Continuing the Conversations...

I came to IBM in late 1993 to reengineer IBM's global corporate social responsibility efforts and to launch IBM's efforts at strategic philanthropy including the initiation of the Reinventing Education Program; and here I am a dozen years later talking about boomers reinventing retirement. While the topics seem unrelated, I believe they are actually intimately connected.

In the U.S. for example, replenishing tomorrow's workforce will require a national effort in our schools and in our businesses. On one hand, we have the potential for a mass exodus of millions of experienced workers, and on the other, we have both a crisis in student performance and a massive teacher shortage in our schools, especially in the areas of math and science. As job demand for skills in science, engineering and technology increases, 76 million workers are approaching retirement and fewer U.S. students are expressing interest in math and science -- all while competition from developing nations grows. This is no time for the U.S. to have a labor shortage especially in these critical areas and no time to be losing our teachers. However, we believe innovation can bridge these trends and create opportunity.

This is why IBM recently announced its Transition to Teaching Program. We're helping our interested, eligible and experienced workers become certified teachers. Our internal response and industry reception has been overwhelming. We've invited our partners and competitors to participate and will openly share methodology, materials and ideas on the topic. But this is one program, and across the U.S., we need more. We need more from business. We need more from academia. We need more from government.   

We believe the socio-economic implications of the maturing workforce are worth discussing today. And based on the number of people who have attended some of our recent events, clearly, we are not alone. Since May, IBM has hosted a series of small "salons" on the topic of the maturing workforce. Our intent from the start has been simple -- create a forum for the open exchange of ideas and information.  From Washington, to San Diego, to Chicago as well as cities in Europe and Asia, we have uniformly heard that this type of conversation is not only welcome, but necessary. Which is why we will be culminating this series with a larger event in New York on November 14. We expect some of the nation's leaders on economic, labor and workforce issues to join us -- including former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.   

I invite those of you who've been part of our salon discussions, as well as the folks we'll meet at the November event, to share some of your own research and insights on this blog. Feel free to post on any issue relevant to this topic -- whether it's government programs, business insight, consumer marketing, or macro-economic implications. I look forward to continuing the conversation at the event in November and, on an ongoing basis, here on the Maturing Workforce blog.

-- Stan Litow, Vice President, Corporate Community Relations, IBM    

 

Comments

[Linda Hanson]

Yes - let's continue to hear more about how the shifting demographics are affecting all parts of the world. I look forward to hearing more about this research project in France, as well as more from Dr. Philip Taylor at Univeristy of Cambridge, who has also posted here. In the meantime as an fyi, I found a variety of research report summaries concerning economic implications of maturing workforce at http://www.economous.com.

[Olivier Sirven]

It would be interesting at this point to have a broader view on what is currently happening in the various countries, in Europe in particular...I just learnt that Germany voted a 67-year-old retirement program....while in France, IBM programs allows some of my colleagues to retire at 53 years old with good money...and this program had a great success : now a lot of french IBMers could not benefit from it and have to stay at work, even if they made plans to "retire" and do something else... how difficult to motivate those colleagues ! ...I am myself professor at Lille-1-University (International Project Management)as well as a 25-year old IBMer now managing WW projects within internal IT : what should I tell my students ? work hard - you're close to retirement already, or keep cool, you have a very long run in front of you .. ? Two professors (Christian Sches and Hubert Jayet) and myself just launched here a program to work on that issue, including our partner universities in Senegal and China, where old people play a key role in the society. Hopefully we get some answers there ? we'll keep you posted (Christian & Hubert will join the blog as well)