Meeting the needs of an aging workforce.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 95 percent of Americans over 65 who are willing and able to work are working, either full-time or part-time. Employment data reveal a similar pattern in many European nations. In much of the developed world, in fact, the workforce is aging.

Many business consultants and economic futurists are describing this trend as the demographic "perfect storm"--the convergence of the demands and requirements of an aging workforce. Caught in the middle are employers, who must balance the need to accommodate older workers with the need to prepare for their retirement.

A BLENDING OF SKILLS

The implications for the employee assistance field of assisting the workforce as it ages and prepares for retirement are obvious. But the potential social and economic impacts of the aging workforce demand that EA best practices go beyond simply assisting employees and family members as they prepare for their transition from the workplace to retirement or to an "altered state" of employment. A look at a few of the major implications and service delivery opportunities for EAPs demonstrates a true value-added proposition for both the aging workforce and employers facing this demographic reality.

Sustaining skills. As employees age and technology changes, every employer faces the challenge of remaining competitive. Effective knowledge management is critical in this equation.

An EAP looking to provide additional value to an employer will find avenues to contribute to the employer's knowledge management strategy

We suggest EAPs address the ability of the employer to leverage both the institutional and work culture knowledge of the older worker and the technological advantages that many younger employees bring to the workplace--i.e., to blend the "generation gap" of skills that has emerged in today's workplace and presented considerable challenges for many employers and labor organizations. The EA professional's role in fostering mentoring and coaching relationships in the workplace can be a critical part of the employer's strategy to encourage knowledge and skill exchanges up, down, and across this generation gap.

Enhancing workplace communication. As the workforce ages and the global employment picture changes, several additional challenges are emerging. The values and expectations of people entering the workplace today can be quite different from those on the cusp of exiting it. For example, among many older workers, commitment to work was often accompanied by a sense of loyalty to a single employer. Over the past few decades, however, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, layoffs, and other business and cultural trends have eroded that feeling of loyalty, especially among younger workers. The end result has been a clash of workplace cultures and an ensuing communications challenge in harmonizing two divergent views of work and the workplace.

The EA professional's role in helping organizations and workers effectively communicate across this divide seems to present a golden opportunity to further demonstrate our value. The best practice of our profession necessitates that we draw upon our experience and expertise in bridging the communication gap between supervisor and employee and translate that competence to the larger communication challenges facing employers as they manage this shift in workplace demographics.

Preparing for the next generation of EA professionals. We as a field need to look at the intimate implications of the aging workforce on our profession itself. Similar to the workforce at large, the EA workforee is aging. As EAP opportunities become more limited for those wishing to enter our profession, we must ensure that the knowledge transfer essential to the continued vitality and integrity of our field remains intact.

Clearly, the CEAP advisement and EAPA mentoring processes are steps in the right direction toward passing on the legacy of employee assistance to the EA professionals of tomorrow But those are largely the more general elements of our profession. Each EA see'ice must also look at this issue on an individual basis. The first step is the development of a succession planning process for the EA service itself, answering the essential question of how the EA service and its professionals manage through their own workforce transition.

No doubt the challenges of today's aging workforce, as with many other workplace issues over the years and the resulting experiences of many EA services, have prompted many EA professionals to develop innovative and dynamic initiatives in response to or anticipation of this reality. We would very much like to hear about them and share them with your EA colleagues. Contact us at [e-mail] or [e-mail] and let us know how you and your EA service are responded to this issue.

Bern Beidel and Kris Brennan are co-chairs of the Standards Subcommittee of the EAPA Professional Practices Committee.