There's a lot of discussion, not to mention statistics, about the impending mass retirements of the global workforce. It's a driving concern for the implementation of succession planning systems, as well as many knowledge transfer and mentoring programs. However, when you have 30 - 60% of your workforce scheduled to retire in the next 10 years, as was noted several times by companies I spoke to at OHUG (Oracle HCM User Group) in Las Vegas recently, you need to do more than just succession planning and replacement planning.

I believe what really needs to be looked at in many companies is wholesale reorganizations. The magnitude of change in the workforce demands an assessment of every inefficiency, every redundancy, and every complexity to improve productivity. This time the reorganizations would not be designed to engineer layoffs. They would be designed for the exits we're going to experience in so many layers of our organizations. They would be creating career paths for the employees who must be retained. The reorganizations would be redesigning the way business is done.

Automation, outsourcing, and streamlining processes will be demanded of our companies. We will have to do more with less people. But the less people part lasts for a long time, not just a belt tightening exercise for Wall Street. Organizations that figure out they can improve their efficiencies and cope with the brain drain without spinning their wheels believing they just need to be the best at hiring, will benefit from appropriate scale AND the financial reward of simply being more efficient.

Reorganizations done with advance planning will be different and more strategic than ever. Evaluating the structure, spans of control, budget, and planning hierarchies, along with the succession planning and replacement planning, will help HR meet the strategic needs of the organization as the world goes into what is looking like the largest talent crunch we have ever experienced.

Cheers,
Lois

Lois Melbourne is CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire, Inc., a provider of visual workforce planning and management solutions based in Irving, Texas.