Aging Gracefully.

An aging population requires greater sensitivity by associations when considering staff and member needs. Understand the value and values of older individuals.

Eighty-five-plus: That's the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. By 2030, the rest of the country will look a lot more like Florida does today, sans sand and palm trees, when the number of Americans 65 and older will have doubled to about 70 million--expanding the 65-plus segment to nearly 20 percent of the nation's overall population. This will be a significant surge compared to the current national representation of approximately 13 percent for this age group, according to "A Profile of Older Americans: 1999," a report prepared by AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration on Aging.

When AARP Executive Director Horace Deets cites such statistics to business executives, he tells them two words ought to come to mind: workforce and marketplace. Associations and their members stand to gain the same benefits and opportunities as anyone else in reaching out to what is most often referenced as the "mature market." (See sidebar, "Capturing Baby Boomer and Mature Market Share.") But they also face the same competition for the participation of older Americans in membership, leadership, and employment roles. This most certainly will be the case between 2010 and 2030 as the baby boom generation in the United States reaches what has been the nation's retirement-age milestone.

Yet, not all have plans to retire immediately to the golf course. With more Americans living longer, healthier lives, they're rethinking a clean break from the world of work once they become eligible for Social Security benefits. Other recent AARP research finds that 8 in 10 baby boomers expect to work at least part-time during their retirement, some by choice and others by necessity. A growing number of workers 65 and older are already paving the way for this new trend, continuing to work in a variety of transitional or semi-retired work options or launching their own businesses. For those who must work through retirement to finance an extended future, the recent signing of the Senior Citizen's Freedom to Work Act of 2000 is a financial blessing. (While this new law does not change the penalty of $l for every $2 earned above $10,080 for people ages 62-64, the law allows people ages 65-69 to earn as much as they want without losing any Social Security benefits.)

The bottom line for employers is that an older U.S. workforce carries impressive new challenges for the workplace. One is the need for maximum flexibility for the growing number of employees faced with care-giving responsibilities for their aging parents. Likewise, notes AARP, because the pinch for workers will only cinch tighter as baby boomers eventually retire, employers increasingly will need to fill vacancies with more workers in the 50-plus category.

Older on the job

For the past two decades, targeting and recruiting older workers has been a strong focal point for members of the American Staffing Association, Alexandria, Virginia. ASA members range from the largest international staffing and human resource consulting companies such as Manpower, Adecco, and Kelly Services to regional and independent companies and niche-specific agencies such as Omaha, Nebraska-based Mature Resources, which specifically targets what it terms "experienced" workers.

According to ASA Executive Vice President Richard Wahlquist, ASA members employ 15 million people during the course of the year, of which roughly 10 percent are 55 and older. As workers transition into a phased retirement status, they're turning to the variety of staffing companies that can help them find the kind of work they want when they want it, including work in highly skilled and specialized areas such as law, accounting, engineering, and medicine.

Before the recent repeal of the Social Security earnings limit, Wahlquist says many ASA members helped older workers track employment hours to ensure they would not exceed earnings limits. These companies are now getting the word out to a whole new group of Americans previously confused about how much they could work before being penalized. Says Wahlquist, "This law opens new possibilities for our members to fill labor demands, allows greater options for people who want and need to work, and should help our society embrace a new mindset about the capabilities of older workers."

Undoing age discrimination. This last point--understanding the value of older workers--is in fact the first hurdle organizations must overcome for success in recruitment efforts geared toward attracting and retaining older workers, says Jim Emerman, senior vice president of American Society on Aging, San Francisco. This is no small challenge.

Unfortunately, points out Deets, age discrimination remains a problem. "Many employers still don't like to hire people after they're 40, or to spend time and money training them after 50." By age 60, Deets continues, people are being offered "hefty incentives to retire." He believes that employers must rethink the notion of mandatory retirement. "An artificial age requirement should no longer be the basis for determining performance," says Deets. In this regard, he believes, "Age is irrelevant."

Among the positive characteristics that are most cited about older workers are a strong work ethic developed from decades of experience and relative freedom from the distractions of raising a family. Says Emerman, "Older workers are also less likely to jump ship for a more lucrative job elsewhere."

Still, along with eradicating age bias and recognizing the desirable contributions and traits of older workers, employers must recognize that the physical abilities of older workers may not be what they once were.

