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Baby Boon or Bust?

September 28th, 2008

Predictions have been made that over 78 million baby boomers will ultimately face retirement within 25 years with drastic effects. The baby boom crisis has become the topic of many conversations and here is a snippet of what people have been saying since 2003.

The Ministry of Labour in Finland created a report called, ‘Preparing for the Labour Market Change Caused by the Baby Boom Generation’. It calculated that after 2010 the population will begin to reduce and starting in 2030, it will go down by 400,000. This equates to approximately 20,000 people each year. Labor aptitude will also reduce after 2010 at a rate of 30,000 people each year. And the worst of it is, there will not be enough young people to replace them.

But Kevin Coyne, lead researcher of Coyne Partnership Inc., recently contradicted these predictions. He claims that there’s no real “crisis”, and that this baby boom thing is “much ado about nothing”.

David Walker, US Chief Accountant, would say otherwise. He’s noted as saying, that the US will see a major crisis in the near future, with the walk out of baby boomers, which will put the US economy on red alert.

But with so much hype comes complacency, a “it won’t happen in our company” syndrome, and due to this, very few companies are doing anything to get ready for the looming human capital crisis. They think that the crisis will pass them by, and that hiring and firing will be “business as usual”.

Thnking things will be the same as before is crazy. True, many companies won’t be so affected, but can you say hand on heart, that it won’t affect the companies you serve - which in turn will affect you anyway; even if indirectly?

If the figures are correct, this is a quick peak at what could happen in the next two years.

Customers start withholding business to focus all their energies on preventing their organization from going under. Others will find their once healthy customer list, gradually fading away as a number of their clients go bust.

For recruitment companies, pressure will be fierce to replace lost human resources and will have to work doubly hard to fill the gaps - which won’t be easy. In fact it’s predicted that things will get worse before they get better.

We can’t stop baby boomers retiring in their droves, but there are three key marketing tactics smart, forward thinking companies can put into place to protect themselves against the looming storm, and they are to:

– Appreciate the deeper ramifications the crisis could bring you — Develop a solid consumer profile — Focus on creating client loyalty

Forward thinking companies who want to survive and thrive in 2008 and beyond, have no choice but to start preparing right now, and these three marketing tactics are the way to go.

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