Get Creative To Cope With Aging Workplace

ByJohn S. McClenahen Older workers with maturity, stability and experience are increasingly going to remain in the workplace beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, and as a result employers will be increasingly creative in how they accommodate them, contends Roger E. Herman, CEO of the Herman Group, a Greensboro, N.C., consulting firm. "Post-dot.com-crash employers have realized that the workers who can most effectively get businesses through tough times are those with the most experience -- those who have lived through a few economic cycles," says Herman. To get work accomplished, Herman foresees employers adopting flexible work schedules, providing skills upgrading, training supervisors to work with multigenerational workforces, promoting team building across ages and cultures, offering expanded or reduced shifts, providing more opportunities for temporary and part-time work, and implementing phased retirement.