Important for older workers are work settings and ergonomics that account for physiological changes as one ages, such as a decline in hearing and vision. Incorporating larger typefaces, better acoustics, and contrasting colors are among the simple adjustments an employer can make to its workplace and training environments.

Richard Judy, a Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the Center for Workforce Development, Indianapolis, says the aging phenomenon taking place within the United States and in other developed nations may also mean "reallocating specific job functions that require heavy lifting to those with the joints and muscles to do so, plus offering compensation packages and benefits that take into account the variety of age-specific needs of your employees. In short," says Judy, "a smartening up of human resources is required to handle an influx of older workers and their demands."

Tossing old assumptions. Deets urges employers to abolish stereotypes about older workers that ignore the fact that these individuals still want and need to be challenged, to contribute, and to learn. "The adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks isn't true even about dogs, and it clearly isn't true about people," he says. Take technology as a case in point. "If you put a 65-year-old person who has never worked on a computer into a classroom of kids who have played Nintendo half their lives, the older worker may quickly become intimidated," says Deets. "But, given the opportunity to learn in a non-ego-threatening environment, older workers will learn." (Their desire to learn is evident as well from a variety of surveys that show the 50-plus and 65-plus populations as among the fastest-growing segments of computer purchasers and Internet users.)

Positive developments. According to Deets, the good news for older workers and employers is that the kinds of job skills required for the knowledge society in which we live today--things like good judgment and the ability to make analytical connections--don't automatically diminish with age. By and large, today's lobs also don't require strict office environments and set hours. Technology and telecommuting options have opened more opportunities for employees of all ages for flexible work hours, reduced work weeks, job-sharing, and part-time work.

And herein lies another challenge for employers: remaining responsive and sensitive to the changing needs of workers who find themselves in the role of caring for their parents even as some of these adult children are still busy rearing their own kids.

Care-giving concerns

At least 22 million Americans can be classified as informal, unpaid caregivers, according to a 1997 national survey conducted by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, Bethesda, Maryland. Family members, relatives, and close friends provide an estimated 80 percent of the custodial care received by older Americans, including weekly grocery shopping or help with bathing and dressing. Hardest hit by this role are women, who account for more than 7 out of every 10 informal care-givers.

It's not uncommon for adult children to live at a distance from their parents, further complicating their care-giving responsibilities and requiring time away from work, notes Robert Greenwood, associate director of public affairs for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Washington, D.C. Emerman adds that the hours lost to care-giving can take a toll not only on an employee's career, but also on his or her physical and emotional health. He believes that employer sensitivity to today's multiple work-life demands can alleviate additional loss of employee productivity.

Ann Cox, CAE, can attest to this. Cox is executive director of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Atlanta. AAOHN members represent a subspecialty of the nursing profession, working within business and industry to keep workers and workplaces healthy and safe. For them, elder care issues are a burgeoning concern. "Because care-giving responsibilities add pressure to employees' lives," says Cox, "such roles can impact worker performance. So our members also must understand these pressures.

AAOHN strives to keep its members current on the effects of aging and diseases such as diabetes and those related to the heart. Such chronic and degenerative diseases increase in likelihood with age but can also be alleviated by preventive measures. "Our primary focus is prevention and maintaining worker quality of life," says Cox.

Both she and Emerman argue that older workers are as capable as younger ones to improve their health through preventive measures such as diet, exercise, and smoking cessation. "The concepts of health promotion and disease prevention must become much more integrated within today's workplace to reduce health-care costs and increase performance across the board, regardless of age," says Emerman.

Still another way employers can help is by providing employees more control over their own long-term care needs. As adult children become aware of the care and services required by their aging parents, the options available, and the limitations on what Medicare and private insurance will pay for, Greenwood notes, the adult children often become concerned about their own future care.

Because long-term care policies can be quite expensive, especially when purchased by an individual near the time they are likely to need such care, Greenwood encourages employers to expand the availability of this insurance. By pooling employees who desire long-term care coverage and then sponsoring a group plan, employers can help reduce employee premiums substantially.

And yet, Emerman believes the first hurdle in embracing long-term care may be overcoming the social stigma attached to the concept itself. "Most people don't want to think about long-term care until it's too late to do anything financially," he says. "We first need to increase awareness at a societal level that care options don't have to be bad if you plan ahead for them."

