The Baby Boom Generation - Case Study Example

Training and Development Demographical and social changes create new problems for the government and federal agencies. Today, the baby boom generation is the largest social group in the USA which has a great impact on economic and social life of the country. The main problem faced by the government, public and private organizations is training and re-raining of this group of people in order to ensure adequate supply of staff in near future. Baby boomers, people born between 1943 and 1960, “affect every social institution from employment to health care” (Kiyonaga, 2004, p. 357). The importance of training and development is that baby boomers generation will retire in several years. Training is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of staff who are techni­cally and socially competent, and capable of career advancement into special­ist departments or management positions. Re-training is crucial for baby boomers, because it will help to avoid labour market crisis and slow growth. Following Dohm, “The current tight labor market situation could be exacerbated, hindering prospects for economic growth and putting a greater burden on those remaining in the workforce, perhaps forcing them to work longer hours” (Dohm, 2000, p. 17). There is, therefore, a continual need for the process of staff development, and training fulfils an important part of this process. Retraining should be viewed, therefore, as an integral pan of the process of social policy. Critics point out that many unions are recognising the importance of training in relevant skills for baby boomers to sustaining the job security of their members. As a result they are seeking to bring training more centrally into the collective bargaining arena, with the setting up of joint training agreements. For some employers this may be an important route to developing a joint approach to managing change. Among the recommendations is that public and private sectors should develop the line managers contribution to training. Without re-training and development of baby-boomers, the country will not be able to overcome labor crisis which can affect social provision and social security spheres. Labor shortage is inevitable, because “by 2011 the first of the 77 million boomers will reach age 65” and retire (Demographic Change and Local Government, 2006). Training and development activities are important to both public and private sectors, but which may not arise as a development need because public and private sectors have been attending to it rather well. The need for re-training might only show up in the assessments if organizations stopped doing it. These may be in part things that individuals believe are desirable for the development of their own careers, routine things which line managers see as important to improve an individuals performance, and in some cases percep­tions of needs which do not really exist, because of a change in the situation that neither the individual nor the line manager knew about. Today, the main task of federal agencies is to identify the gap in training and technological changes, to classify it by level and category, and to attach estimates of the numbers of people involved. Categories might include: Immediate requirements driven by organizational needs; Longer-term organizational needs (including such things as induc­tion initiatives); Short-term remedial needs of individuals; Career development needs of individuals; Things individuals would like to do, but which have no direct corporate benefit. It is predicted that: “there will also be an increased need for employment-related services by persons between the ages of 45 and 54, below the SCSEP age level of 55” (Poulos, Nightingale, 2005). These suggestions can help to identify some of the issues that should be considered by public and private sectors when making their own policies. Economists mention that it is difficult to provide and develop a universal solution which will immediately fit every organization, but re-training policies is the best way to overcome labour shortage and ensure adequate supply of professional staff. The purpose of re-training is to improve knowledge and skills, and to change attitudes. This can lead to many potential benefits for both individuals and public and private sectors. Training can: increase the confidence, motivation and commitment of staff; provide recognition, enhanced responsibility, and the possibility to increased pay and promotion; give a feeling of personal satisfaction and achievement, and broader opportunities for career progression; and help to improve the availability and quality of staff. Successful training clearly offers potential benefits to public and private sectors and to employees. Traditional training methods did not appear to be adequate to cope with the need to bring about changes in social system behavior. Ideas from social psychology of attitude change, group dynamics techniques, change agent skill and counseling are all part of social development. Today, there are four major federally-funded employment and training programs for baby boom generation which include: JTPA Adult Training (Title IIA); Services for Older Workers (JTPA Title IIA, Section 204(d); JTPA Dislocated Worker Training (Title III); Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) (Poulos, Nightingale, 2005). Management of the baby