IBM Introduces New Consulting Services to Help Employers Prepare for Baby-Boomer Transition

IBM today announced new consulting services to help organizations prepare for the potential loss of highly valued skills and knowledge as the baby-boom generation reaches traditional retirement age. The services will provide companies with diagnostic tools based on advanced analytics, strategies and methodologies to understand their employee base in real-time, retain employees, transition knowledge and transform business processes to cope with the demographic change and significant skill shift.

"The aging population will be one of the major social and business issues of the 21st Century, and companies worldwide are starting to examine what this means in terms of skills, knowledge, and growth," said Mary Sue Rogers, global leader, IBM Business Consulting Services Human Capital Management group. "The scale of this age-driven change will alter the way work and knowledge are managed within companies moving forward. Many companies are taking this opportunity to evaluate their workforce skills globally, rethink internal knowledge management, optimize people-based processes, and examine a more globally integrated business model."

These new consulting services are being launched at a time when workforces around the world are aging. For example, among countries in the European Union, the number of older workers (50-64 years) will grow 25%, while younger workers (20-29 years) will decrease by 20% over the next two decades (1). And in the US, by 2010, the number of workers between ages 45-54 will grow by 21 percent, the number of 55-64 year-olds will expand by 52 percent, and the number of 35-44 year olds will decline by 10 percent (2). As these workers become eligible for retirement, organizations risk losing major skill sets and their competitive advantage in the global economy. Exacerbating this issue, many organizations do not have a clear view of which skills they may be about to lose to retirement.

IBM consultants, cultural anthropologists, researchers and social scientists will help organizations analyze and understand in-depth the impact of their own workforce aging and develop strategies to remain competitive in a globalized economy by adapting knowledge systems and business processes accordingly. The services will enable companies to better manage workforce skill sets, enhance mature-workers' productivity and job opportunities and fill the gap retirees will leave by developing new business processes based on open standards, changing the nature of work for many groups as a result.

The offering taps IBM's deep business consulting, research and technology expertise.

--  Analytics: Understanding the workforce exposure.

Tailored methodologies and analytic tools are combined to develop an assessment of employee skill sets vital to the organization as well as the risk of their loss due to retirement. These findings are utilized to develop mitigation strategies and plans to effectively manage the impact of age-driven change, as well as to build the business case for action.

Tools include -- Maturing Workforce Diagnostic, Component Business Modeling, Learning Alignment and Learning Effectiveness Measurement, Performance Measurement Analytics, Talent Management and succession and Workforce Evolution Modeling.

--  Accessibility: Maintain older worker productivity.

Building upon many of the lessons learned from developing technologies to make IBM's products -- including software, hardware and services -- accessible to the disabled, IBM Research is now adapting these solutions for mature workers.

The tools allow older workers with vision, cognitive or hand limitations to continue to use computer technology and remain productive beyond retirement age.

--  Skills: Programs to retain older workers and train the next
    generation.

A range of non-standard and innovative work design programs to help managers create the right culture and environment to retain and motivate older workers beyond retirement age to capitalize upon specific skills and knowledge as well as train the next generation of employees.

Methods include: Employee Jams, Knowledge Capture and Sharing services, Management Development Services (MDS), On Demand Workplace Employee Portals, Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME), Social Network Analysis, Learning Business Transformation Outsourcing, Strategic and Cultural Change and Workforce Development Solutions (WDS).

--  Transformation: Processes to change the nature of work.

Services to help organizations explore the current and future processes of business, as well as the human, technological and strategic elements encompassed by the evolution of 'work' that could significantly impact the productivity of organizations. Also, solutions to change the way work is conducted when training new employees to replace retirees is found not to be cost effective and hamper competitiveness.

Offerings include: Business Performance Management, Business Transformation Outsourcing, and Strategic Outsourcing.

Additionally, IBM is looking for a range of partners to deliver the best possible solutions to meet client needs at www.ibm.com/partnerworld. One of these partners is Cognos. The focus for IBM and Cognos is to provide clients with ongoing workforce analysis capabilities -- including monitoring of workforce aging and transition patterns -- to alert them to changes in workforce composition, retirement rates, and career paths. The technology will help to monitor the initiatives and programs developed to respond to the skills gaps and other challenges of a maturing workforce.