Intergenerational conflict 

One impact of a growing segment of older workers that may be less evident is the increased potential for intergenerational conflict. For instance, younger workers may feel shut out to advancement opportunities because of tenured employees who decide to stick around. Conversely, older workers may resent being supervised by employees half their age. Preventing intergenerational conflict requires the concerted efforts of employers to balance the needs and interests of one generation with those of another. Otherwise, says Emerman, a cultural dissonance may crop up wherever employees don't understand the values of people of different ages.

Wahlquist calls this the stigma of working with your grandparents. "People need to get over any barriers they have in working with others who hold different perspectives, including perspectives that are the result of age differences," says Wahiquist. His approach has been to prevent the natural segregations that occur when people spend time only with their like kinds, including like ages. For ASA work groups and team-building efforts, Wahlquist maintains a mixture of ages so that employees can learn to appreciate the variety of perspectives each age brings.

The potential for intergenerational conflict may occur within your association's membership ranks as well. Emily Lange, marketing and program development administrator for American Society for Quality, Milwaukee, says ASQ is currently leveraging the history and experience of its long-time members through recognition of their contributions, even as the association focuses attention toward recruiting new members. "We've been analyzing what the professionals in each age group need, plus how we can streamline the process for getting new members into leadership roles," says Lange. This approach represents a change from the traditional rank-climbing that ASQ's long-time members faced. But the reality, says Lange, is that new members--which for ASQ most often translates as younger members--don't want to wait to participate.

Post-career members

Learning to balance the needs and values of older and younger members will increasingly become another area of concern for associations, as will maintaining the interest and involvement of members beyond their retirement. Emerman doesn't think it's such a farfetched notion for associations to target the involvement of post-career members. As individuals age, they increasingly value experience and connection, he says. Given that these are two common benefits of belonging to most associations, what association executives may need to rethink is how to keep retiring and retired members a vital part of the association community, says Emerman.

For Deets, mentoring opportunities readily come to mind. "Your members may be moving to a new job or new volunteer opportunities. Your challenge is to maintain the link. Keep them on your mailing list. Give them volunteer roles. Have them coach young executives in your profession or industry." The key, says Deets, is to "think transition rather than termination." Doing so will enable associations to benefit from what Deets calls "the longevity bonus."

"In 1900, the average life expectancy in the United States was 47. Today it's 77--a 30-year longevity bonus within 100 years," says Deets. In its recent Outlook 2000 report, the Bethesda, Maryland-based World Future Society included within its top 10 forecasts the projection that by 2050 the number of centenarians worldwide will increase from 135,000 to 2.2 million.

Longer-life challenges

Deets believes that part of our problem as a society is that we haven't adequately thought through these extra years of life. "The question we need to ask is, 'More years for what?' We need concerted efforts now to change our preconceived notions about older people, what they want, and what they can do. If we presume that an aging population is a dependent one, then we assure ourselves in 20 or 30 years to have relegated the growing older population to irrelevancy," says Deets.

An appropriate response entails first acknowledging as individuals, employers, and a society that we have short-term, interim, and long-term work to do, says Deets. Immediate challenges include eliminating age discrimination in the workplace and in society, and addressing Medicare coverage and housing and transportation concerns. "We can't continue saying we're concerned about older drivers when we don't have good public transit systems in place," he says. "And we can't say we are concerned about the impact on families for care-giving needs when we don't have adequate independent living options, especially for our nation's low-income elderly."

As for the interim, Deets believes that the United States must build into its educational system and workforce environments an ethic of preparing for retirement, even as we face questions about how to finance our current older population.

Wahlquist concurs. A proponent of self-reliance, he believes one task at hand is to impress upon younger people the importance of putting away even a little each year and letting it build for a greater amount of time. "We need to reorient ourselves to thinking of Social Security as a supplement and not as a primary means of our retirement," he says. "To the extent that employers can encourage individual savings and match employee contributions, they help send the message of personal responsibility."

Deets is convinced that the best payoff can come in the long term, from the current 35-and-under population. He urges this group to focus not only on financial health but on better education about nutrition and exercise to help ensure that we won't have a frail elderly population in the future.

Ageless happiness

According to Myths and Realities of Aging 2000, a survey of the National Council on the Aging, Washington, D.C., and the International Longevity Center, New York City, health and wealth do play major roles in the happiness of older individuals. These two factors also influence more strongly than does chronological age one's decisions about retirement, notes the NCOA survey. Likewise it reveals that most Americans say they would be happy to live to be 90, and almost half of the survey respondents age 65 and older described their current stage as the best years of their lives.

