>By Alison Maitland
>Published: September 28 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 28 2005 03:00
>>

The grey hairs are rapidly showing in the oil and gas industry in Europe and the US. At an estimated average age of 49, half the workforce is expected to retire in the next five to 10 years. The US nursing and teaching professions face a similar demographic crunch, as do aerospace and utilities companies.

These sectors are experiencing labour shortages as younger people balk at heavy manual work, unsociable hours and "unsexy" skills such as engineering. Employers are being forced both to find imaginative recruitment solutions and to consider how to hang on to mature workers for longer.

It is into this tricky territory that IBM, the world's largest technology company, is stepping with the launch today of consulting services to help companies prepare for the potential loss of skills as the baby-boom generation reaches retirement.

IBM says it is offering a comprehensive package that includes analysis of companies' workforce demographics and skills, job modification and training of older employees to maintain productivity and methods to capture their knowledge and pass it to the next generation, possibly through modern apprenticeships.

"The ageing population will be one of the major social and business issues of the 21st century," says Mary Sue Rogers, head of IBM's 3,500-strong human capital management consulting group that will provide the new services. The company is responding to requests for help from clients, especially in the US, Canada, Scandinavia, Germany and Italy.

Niche consultants and human resources specialists such as Mercer and Hewitt Associates are already active in the field. Angela Watson, worldwide partner of Mercer, says: "There has been a bit of a push from the marketplace in terms of addressing critical skill shortages re-lated to age and experience."

But global consulting companies have not moved in with innovative services, say independent experts. Deborah Russell, head of economic security at the American Association of Retired Persons, points out that many employers have not yet woken up to the demographic shifts that may confront them within a decade.

"I can't say there are droves of consulting firms advising employers about ageing workforce issues as yet," says Ms Russell. "We are always looking . . . because we see the value of working with big consulting firms. Employers still view the AARP as advocates - so of course we are going to say positive things about older workers. Consulting firms bring credibility."

As this is an emerging market, estimates of its potential size are hard to come by. Ms Rogers expects to have a better idea in the next six to 12 months: "We'll see this market mature and change over the next five years and we want to be in there at the beginning."

There are pointers, however, in population projections. In five years' time, for example, nearly 30 per cent of the Japanese population will be over 60, up from 17 per cent in 1990, according to US Census Bureau data. Around 26 per cent of Italians and Germans will be over 60, up from 21 and 20 per cent respectively in the early 1990s.

There is also survey evidence that many people expect to work beyond traditional retirement age but in a more flexible way, posing challenges for employers in reshaping jobs to attract or keep them. A new survey for IBM of 1,000 American workers aged 45 to 65 shows that half plan to work beyond 65 because they need the income or want to stay active. Two-thirds think their experience is transferable to other sectors.

The experience of employers in countries with fast-ageing populations such as Finland and Australia shows that successful recruitment and retention of mature workers requires sensitive management and culture change, areas in which occupational health and psychology play an important role.

IBM plans to use "cultural anthropologists" and social scientists to help clients understand the impact of an ageing workforce. But its new service draws heavily on its existing strengths in IT and outsourcing. "The solutions are going to be increasingly process and technology-driven," says IBM. The taxonomy of [companies'] population is data-driven. Capturing knowledge is in many ways IT-driven."

IBM cites the transformation of its own internal travel expenses process from a paper-based system to an online tool. It says the 3,000 processing staff, many of whom are babyboomers, have been transformed into consultants, selling the application to other companies. "They went from being an internal cost centre to an external billable resource."