With the Baby Boomer generation reaching retirement age, it’s important that businesses take a closer look at their employee populations. How would a “retirement tsunami” impact productivity and profitability in your workplace? What should you, as an employer or human resource professional, be doing now to avoid losing your company’s knowledge base?

NASA Glenn Research Center (NASAGRC) is one organization facing potentially devastating losses due to retiring employees. A recent article in Crain’s Cleveland Business describes why NASAGRC leadership thinks it’s important to attract new talent now and what they’re doing to accomplish that goal.

Not all employees want to retire “cold turkey”. In cases where employees are open to easing-in to retirement, it can be helpful for the retiring employee and the company to keep the retiree on board after retirement as a consultant. Recently, a manufacturer facing a critical brain drain due to retiring machinists initiated a management consultation to discuss this issue. We suggested a consultation with Ease@Work retirement coach Dickson Dawson, PhD to identify young workers that were good candidates to study under retiring or retired machinists.

In addition to helping companies to deal with the brain drain of pending retirements, retirement coaching can help to encourage retirement as part of a workforce reduction in an effort to reduce potential layoffs.  To learn more about Ease@Work’s retirement coaching services contact Patrick Gaul.