Deets argues that our conventional wisdom about age is based on an out-of-date framework. "Was John Glenn acting his age when, at 77, he passed the physical exam to go back into space? Is Peter Drucker acting his age when, at 90, he is still lecturing and writing books? The answer is yes, because there is no rule book for how to act at a certain age. As a society, and as employers," Deets continues, "we need to change our preconceived notions about age, and we must begin asking how we can use the talents of an older population."

Replacing an age-biased mentality with a mindset focused on age ability might help all of us age more gracefully. It's clear that capability doesn't hinge on how old you are, and that value and vitality may be found in all of life's stages.

Capturing Baby Boomer and Mature Market Share

One important way associations can remain relevant to their members is by helping them understand the implications of an aging population for their particular profession or industry. Key to unlocking the participation and purchasing power of older Americans is knowing what motivates them.

For instance, according to Emeryville, California-based integrated marketing firm Age Wave IMPACT, baby boomers don't think they're old, and they don't want to be portrayed that way, either. "If anything, boomers are interested in slowing the aging process, or at least the appearance of aging," says company spokesperson Chuleenan Svetvilas. As such, many baby boomers stand poised to spend big on health-care products and treatments, especially once they receive the estimated trillions they will inherit from their parents.

Baby boomers will also exercise enormous impact on the financial investment and leisure travel industries, says Svetvilas. In addition, boomers' impact will be felt on essentially any other market they perceive as relevant and that appeals to their long--standing expectations for customization and convenience--both carryovers from their younger days.

Already companies and online communities abound targeting information, products, and services to both baby boomers and today's mature market. For instance, ThirdAge Media, San Francisco, provides a niche within a niche, serving the interests of first-wave baby boomers--those in their mid-40s through 50s--while SeniorCom, Kirkland, Washington, is geared toward the 50-plus market.

Important to bear in mind, however, is that the baby boomer and mature markets are themselves incredibly diverse. According to the Web site of the Business Forum on Aging (www.asaging.org/bfa.html), a subgroup of American Society on Aging, San Francisco, while baby boomers number more than 70 million, 85 percent of them are still in their 30s and 40s. This means your association or its members still must determine whether your product is geared toward a 53-year-old baby boomer grandmother or toward her 35-year-old baby boomer son. Today's mature market likewise runs the gamut, from active 60- and 70-year-old retirees to consumers in their 80s and 90s who require quite different services and products.

Older Americans 101

Not wise to the desires and demands of older workers or to the pressures faced by employees in care-giving roles? Wondering about the direction of your own eventual retirement or elder-care responsibilities? Numerous Internet resources and books provide aging workforce and population information.

WEB SITES

Among the array of Web sites offering demographic reports, forecasts, and information related to issues of aging and the mature market are these association sites:

* www.aahsa.org: American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging;

* www.aarp.org: AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons);

* www.asaging.org: American Society on Aging;

* www.caregiving.org: National Alliance for Caregiving; and

* www.ncoa.org: National Council on the Aging. Government-related sources providing information and statistics include

* www.aoa.gov: Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging;

* www.bls.gov: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics;

* www.census.gov: U.S. Census Bureau; and

* www.ssa.gov: U.S. Social Security Administration.

BOOKS

Recent books likewise put in comprehensive perspective the impact of an older population from both a national and international standpoint.

* Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, by Ken Dychtwald (1999, J. R Tarcher)

* Age quake: Riding the Demographic Rollercoaster Shaking Business, Finance and Our World, by Paul Wallace (1999, Nicholas Brealey)

* Age Wave: How the Most Important Trend of Our Time Will Change Our Future, by Ken Dychtwald (1990, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing)

* Age Works: What Corporate America Must Do to Survive the Graying of the Workiorce, by Beverly Goldberg (2000, Free Press)

* America's Work Force is Coming of Age: What Every Business Needs to Know to Recruit, Train, Manage, and Retain an Aging Work Force, by Catherine D. Fyock (1990, Lexington Books)

* Don't Stop the Career Clock: Rejecting the Myths of Aging for a New Way to Work in the 21st Century, by Helen Harkness (1999, Davies-Black Publishing)

* Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America and the World, by Peter G. Peterson and Luke Mitchell (2000, Times Books)

* Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, by Marc Freedman (2000, PublicAffairs)

* Work force 2020: Work and Workers in the 21st Century, by Richard W. Judy and Carol D'Amico (1997, Hudson Institute)