MADISON, Wis. — Even though the first wave of Baby Boomers is set to retire this year, there are many others in that 44-to-62-year-old age bracket who still have to work up to–or past–the traditional retirement age.

Between 1946 and 1964–the period between post World War II and the Vietnam War–a significant birth-rate increase was recorded. The generation it fostered is known as the baby boom generation and today, at nearly 76 million individuals and 28% of the entire nation, it is one of the largest populations in the United States.

Given its sheer size, the Baby Boomer contingent cannot help but have a huge impact on the health care industry and could possibly re-shape how employers tailor retirement benefits and schedules for those that work up to and past retirement. For credit unions, ongoing training and development will be critical to having gaining the flexibility to meet the needs of older workers, said Beth Soltis, senior research analyst at CUNA's Center for Research and Advice.

“So many businesses, including financial institutions and credit unions, offer the same services and do the same things that the real differentiator is the people you have working for you,” Soltis said. “The skills of those people and the service they provide your members will depend on the training and development they receive.”

This relates to retiring Boomers in several ways, she continued. Some would like to continue working but may want to work part-time or have a job-sharing arrangement. Offering them opportunities to learn new skills and develop in other areas might keep them from leaving the credit union, Soltis suggested. These employees have a great deal of skills and knowledge, which should be captured before they retire, Soltis said. Mentoring programs or pairing boomers with employees that want to enter their areas of expertise would help credit unions bring along less-skilled employees and leave the credit union without a skills gap as employees retire.

“By and large, employers aren't doing much to plan for the exodus of Baby Boomers,” Soltis said. “Credit unions need to look at how many employees are nearing retirement age and come up with strategies to retain them or at least harness their knowledge.”

Some Baby Boomers will not have enough to retire on and may face the prospect of working to maintain their lifestyles. In its report, The Baby Boomers Prepare for Retirement, Boston-based research firm Celent said the poverty rate among Americans over the age of 65 has plummeted and those over 50 control four-fifths of the money invested with savings and loans and own two-thirds of all shares on the stock market. However, there are many for whom the future does not look so rosy, Celent noted. With personal savings rates near all-time lows and slightly less than half of all workers participating in an employer-sponsored pension, and as defined benefit plans become increasingly rare, many retirees are unlikely to sustain their pre-retirement standard of living without retiring later or radically changing their savings and investment behavior.

“U.S. workers are rolling over billions of dollars of retirement plan assets and face critical decisions,” said Adam Josephson, research associate in the securities and investments group at Celent and author of the report.

Clearly, credit unions could be doing a better job of planning in lieu of boomer demographics. Soltis said credit unions are “doing just an OK job” at planning for when their CEO leaves, for instance.

Forty percent of credit union CEOs are 55 and older and 17% are 60 or older, and a total 7% of credit union CEOs plan to retire or leave their credit unions for other reasons within the next two years, according to CUNA's 2007 Complete Credit Union Staff Salary Survey. “Just over half–53%–of credit unions have a formal succession plan in place that specifies how the credit union will replace the CEO,” Soltis said. One quarter of the 53% planned to have a plan in place by year-end 2007.

While 44% prefer to give internal applicants first preference, 45% prefer to post the job externally and internally at the same time, giving equal preference to both types of job candidates, Soltis noted.

Even though there isn't a mass exodus of CEOs in the works, Soltis said “planning certainly needs to be done.” Accommodating baby boomers may take on a new level of preparation.

“Employers nationwide are having difficulty finding qualified workers and credit unions are no exception. It is becoming more and more common to have to train and develop employees rather than hire an employee with the needed skills,” Soltis said.

“Credit unions need to give that fact serious thought before letting Boomers simply walk out the door. In addition, training and development is a huge recruitment and retention tool for all workers, including Boomers.”

–msamaad@cutimes.com

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Meeting Baby Boomers Half Way Could Help Credit Unions Accommodate Those Working Past Retirement

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