2011 is going to see the arrival of the most significant phenomena to affect the workforce since Henry Ford decided that labour specialisation was the key: the retiring of the baby boomers.

After many years of violence and bloodshed the 2nd world war ended in June 1945. Those left alive, that were of an appropriate age, collectively decided that the best form of action (and celebration) was to jump into bed with eachother and get about replenishing the planet. This being before the advent of readily accessible contraception, the only logical outcome was a population explosion. This outbreak of people onto the social, political and economic landscape has shaped the world for the last 60 years. From commercialising jet powered international travel to Cliff Richard, we have a great deal to thank the baby boomers for.

Now at the end of their careers, the BB’ers are frequently holding key leadership roles, have deep technical expertise and a significant portion of businesses IP.

February 2011 sees the arrival of the first official retirement age for this demographic group. The all too real risk is that as an economy (all of the western economies in reality), we’re not prepared for the void that these folk will leave behind.

Individual businesses have really only cottoned on to the term ‘succession planning’ – what it means and how translate it to individual development plans. Five years ago we started to see the term appear more frequently on strategic planning agenda’s for HR Directors and Managers, although typically only within enterprise sized organisations. As I’m sure you’re aware – not the typical profile of NZ business; with around 75% of our organisations containing less than 5 staff and 90% less than 10.

Putting aside the potential economic catastrophe (no more PAYE from a huge demographic group and the obvious superannuation requirements), for these purposes I believe there presents a large risk for the employment landscape. The BB’s tend to be a loyal bunch and not prone to the job hopping of the Gen Y’ers or the blind ambition of the X’ers; they’ve been in their current roles and organisations for a number of years.

Furthermore, they hold skills with applications/languages/OS’s that we long-ago wrote off as legacy – yet they still continue to run a significant portion of our largest businesses (find me a bank or insurance business that doesn’t have some COBOL or similar based apps running part of their business and I’ll find you a 25 year old who wants to learn it!).

What can you do about it? I believe, In the words of pretty much any political leader – education is the key. But we’ve been trying to get rid of these applications for years you say…perhaps that isn’t actually the answer. I believe that it is the responsibility of the broader technology industry (and others with large technical resource requirements) to recognise this risk and take ownership for informing the current crop of doers:

1. of the importance of these apps for business today and why they’re learning them

2. the elegance and capability of the language – old does not equal boring and unsexy (just look at Helen Mirren or for a gen-yer, Liz Hurley)

3. how ownership demonstrates responsibility and in turn can lead to promotion

With the single largest glut of people about to exit the industry since the beginning of the industrial revolution – we need to be better prepared for the impending risk that this brings. Only exacerbating this issue is that most observers and commentators believe that the overall market will return to the levels of business activity seen in the leadup to the GFC. That means that the hiring frenzy and war for talent will resume in force. Are you prepared to go to battle on the global platform for your talent requirements? Watch this space for my ideas on how to prepare yourselves for the year ahead.