Lately, I’ve been hearing an interesting theme, as I network among friends and colleagues. In a recent conversation with a friend, she was lamenting the fact that so many baby boomers were retiring at her company, those who remained were scrambling to fill the gaps. “And so many of them are leaving with valuable years of experience, all that knowledge is walking out the door with them.”

Another friend, who is a VP of HR for a major health care system, commented, “This recession is forcing us to think in new ways about how we manage our human resources—especially about getting more flexible with our experienced workforce.”

A different colleague mentioned how his company allows people, who are close to retirement, to leave their jobs and focus on special projects during their final year. The company fills their position, so if needed, the soon-to-be retired person can mentor or coach their own replacement. The freed up employee is given every Friday off and their vacation is doubled. This colleague talked about how it was not only a wonderful perk for good employees with years of service, it is a great way to help the company plan for their departure and get some value-added project work done..

Then, during a networking breakfast, I heard about a new company whose business model is built around the notion of leveraging seasoned people with twenty or thirty years of experience. Jean Stevens, Director of Client Solutions for PATINA Solutions, was describing how her firm matches her stable of older/wiser professionals with companies looking for help with short, or long-term, business issues to solve. She described how PATINA employees might fill needs such as leading a project, helping an owner get his business ready to sell, acting as an interim CIO, or filling a technical talent gap on a short-term basis.

She emphasized that they were different from a staffing firm because, among other things, they don’t do “temp to perm” placements. “A lot of our people are retired and don’t want to just stop working. Maybe they’ve thought of consulting but they don’t want the hassle of invoicing or marketing. They may want to go to Florida for the winter but they want to work the rest of the year. They want to do the work that gets them excited.” Apparently, the concept has caught on, since their rapid growth is fueling plans to move into multiple states.

What is your company doing to leverage the experience of older employees? As we pull out of this recession, and more experienced employees retire, have you given any thought to how your company will fill your talent voids?

Here are some ideas to get you started. You could tap your experienced and retiring workers to:

Mentor a new employee in the department.

Create a procedures manual which documents how to handle complex situations, or recurring problems they’ve learned how to do through years of experience.

Represent the company on industry councils or committees.

Attend conferences to represent the company, make presentations, or learn something new to bring back and teach others.

Loan someone to a community non-profit organization that the company supports, on either a part, or full-time basis.

Pair them up with an instructional designer/trainer, so that their know-how can be contributed to a curriculum which will educate others.

It’s not too soon to start talking about how your company will leverage employee talent when the economic sky starts to brighten.

Joan Lloyd is an executive coach, management consultant, facilitator and professional trainer. Email your question to Joan at info@joanlloyd.com Visit www.JoanLloyd.com  to search an archive of more than 1300 of Joan’s articles. (800) 348-1944 © Joan Lloyd & Associates, Inc.