Researchers at the Boston College Center on Aging and Work have recently published a study called the "National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development." It says that American businesses are not preparing for the coming exit of Baby Boomers from the workforce.

Exit they will.  The Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. The make up the largest single generation ever in the US.  And, following the inexorable laws of demographics, they will start hitting the traditional retirement age of 65 in 2011.

When the Boomers head for the exits, they will take valuable knowledge, experience and relationships with them. American businesses should be planning today to meet that challenge. 

To find out if they were, the Boston College researchers talked to 578 US businesses in a variety of sectors.  They found that "only 33% of employers reported that their organization had made projections about retirement rates of their workers."

The researchers also asked about a variety of human resources (HR) strategies for dealing with the issue, including improving recruiting and finding ways for workers to stay past their planned retirement age.  This is good but not enough.

It's not enough because HR is only part of mix of tactics for dealing with the Boomer Brain Drain.  But before you start cranking out solutions, you should create a Threat Assessment to determine the situation in your company.

Assess every position in the company on these important dimensions
How likely is it that the person in that position will retire in the next five years?
How important is the position and knowledge to your operations?
How do you have a plan to fill the gap?

The combination of those factors will give you an idea of where you should concentrate your efforts.  Those efforts should include a range of potential tactics.

HR tactics include making it possible for Boomers to work after official retirement.  This may require reworking retirement plan provisions and it may involve union negotiations. 

Almost certainly you will need to build in some work flexibility for your Retired/Rehired workers who may want time off to visit grandchildren or the doctor. Having worked hard up to retirement, they may want a schedule that lets them sleep late or leave early.

HR responses include recruiting, but be careful here.  For most companies this becomes a "run faster" goal where you do more and more of what you're already doing.  Be careful, too, because recruitment pipelines for some positions like engineers and craft workers may extend back to high school.

HR tactics are important, but they will not be enough.  Consider Business Process (BP) solutions, too. 

You may be able to eliminate some processes or equipment so you don't need to replace people who leave.  You should consider standardizing equipment so workers can be more easily assigned to different tasks. Think about how Southwest Airlines' use of a single type of plane makes assigning pilots, aircrew and maintenance people easier.

Your BP solutions should also include adapting your processes and equipment so they can be more easily used by older workers.

Technology can play a part, too.  When people leave, they take knowledge with them, so capturing some of that knowledge is a way to deal with Boomer Brain Drain. 

Technology solutions might include some Knowledge Management (KM) systems solutions.  Beware: KM solutions are often technology-heavy, expensive, and insensitive to the way human beings actually work

More likely, more companies will find the use of technology that allows for discussion groups, capturing shop talk , social network analysis and software, and wikis to be more effective.  Those solutions are more likely to be successful and more fault-tolerant than big, fancy KM systems.

Finally, there is the forgotten dimension, culture.  People want to work in a great working environment, so making your place a great place to work will be even more important in a world of scarce human resources. 

You're going to have to consider all the things that affect the workplace.  What do you reward?  How do you supervise?  Where are you flexible?  Where do you draw bright lines?

The Boomer Brain Drain is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about for most businesses. If you want to deal with it, you need to start now, before the elephant heads for the door.

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.