver support, flexible time or part-time options, partnership and co-entrepreneurial opportunities, and the opportunity to provide consulting or mentorship.
This last point is particularly important. Companies are (slowly) beginning to realize the loss of intellectual capital and work experience that happens when older workers retire. How can they hold on to that knowledge (especially, with the participation of the older workers themselves?) The article offered a striking example: “When BMW designed an assembly line based on input from older workers, the line showed a seven percent productivity increase in a single year. Follow BMW’s lead by setting up a forum where your oldest workers can share ideas for workplace improvements.”
The unstoppable trend toward unretirement involves much more than a statistic — how many people used to retire automatically at 65 vs. how many people are doing it now. It involves dramatic changes in company organization and operations, and the creative and productive interplay of the generations. This is the real implication of SuperAging in the workplace.