The “silver tsunami” is hitting its peak as 4.1 million Americans will turn 65 each year between 2024 and 2027, according to a report by the Alliance for Lifetime Income.
Granted, a portion of those 16 million baby boomers will remain in the workforce after age 65, but organizations are bracing for a significant talent gap as workers with decades of experience and institutional knowledge leave in record numbers.
In New Hampshire, in addition to having the second-oldest population in the U.S., factors such as lack of affordable workforce housing and limited child care options make recruiting and retaining employees extremely challenging.
So, what are businesses to do? The simple answer is not always the easiest: Businesses must invest time and resources to develop programs to not only attract candidates but to keep them once they’re on board. That means going beyond obvious incentives, such as flexibility and attractive benefits, and developing more career-advancement opportunities.
Coaching and mentoring
Regardless of organizational size, one effective development strategy that has proven to be successful is coaching. At NBT, we have implemented a coaching culture that is reinforced with individual development planning, clearly defined career paths and mentoring.
While mentoring calls to mind older, more experienced employees teaching younger ones, that isn’t always the case. Mentoring could also take place between peers with different experiences. In all cases, the learning transfer goes both ways.
Beyond the obvious teaching and learning, coaching and mentoring are required to ensure employee engagement, retention and succession planning efforts.
On-demand learning
In addition to providing more formal development programs and opportunities, it is important to prioritize and encourage asynchronous learning organization-wide. For some organizations, that might include an investment like LinkedIn Learning, and for others it might be publicly available or free resources like YouTube videos.
At NBT, employees have access to relevant content through NBT University, LinkedIn Learning, and corporate-designed content to help the organization meet its strategic objectives.
While our company comprises more than 2,000 employees at more than 150 locations in primarily seven states, these tactics are scalable to any size organization, large or small. Learning and development, coaching and mentoring are all instrumental in helping employees to develop skills, improve performance and strengthen relationships, while also fostering innovation, collaboration and, ultimately, retention.
Justin Jennings is regional president of New Hampshire for NBT Bank, which serves commercial and retail banking clients at locations in Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Keene.