boom employment facilities is aimed to ensure that a sufficient supply of appropriately qualified and capable men and women are available to meet the future needs of public and private sectors. Such men and women should be available readily to fill vacancies caused through retirement, death, resignation, promo­tion or transfer of staff, or through the establishment of new positions. Direct business needs also require policies to support the detailed actions. Should, for example, this type of need be met by training that cascades down public and private sectors, or should it be distinctly dif­ferent for each level of management? For example, there might be a deliberate decision to ensure that all longer-term development training should also meet some shorter-term direct needs by chang­ing the content of programs, and by the nature of project work that could form part of the initiative (Silvestri, 1993). A training and development specification is a product of job analysis. In addition, training and re0training is essential because “the world of work is rapidly changing, .. and not only have management practices and the form of organizations altered during the last quarter of the 20th century, employees who are new to the work force have different expectations - and frustrations - when it comes to defining their relationship within their new organization” (Beu, et al 2001, p. 81). It breaks down the broad duties contained in the job description into the detailed tasks that must be carried out. It then sets out the characteristics or attributes that the individual should have in order to perform these tasks successfully. The main characteristics of re-training are: new knowledge - what the baby boomers need to know. It may be professional, technical or commercial knowledge. Or it may be about the commercial, economic, or market environment; the machines to be operated; the materials or equipment to be used or the procedures to be followed; or the customers, clients, colleagues and subordinates he or she is in contact with and the factors that affect their behavior. Or it may refer to the problems that occur and how they should be dealt with. Skills - what the individual needs to be able to do if results are to be achieved and knowledge is to be used effectively. Skills of baby boomers should be built progressively by repeated training and personal developing experiences. They may be manual, intellectual or mental, percep­tual or social. Using new competences is essential to achieve the levels of performance required. The role of a specialized training for baby boomers is generally to provide advice and guid­ance to them on their training responsibilities. In many organizations they are involved much less, if at all, in training delivery. Training functions are relying more and more on external providers to provide the actual training. This means that the huge training departments that used to exist in a lot of organizations have now been slimmed down considerably. Increasingly, the role of the company trainer is to act as an internal consultant. (Rayner, 1996). Critics suggest that main stages of training need, however, to be related to the context of the external environment in which public and private organizations are operating. Different stages of training will be most appropriate at different times. There are a wide range of forces acting upon organisations and which make the need for change inevitable. Training for change is vital for the long-term survival of public and private sectors organisations. Increasing emphasis is being placed on both the need for cont­inuous training to support change and on training as a vital investment for the future (Pettiford, 2001). In sum, continued technological change and demographic shift is inevitable and likely to develop at an even faster rate. The full, potential benefits of information technology and automation will only be realized if organizations take proper account of human and social factors, as well as technical and economic factors. Actions that may be necessary include setting appropriate pol­icies, monitoring the effectiveness of these, training, and an effective system of receiving and dealing with complaints about discrimina­tion. References 1. Beu, D.S., Buckley, R.M., Novicevic, M. M., Sigerstad, T.D. (2001). Managing Generation NeXt: Individual and Organizational Perspectives. Review of Business, Vol. 22, p. 81. 2. Demographic Change and Local Government: Workforce Issues. (2006) Retrieved from: http://www.mrsc.org/Subjects/Governance/DemogWork.aspx 3. Dohm, A. (2000). Gauging the Labor Force Effects of Retiring Baby-Boomers. Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 123, p. 17. 4. Poulos, S., Nightingale, D.S. (2005). Employment and Training Policy Implications of the Aging Baby Boom Generation. Retrieved from: http://www.urban.org/publications/407145.html 5. Kiyonaga, N.B. (2004). Today Is the Tomorrow You Worried about Yesterday: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Workforce. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 33, p. 357. 6. Pettiford, H. (2001). Retire This! Black Enterprise, 31 (7), p. 125. 7. Rayner, I. (1996) Dealing with the Baby Boom Generation. Retrieved from: www.victoriarayner.com/articles/appr_elegance.pdf 8. Silvestri, G.T. (1993). Occupational Employment: Wide Variations in Growth. Monthly Labor Review. 116 (11), p. 58. Read More