Unique challenges and opportunities face organizations as the demographics of the workforce in the 21st century change through aging, diversity, and labor shortages. Approximately one-fourth of the workforce is over age 50, and that percentage is expected to increase as mature employees want to remain in the workforce past traditional retirement ages. These changing demographics mean that many companies will need to employ mature workers, and they will be motivated to do so. Technology changes that impact the way employees work, engage in training opportunities and are recruited to the workplace will play an important role in the inclusion and competitive success of people over age 50 in the workforce.

There are new perspectives among Fortune 100 and smaller companies regarding the maturing workforce and how the age wave impacts the need for and design of technology solutions for people over age 50. This session will review some of what leading edge companies are doing to attract and retain mature employees, what is being done to create a productive, cross-generational workplace, and how new definitions of work and retirement create management challenges and solutions.

The implications of the demographic changes for technology solutions necessary for people over 50 in today's business environment will also be reviewed. Routinely, companies are using electronic kiosks to recruit new employees, online "webinars" to train employees in new business strategies, and e-learning as a less expensive alternative to face-to-face training. In addition, we will talk about new e-learning solutions that we have designed to help employees to address work/life concerns, such as eldercare.

close