People Trends & Strategies –
Managing a Multi-Generations Workforce

Greater China Talent Management Summit 2012, organised by A-Performers.com, now at its 7th year, is widely appreciated by human resources professionals in the Greater China as an effective platform to share insights, knowledge and tools on talent management. This important event will be held at Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong on 6th July this year.

Globally the rate of population growth is declining while the workforce is ageing. From an employment perspective, an ageing workforce does present challenges but can also be a source of priceless experience and loyalty. At the same time the youth can often bring different skills and fresh enthusiasm to a company. The challenge for HR managers is to retain older workers while creating a dynamic environment for their younger counterparts.

 
In the United States, baby boomers make up over one third of the county’s workforces, they are filling many companies’ most skilled and senor position. What will happen if they are going to leave the workforces? According a report by Forrester Research, 76 million Baby Boomers will retire in the next 10 years with only 46 million younger employees as replacements (Lesser, 2006). This means that the labor pool will have shrunk nearly 60% by 2016.

The issue of ageing workforces also happens in Hong Kong. With over 1.4 millions’ Baby Boomers will retire in the coming ten year and over 600 thousands’ usual residents in the workforce are aged 50-54, (Population Census 2011, Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR), whereas the peak for the retirement will arise in 2018.

In this year’s Summit we are looking into companies that are investing in strategies to understand the potential competency gaps that their organisations may experience both today and in the years to come, especially with regards to projects they don’t know about today and technologies that may not exist at present.

At the end of the day the first step to building a workforce with high levels of learning agility and flexibility lies within HR professionals’ ability to understand the region’s demographic challenges and work out how to put together an adaptive workforce.

The second key element is around the need to constantly gain an understanding of sophisticated talent management and talent acquisition strategies available. HR departments will increasingly need to review policies and practices related to recruitment, retention and development to ensure that their organisation caters for both the needs of young and old workers. They will also have to put into place strategies for managing an ageing workforce –while ensuring that these same polices will continue to attract and retain the best young talent.

The third and arguably most important thing that HR departments have to realise is that it’s all about harnessing the potential of the workforce as a whole. HR managers have to look at job functions globally and not just locally. They will have to identify talent within the organisation on a global platform and clearly define how they would be able to move talent across their regions as and when needed to fulfil the criteria of specific roles.

Managing a globally ageing workforce and balancing this out with recruiting new talent is a much more complex topic than we can cover in just a few paragraphs. What we do know is that the decades ahead will be shaped by a workforce that is ageing and by people working longer. This will require careful HR and recruitment management, and a dynamic shift of talent to fulfil the needs of an organisation. The key topics to be covered this year include:

  • The General Issues: The ageing workforce vs. young talent
  • How age-conscious are human resource policies?
  • Succession planning – talent management strategy for the aged versus the young talent.
  • Enhancing productivity in a multi-generations Workforce – Knowledge management and transfer strategy

    • Greater China Talent Management Summit 2012 is comprised of conference, exhibition and other networking sessions. Throughout the day there will be opportunities to interact and network with speakers and fellow delegates to exchange ideas and explore how you can implement what you have learnt back in the workplace.

    Who should attend?
    The event, the topics and speakers are set to attract HR directors, managers and business leaders from the Greater China.

    Conference
    The conference will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions with a host of esteemed, top professional speakers sharing their valuable thoughts, insights and experiences on the latest issues affecting elite recruitment and staff retention.

    Exhibition
    A special exhibition will offer unparalleled opportunities for sponsors and institutions to showcase their company’s branding with respect to services and products in face-to-face dialogue sessions.

    Networking
    High-level networking opportunities will include registration, coffee breaks, and lunch for delegates, sponsors and exhibitors to enhance business ties and stay current with the latest industry issues.
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