Companies till blinkered about effect of boomer retirement

A new poll by the Boston Consulting Group and the the European Association of People Management has found that nearly half of European companies do not even plan their workforce requirements more than a year in advance.

What this means is that, once we are through this current recession, the twin pressures of falling birth rates and baby boomers heading off into retirement are likely to resurface with a vengeance, it has argued.

Companies that have been forced to cut costs and reduce headcounts during the recession may well struggle to find the people they need when growth eventually returns.

Managers therefore need to be doing more to consider the long-term impact of their recruitment and retention actions, even in times of crisis, it emphasised.

"In 10 years, the scarcest resource for a company will be people," said Rainer Strack, co-author of the report and senior partner in Boston Consulting's Dusseldorf office.

Last month research by recruitment firm Manpower, for example, suggested that nearly a third of managers worldwide were still struggling to fill skilled salespeople and technical positions, despite the fact that more people were now out in the jobs' market.

Boston Consulting also sounded a warning on this issue in April last year, arguing in research with the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations that the combination of ageing workforces in the West and intense demand for skilled workers in developing nations could in time create a global "talent crunch" that could be as damaging to the financial credit crunch.