The Baby Boomer Challenge

Executive Baby Boomer

During 2016 UK corporations will lose up to 40% of their senior leadership teams as the Baby Booomer (1946-64) retirement wave reaches a crescendo. This presents a massive challenge for the HR Community to ensure there is a legacy of knowledge transfer and those that fail to plan are planning to fail.

As an HRD, it is imperative to ensure you have a knowledge transfer programme in place for your Senior Executives.

The era of retirement from the Baby Boomer generations is well and truly upon us, and key influencers within organisations are retiring at a rapid rate leaving some organisations vulnerable to a key skills loss.

Indeed, it was this generation who helped rebuild Great Britain and expand its global position in today’s market.  Their experience and wealth of knowledge has produced some of the finest corporations in the world.

Nick Holley, co-director of the centre of HR Excellence at Henley Business School.

“I see a lot of companies have a big issue where there is shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills. At the same time, we see that many FTSE100 firms have demographic problems as there are a significant proportion of baby boomers on the cusp of retirement. There is a real issue with knowledge transfer here.”

Some companies are reporting retirement levels of around 40% among their Senior Leadership population during 2016 and it is therefore imperative that HR continues to devise ways of capturing this knowledge in order to retain it moving forward, post an individual’s retirement.

“Many are looking to Interim Management as a way of harnessing this information and bringing it back within the business if they realise the knowledge transfer has not been robust enough, allowing that lost experience to be re-invigorated and ensure that the Interim is tasked with leaving a knowledge legacy during their assignment” says John McLaughlin of Touchwood Talent. He continues, “Whilst the utopia is always to ensure a knowledge transfer is in place, a business can sometimes be hit with sudden departures for a variety of reasons, and it may not have had the chance to react.  An immediate delivery of an Executive Interim, can ensure the business has stability and future growth through continued knowledge transference.”

To discuss any Baby Boomer knowledge transfer challenges your organisation might be facing contact John McLaughlin on [email protected] or call on 07782 138 177