Committed to Your Success Coaching & Consulting

In the coming years, the baby boom explosion will be in full force, with 10,000 boomers reaching retirement a day.  It is predicted that 70% of them will remain in the workforce, some for financial reasons but a large majority are going to remain out of two needs: the need to remain productve and the need to give back.  As adults age, one trait that follows is the law of generativity, or the need to give back to the world.  This usually means wanting to make the world a better place and to the need to return ‘gifts’ one has been given.  Often, there is a need to do volunteer work but it can be in teaching younger people the lessons one has learned as they have matured through the aging process, which brings much wisdom and experience that younger people can benefit from. 

One way to do this in the workforce is to move older workers into a mentoring role.  The definition of mentoring is “a wise and trusted person whose primary purpose is to teach and to serve as a guide.”  Other words that come to mind are coach, counselor, knowledge sharer, role model, sage, and muse.  The mentor can often open doors to new opportunties, teach one the ropes, or allow one to demonstrate their competencies.  The older worker is in a great position to teach new employees, or the younger worker, how to do the job and can serve as role models for good organizational behavior. 

Placing an older worker in a mentoring role can help the organization in several ways: one, it can assure that knowledge of the job is passed on; two, it can assist with understanding the organization’s culture and processes in order to acclimate the younger or new employee; and three, it can offer intrinsic motivation and rewards for the older worker by giving them a new, more important role and recognition which is often more valuable than monetary rewards.  It can bring other values to the organization, such as increased productivity, a more cohesive work team, and greater job satisfaction.  It will allow the older worker to leave on a more positive note and hold the organization in high esteem, thereby leveraging their standing in the business community and the community at-large.