We’re all familiar with the coined phrase “baby boomer generation” and likely hear about this large generation’s impact on things like healthcare and retirement. Last year, the oldest of the 77 million U.S. baby boomers turned 65 – the traditional retirement age – and about 10,000 more will be reaching that milestone every day during the next two decades. That equates to nearly half (43 percent) of the work force set to retire within eight years! Can your organization afford to lose your pool of talented, experienced older workers in such a short time span? If not, have you done serious strategic planning to analyze the impact of baby boomer retirements and to identify potential skills gaps that could result?

Talent and succession planning may be the single most strategic goal for preparing for this mass exodus of the workforce. As employers are paying more attention to the literal transfer of business wisdom from their baby boomers to the next generation, one of the practices having significant success is mentoring. In the past, the role of the mentor has been a relatively informal one. With this newly defined need, however, companies are formalizing the practice. Older workers are formally assigned to younger workers with the goal of developing these individuals. The mentoring relationship often teaches business wisdom, which goes beyond know-how to know-why. Similar strategies implement job sharing where a junior person shares a job with someone senior and more experienced. Another approach brings retirees back to the organization in a consultancy role. This allows an individual to retire when he or she chooses, yet extends the time for transferring knowledge and wisdom to other staff. Whether your company takes a more or less aggressive approach, some form of knowledge transfer represents a key part of your overall plan for addressing the boomer drain in your organization.