Hang on to the boomers?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:11 AM

A lot of ink and pixels have been spilled on the subject of the impending retirement of Baby Boomers. There could be a mass migration out of the organizations that boomers have helped to build and maintain over all these years, thereby resulting in a net talent shortage and experience drain that could cripple the organizations they leave behind.

That's the worst-case scenario, anyway. Well, here is a possible solution to the problem: keep some of the boomers on board:

An expected wave of baby-boomer retirements has some managers fretting about worker shortages. But experts say many firms are overlooking a big supply of potential employees -- older workers who can be wooed to continue working.
- - - - -
Employers who ignore older workers now will suffer as boomers near retirement age, says Melanie Cosgrove Holmes, a vice president at Manpower. By 2012, nearly one in three U.S. workers will be over 50, according to AARP, a group for people age 50 and older. "Progressive companies that are looking ahead...are the ones that are going to be most successful," Ms. Holmes says.