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Recruitment & Retention

Published August 2009

Why 30-Year-Olds Rule the World

 

  Kellye Whitney

Of course, 30-year-olds don't actually rule the world. But in the next few years, they may get a stranglehold on the workplace. Baby boomers aren't retiring nearly as quickly as was predicted before the recession hit, but there will still be knowledge and experience gaps that need to be filled.

"There's approximately 70 million baby boomers and approximately 43 million Generation Xers. That results in a 33 million people shortfall. If you look at census data, it's going to take at least two generations to fill the knowledge gap left by the baby boomers in the U.S., and it may be even worse in other countries in Europe and the Far East," said Karen Jackson, managing partner of C-ChangeWork LLC. "The implications of that shortfall mean we're going to have more knowledge gaps and less people to fill those gaps. These 30-somethings are going to be able to write their own ticket if they have particular skills or if they are A-team players or provide heavy levels of contribution to the business."

"Organizations need their technical savvy, their enthusiasm for diversity, as well as their willingness to re-career and reinvent themselves," said Beverly Kaye, founder and CEO of Career Systems International. "There's a lot more we could be getting from that generation than we're getting. To capitalize on their contributions, we need to be open to the idea of making the job fit the person more instead of force the person to fit the job."

Groom Gen X

Talent managers also will need to groom them.

"Gen X is the fastest growing talent pool," said John W. Jones, vice president and chief scientist at Vangent Inc. "People in those age ranges not only have the tech savvy people are seeking in the digital economy, they're more mature, meaning they have started to grow leadership potential.

"In this age range, you'll see people who are highly dependable, very productive, but they aren't quite ready to be leaders. You need to identify who stands out in terms of leadership personality and traits to be groomed. Companies are using branding strategies to bring this group on board, and they're being creative to retain them, but the bottom line is they need to be positioned to generate profitable revenue for the company."

Jones said a lot of risk management is needed because this particular demographic has a cache of valuable skills that can be plied in a variety of organizations. Thus, they have a high turnover risk.

"You could do everything right; if they don't have commitment, the company investing in them won't benefit. Instead of listening to popular summations of this group as a turnover risk, know ideally at the point of hire their degree of commitment. Arguably the war for talent is going to be as brutal as it was a few years ago; this age group is facing its first real test. Less rapid promotion is staring them in the face, and things aren't happening as quick as they're used to."