SHRM Survey Findings: SHRM-AARP Strategic Workforce Planning

1. SHRM Survey Findings: SHRM-AARP Strategic Workforce Planning April 9, 2012

2. Definitions • Strategic workforce planning assessment: Evaluating an organization’s current and future critical talent needs using workforce modeling and scenario planning to identify potential skills gaps and talent shortages. • Older workers: Employees at an organization that are age 50 or older. • Younger workers: Employees at an organization that are age 31 and younger.

3. Key Findings • Have organizations conducted strategic workforce planning assessments to evaluate their current and future critical talent needs? Two-fifths of organizations (40%) have conducted strategic workforce planning assessments to identify their future workforce needs for the next 5 years. About one-third of organizations have identified their potential skills gaps for the next 5 years (36%). Twenty-nine percent of organizations have analyzed the impact of workers age 50 and over leaving their organizations. • Are organizations preparing for a potential shortage of talent when older workers begin to retire in greater numbers and leave the workforce? Although many organizations are at the initial stages of the preparation process, there has been a slight increase in awareness of a potential shortage of younger workers with the requisite skills needed to replace older workers who are retiring. More than one-quarter (27%) of organizations indicated they are becoming aware of the issue, an increase of nine percentage points from 2010 (18%). Thirty-nine percent of organizations are beginning to examine internal policies and management practices to address this issue (e.g., succession planning, phased retirement, etc.), showing no difference from 2010. Additionally, roughly one-fifth of organizations (18%) indicated that no changes were necessary after their evaluation, a decrease of 12 percentage points from 2010 (30%). • How much of an issue are the potential losses of talent for organizations and industries as older workers retire or leave their organizations over the next decade? Approximately one-half (46%) of organizations believe that potential loss of talent over the next decade is a potential problem for their organization while 27% indicated that it is not a concern. As older workers exit the workforce over the next decade, 39% of organizations believe that this will cause potential problems for their industry; however, approximately one-quarter (24%) do not foresee problems for their industry.

4. Key Findings • Which basic and applied skills do older workers have an advantage in compared with younger workers? Approximately one-half of organizations (51%) indicated that writing in English (grammar, spelling, etc.) was the top basic skill observed among older workers that is not readily seen among younger workers. Fifty-two percent of organizations reported professionalism/work ethic as the top applied skill that younger workers are less likely to exhibit. • Which steps are organizations taking to retain and recruit older workers in order to prepare for the potential skill gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce? Nearly one-half of organizations (45%) have increased training and cross-training efforts. Roughly one-third (38%) of organizations have also developed succession plans and/or hired retired employees as consultants or temporary workers (30%). Organizations are also offering flexible work arrangements (27%) and offering part-time positions to older workers (24%).

5. Has your organization conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to…? • Note: n = 421-423. Percentages shown indicate only the respondents who answered “Yes” to this question.

6. Has your organization conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to…? Comparisons by organization sector Publicly owned for-profit organizations are more likely than privately owned for-profit organizations to have conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to identify potential skills gaps over the next 5 years. Comparisons by organization staff size Organizations with 25,000 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 2,499 employees to have conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to identify future workforce needs over the next 5 years. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

7. Has your organization conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to…? Comparisons by organization staff size (continued) Organizations with 25,000 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 2,499 employees to have conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to identify potential skills gaps over the next 5 years. Organizations with 2,500 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 499 employees to have conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to analyze the impact of older workers leaving the organization. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

8. There may be a shortage of younger workers with the skills and qualifications necessary to replace the older workers who are preparing to retire. Which of the following best describes your organization’s preparation for this change? • Note: Respondents who answered “Don’t know” were excluded from this analysis.

9. Overall, how would you describe your organization’s and industry’s potential loss of talent as a result of the possibility of the older workers retiring, or leaving the organization for other reasons, over the next decade? • Note: Respondents who answered “Don’t know” were excluded from this analysis.

