企業(yè)需注重留住中老年員工

The obsession with how to manage millennials is obscuring another potentially larger problem: how to manage their parents. It is reassuring, then, that a group of UK businesses, including Barclays, Boots, Aviva and the Co-op, have started to measure the size of the skills gap that they could fall into as many more people retire from the workforce than join it.

對(duì)如何管理千禧一代這個(gè)問(wèn)題的糾結(jié)，掩蓋了另一個(gè)可能更大的問(wèn)題：如何管理千禧一代的父母。就此而言，令人寬慰的是，包括巴克萊(Barclays)、Boots、英杰華(Aviva)、合作社集團(tuán)(the Co-op)在內(nèi)的多家英國(guó)企業(yè)，已開(kāi)始衡量他們可能面臨的技能缺口，因?yàn)橥诵莸娜藬?shù)大大多于加入員工隊(duì)伍的人數(shù)。

On Tuesday, these companies and others set a target of increasing the number of over-fifties they employ by 12 per cent by 2022. As in other areas where business awakes to its social responsibility — from staff wellbeing (healthy workers are more productive) to environmental policy (clean factories are more efficient) — an underlying self-interest is driving the concern. Even if automation can cover some of the looming skills deficit, businesses that do not learn how to attract and manage older workers will lose out. They lose access to a valuable pool of experience and lack inside knowledge about how to handle their older customers.

不久前，包括上述企業(yè)在內(nèi)的一些企業(yè)確立了一個(gè)目標(biāo)：到2022年，將50歲以上雇員的人數(shù)增加12%。就像在其他事情上——從員工健康(健康的勞動(dòng)者工作更有成效)到環(huán)境政策(清潔的工廠更有效率)——一樣，企業(yè)意識(shí)到自身的社會(huì)責(zé)任，往往是受到根本層面自身利益的驅(qū)動(dòng)。即便自動(dòng)化可以部分彌補(bǔ)將要來(lái)臨的技能缺口，如果不學(xué)會(huì)如何吸引和管理年紀(jì)較大的員工，企業(yè)就會(huì)吃虧。它們無(wú)法讓一大群有價(jià)值、經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的勞動(dòng)者為自己效力，也不懂得如何搞定那些年級(jí)較大的客戶。

Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, authors of The 100-Year Life , about the challenges and opportunities presented by increasing longevity, found that, with few exceptions, most companies were doing very little to tackle the problem. “Most have kept with the traditions of recruitment and development that were created more than 50 years ago,” they write.

《百歲人生》(The 100-Year Life)論述預(yù)期壽命延長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)的挑戰(zhàn)與機(jī)會(huì)，該書(shū)作者琳達(dá)•格拉頓(Lynda Gratton)和安德魯•斯科特(Andrew Scott)發(fā)現(xiàn)，除少數(shù)企業(yè)之外，多數(shù)企業(yè)都沒(méi)有采取多少行動(dòng)來(lái)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。“多數(shù)企業(yè)都在延續(xù)創(chuàng)建于50多年前的招聘和發(fā)展傳統(tǒng)，”他們寫(xiě)道。

To profit from the wisdom and experience offered by older workers — and accommodate their needs — companies will have to develop two skills that they are traditionally quite poor at: flexibility and a willingness to deal with complexity.

要獲益于年紀(jì)較大員工的智慧和經(jīng)驗(yàn)、并照顧他們的需求，企業(yè)得在它們一向不擅長(zhǎng)的兩項(xiàng)技巧上有所長(zhǎng)進(jìn)：靈活性以及處理復(fù)雜性的意愿。

In parallel with the mass-production techniques that underpinned the growth of big business in the 20th century came a standardisation of worker development that served large companies well for decades. In this three-stage life, age was a rough, but reasonable proxy for employee needs. Companies could predict that sometime in their sixties, workers would retire, their departure lubricated by generous pension arrangements.

員工發(fā)展的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化，與支撐了20世紀(jì)大企業(yè)增長(zhǎng)的大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)方法一同誕生，并在數(shù)十年時(shí)間里較好滿足了大企業(yè)的需求。在這種三階段人生中，年齡粗略但合理地代表了員工的需求。企業(yè)可以預(yù)測(cè)到，員工在60多歲的時(shí)候會(huì)退休，優(yōu)厚的退休金安排讓他們高高興興地離開(kāi)。

But staff currently in the workforce — and many older workers who would be willing and able to rejoin it — are increasingly expecting a multi-stage life, where education, work and retirement no longer follow a strictly linear course. Simultaneously, the corporate retirement benefits that once eased the transition to old age have disappeared. Companies, write Ms Gratton and Mr Scott, “will increasingly see offering more diverse employment policies as a major strategic advantage, especially in high-value-added industries where human capital plays a crucial role”.

但目前在職的員工、以及很多愿意也能夠歸隊(duì)的年紀(jì)較大的勞動(dòng)者，日益期待的是一種多階段人生——教育、工作和退休不再嚴(yán)格遵循一條線性的路徑。與此同時(shí)，一度讓人們能安然步入晚年的公司退休福利已經(jīng)沒(méi)有了。格拉頓和斯科特寫(xiě)道，企業(yè)“將日益把提供更加多元化的雇傭政策視為一項(xiàng)重大戰(zhàn)略優(yōu)勢(shì)，特別是在人力資本發(fā)揮關(guān)鍵作用的高附加值行業(yè)”。

Some workers — particularly those in senior roles — will also have to accept that if they are to continue in work, their status will change. The value of part-time and on-demand contributions to the company should increase, while the simplistic idea that people achieve “seniority” through continuous service, followed by abrupt departure, breaks down. Measurement and targets, in other words, are just a start.

一些勞動(dòng)者(尤其是職位較高者)也將不得不接受這樣一個(gè)現(xiàn)實(shí)：如果他們要繼續(xù)工作，他們的地位會(huì)改變。兼職和隨叫隨到式服務(wù)對(duì)企業(yè)的價(jià)值應(yīng)該會(huì)增加，而以下這種簡(jiǎn)單化的想法會(huì)破滅：?jiǎn)T工通過(guò)長(zhǎng)期工齡獲得“資深”地位、隨后突然離開(kāi)。換句話說(shuō)，衡量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)和目標(biāo)只是一個(gè)開(kāi)始。