Say what you want about the boomer generation – as employees, they\u2019re the kind of people you want on your team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born between 1946 and 1964, this generation of Ol\u2019 Reliables takes pride in their work ethic and job-for-life mindset. They love to joke that for all young peoples\u2019 gadgets and remote work setups and rebellion against traditional workplaces, we\u2019ll never cope when they all leave the workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The worrying thing is, they might have a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The job market has possibly never been so fluid. In line with a much more Scandinavian view of working life, people are changing jobs year-on-year. Employees of companies who refused to shift to more flexible remote working have left in their droves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Younger people are simply not seeing the point in the first place. Millennials have lived through too much to trust any kind of capitalist system. Even high-paying jobs don\u2019t enable them to buy a house, and lucrative pensions seem to be a thing of the past. Gen Z has a different set of priorities entirely. They care much less about fast cars and material goods than their predecessors – instead valuing opportunities for time alone, with friends and family, and for memorable experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those key people (KPs) – the ancient company veterans everyone goes to for all the answers – are fast becoming a rare breed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 80s and 90s, pioneering devs and dotcom moguls in their 20s and 30s started setting up their tech companies for world domination, and setting up themselves for extremely lucrative early retirements. The first of the baby boomers started retiring in the 2010s, and by 2030, 75 million of them<\/a> will be out of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a business, losing these key staff members with years or decades worth of knowledge about how to keep your company running is a very difficult risk to mitigate. Unlike drops in sales, debt, or legal risk, you can\u2019t plan for it. You can try to train up future KPs, but the likelihood of them leaving within a few years makes your investment a shaky one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the danger of losing one isn\u2019t just inconvenience – it\u2019s the disproportionate impact it can have on your company\u2019s value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How are new enterprises going to thrive without this loyal generation of employees-for-life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps soon we’ll see a day where business and finance articles can be written without any reference whatsoever to the pandemic. But today is not that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n COVID presented a new and terrifying form of employee drain. Death, long illness, recurring problems caused by the virus, and most cynically speaking, the \u201cI need to self-isolate\u201d sick day excuse have had serious impacts on staff presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long-term absenteeism leads to a requirement for lesser-trained cover staff, and over time, loss of knowledge and experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n COVID has also rung in an era where remote working is no longer a bonus but an expectation. If you need bums on seats or just feel your company runs better with people in the office, tough – many will simply go elsewhere to a role that permits home working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CEOs come in many forms – the maverick, the visionary, the preacher, the safe pair of hands. But they don’t come in many ages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Announcing a C-suite departure often spells turmoil for stock market prices. But it can be managed with things like long notice periods, extended and highly involved handovers, and, obviously, the quality of the replacement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the effect is surprisingly long lasting. In 2017, companies with departing CEOs<\/a> \u201cunderperformed the rest of the market by an average of 11% during the following 12 months \u2014 with 32% of them underperforming the rest of the market by more than 20%\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors don\u2019t like this kind of change, and are rocked by the implicit loss of institutional knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But most sensible companies have a game plan for the sudden loss of a CEO. There should be a relatively obvious successor waiting in the wings (or even being actively trained), or at the very least, a shortlist of potential candidates with salient experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the CEO is not the only key person. The most valuable KPs are often the people who sit below the highest level and yet are in close contact with the day to day, quietly and swiftly managing relations and operations between both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Very few companies have a game plan for this type of replacement. And often, they don’t realise they need it<\/a> until these people are checked into their retirement complex on the Gold Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOf course we have to mention COVID\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
CEOs aren\u2019t the only key people\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n