10. In your opinion, what is/are the greatest basic skills gap between older workers and younger workers? • Note: n = 421. Respondents who answered “Don’t know” were excluded from this analysis. Respondents were asked to select their top two choices. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

11. In your opinion, what is/are the greatest basic skills gap between older workers and younger workers? Comparisons by organization sector Government agencies are more likely than privately owned and publicly owned for-profit organizations to believe that government/economics is the greatest basic skills gap that younger workers have when compared with older workers. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

12. In your opinion, what is/are the greatest applied skills gap between older workers and younger workers? • Note: n = 421. Respondents who answered “Don’t know” were excluded from this analysis. Respondents were asked to select their top two choices. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

13. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? • n = 415

14. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? (continued) • n = 415

15. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? Comparisons by organization sector Publicly owned for-profit organizations are more likely than privately owned for-profit, nonprofit and government organizations to have developed succession plans in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. Government agencies are more likely than publicly owned for-profit organizations to have developed processes to capture institutional memory/organizational knowledge from employees close to retirement to retain and recruit older workers in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. Government agencies are more likely than publicly owned for-profit organizations to have encouraged older workers to work past traditional retirement age in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. . • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

16. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? Comparisons by organization sector (continued) Government agencies are more likely than publicly owned for-profit or privately owned for-profit organizations to have hired retired employees as consultants or temporary workers in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. . • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

17. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? Comparisons by organization staff size Organizations with 25,000 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 2,499 employees to identify future workforce needs over the next 5 years in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. Organizations with 2,500 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 499 employees to have developed succession plans in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

18. Has your organization taken any of the steps below to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers? Comparisons by organization size (continued) Organizations with 25,000 or more employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 499 employees to have increased recruiting efforts to replace retiring employees in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. Organizations with 500 to 24,999 employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 99 employees to have hired retired employees as consultants or temporary workers in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. Organizations with 500 to 2,499 employees are more likely than organizations with 1 to 99 employees to have offered financial planning programs in preparation for potential skills gaps that may occur as younger workers enter and older workers exit the workforce. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

19. How effective has the step(s) your organization has taken been in preparing for potential skill gaps and/or retaining and recruiting older workers? • Note: Response options were only rated by respondents who indicated that their organization had taken the specified step to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers. Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.

20. How effective has the step(s) your organization has taken been in preparing for potential skill gaps and/or retaining and recruiting older workers? (continued) • Note: Response options were only rated by respondents who indicated that their organization had taken the specified step to prepare for potential skill gaps and/or retain and recruit older workers. Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.

21. To the best of your knowledge, what percent of employees, full-time and part-time, at your work location are age 50 or older?

22. To the best of your knowledge, what percent of employees, full-time and part-time, at your work location are age 50 or older? Comparisons by organization sector Privately owned for-profit organizations are more likely than government agencies to have 1% to 19% of their staff age 50 or older. Government agencies are more likely than privately owned for-profit organizations to have 40% to 59% of their staff age 50 or older. Comparisons by organization staff size Organizations with 100 to 499 employees are more likely than organizations with 2,500 to 24,999 employees to have 1% to 19% of their staff age 50 or older. • Note: Only statistically significant differences are shown.

23. Demographics: Organization Industry Note: n = 399. Percentages may not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

24. Demographics: Organization Industry (continued) Note: n = 399. Percentages may not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

25. Demographics: Organization Sector Note: n = 398. Percentages do not equal 100% due to rounding.

26. Demographics: Organization Staff Size n = 390

27. Demographics: Other

28. SHRM-AARP Strategic Workforce Planning Methodology • Response rate = 15% • Sample composed of 430 randomly selected HR professionals from SHRM’s membership • Margin of error +/- 5% • Survey fielded February 13, 2012 – March 12, 2012 For more survey findings, visit www.shrm.org/surveys Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research Project leader: Christina Lee, SHRM Research Project contributors: Jean Setzfand, vice president, Financial Security, AARP Ed Redfern, Jr., senior Issue specialist, Financial Security, AARP Mark Schmit, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM Research Fred Emmert, Senior Speechwriter & Speakers Bureau Manager, SHRMEvren Esen, manager, SHRM Survey Research Center