Strategic HR Mgmt - Article Summary - Essay Example

Article Analysis ‘How to keep your 50-somethings’ clearly addresses the dire need for a creative mode amongst employers to contend with the dynamism of their workforce. Firstly, the article highlighted the intensity of the competition that presently exists amongst organizations for the world’s greatest resource-people. The rest of the article focused on the various strategies to deal with the issue of maintaining and motivating an aging workforce.Employers today appear to be faced with the dilemma of having a workforce of aging personnel who remain because they ‘can’t think of anything better to do’ versus those who leave and take the company’s ‘intellectual capital’ out the door.

Thus to harness this possible collapse of one’s organization, HR specialists have advised against the use of conventional strategies. Instead they have recommended a number of avant-garde approaches, namely, open communication systems, flexibility, new compensation packages and ‘more interesting work, for the older workers.Consequently, in order to maintain and attract the ‘best’ employers would be wise to utilize these recommendations of the HR specialists and change their modus operandi.

Hence, organizations may turn their entire company around by ensuring that there is always an open door for these aging workers to relate to their managers. The managers therefore must keep abreast of the requirements of these workers by having continual discussions with them.Another HR strategy is the necessity of flexibility in this modern work environment. Flexibility in terms of duration of work, allotted time/days for work, place of work, compensation packages and the like are extremely important in the life of the aging worker.

As a result managers must take these factors into account when developing their HR plans. ‘Phased retirement’ which refers to a gradual process rather than an abrupt end of employment is a new concept that will begin to play a major role in the HR life of an organization.A third strategy is that of empowering the ‘baby boomers’ in the workplace. Employees feel empowered when they have a sense of autonomy in their job function. Further, these employees are motivated to remain with the company that demonstrates the importance of the workers’ role to the overall functioning of the organization.

What is more, aging workers want a chance to ‘learn new things.’ Thus, an organization can incorporate training in their daily program to accommodate the needs of their workers.Finally, a high performing company needs to modify its compensation system to accommodate the changing needs of its workforce. Some older employees may prefer alternative means of compensations to cash. Thus, as the article suggests they may favor ‘variable-pay’ to a constant pay package. It is believed that variable –pay may reduce the level of turnover for companies.

Undoubtedly, ‘How to keep your 50-somethings’ is a wake up call to managers. It reveals the need for managers to communicate with their employees to ensure that their workers’ preferences align with the ability of the company to deliver. Therefore the real challenge for today’s organizations is to establish and implement creative HR strategies into their daily schedules.ReferencesHow to keep your 50-somethings. (cover story). (1999, September). Harvard Management Update, Retrieved August 27, 2008, from Business Source Premier database.