KEY POINTS:
Companies need to take action now to attract staff and keep employees on the books after retirement if they are to overcome the growing skills shortage.
That's the view of Wayne Peat, IBM's Asia Pacific executive for human capital management. He says companies need to find ways to employ staff beyond the traditional age of retirement and that managers need to change the way they recruit and manage their staff, amid a global shortage of young skilled people.
"The cupboard is almost bare when it comes to talented youth and graduates joining organisations. We have a declining birth rate globally, particularly in New Zealand and Australia, and there is growth in organisations and the economy. But people are still retiring.
"There is such a broad [skills] gap that unless companies do something about it, we are not going to fix it."
It is not just an issue for New Zealand, as Peat points to Japan where a mandatory retirement age of 65 means millions of people, or 8.6 per cent of the working population, will start to leave the workforce this year. And there are just not enough young people to replace them.
"They are calling it their 2007 problem," says Peat. While people in New Zealand don't face a mandatory retirement age, Peat says government and industry has to take the lead in encouraging people to carry on working and to find ways of keeping senior workers onboard so they can share their skills and knowledge on a contract basis.
"The biggest problem we have got is the retirement mindset," he says. "The new paradigm is about a blended lifestyle.
"Where we used to segment education, working and retirement into decades, people are now working, taking further education and making lifestyle decisions about leave of absence all within the same decade.
"What organisations must start to address is the need to redesign work, and change the way work is done, to cater to the needs of those who want that blended lifestyle."
In short, Peat - who has more than 20 years in senior management and HR roles in Asia and Britain - is advocating that employers encourage people to work beyond 65 by offering flexible working environments that gives them, and others, a true work-life balance.
It appears to mirror what he says is happening in Singapore where he is based. Its government, labour organisations and employers are working together to solve the skills shortage. However, he says the government there has offered companies tax breaks and cash to retain senior staff and wonders whether the same could be done here.
"New Zealand has a great history of providing benefits to individuals," says Peat. "It's not such a great step to provide incentives to organisations so they can really start to address some of these critical issues.
"There is a genuine work ethic in New Zealand where people can work longer and they have a lot to contribute. Not necessarily in manual labour but in how organisations operate, in institutional knowledge, coaching and working on projects that really benefit the organisation from an experience and expertise base."
But retaining older workers is just part of the employment mix for companies wanting to retain talent. He says research shows that by 2010 people aged 38 will have had 10 different careers. That means people will stay with their employer for much shorter periods.
"Employee life cycle in organisations is rapidly decreasing," says Peat. "People are no longer being recruited by organisations. They are recruiting organisations that they believe will help further their careers."
And he warns those in the recruitment industry to "get a life". It's not looking good. "It's another paradigm shift. Career spans are reducing rapidly, so what attracts people to organisations is changing rapidly as well."
Peat says money is no longer the big motivator but rather what a person can learn and who they can work with. "That's what is interesting and exciting. At the moment, money is about number six on the list of employee commitment factors.
"Job hunters want to know the type of work they will be doing and the skills they can pick up to take to the next job next year or in three years' time."
The key is the link between leadership and management and for managers to understand the motivators and aspirations of staff.
"It's what I like to call one-on-one HR," says Peat. "We can no longer treat employees as one mass. Companies may have an IT department, an engineering department - and the people in those departments need to be treated differently. There's no one size fits all any more.
"It's all about aligning the workforces that companies have to the overall strategy of the business - that's what will drive performance. This is one of the things IBM is doing to help transform companies."
He believes the future of work is in contracting and promotes the concept of "just-in-time work'.
"The concept of having an HR department that recruits people to a business because we think we need full-time labour, and we've got employment contracts and entire industries built around that, well that is becoming cumbersome and costly to maintain," says Peat.
The future of knowledge-based work could be based on networks of communities such as those using My Space or Linkedin, that will offer companies specialist resources as and when they are required.
"There are 9 million users of MySpace today and if that was a country it would be larger than Luxembourg."
Peat says it won't be long before employers will no longer be the be-all and end-all of many people's lives. Work, he says, risks becoming sidelined as one of the things people will be concerned about in their lives as they strive to balance family, hobbies, interests and income opportunities.
"The blended lifestyle includes education, hobbies and social networking. People will not need their employer to give them the information they need to do their jobs."
If Peat is correct, companies will need to trust their staff more to deliver the goods, to give them more freedom, develop and rely on networks of people to provide the services they want.
Meanwhile, it may soon come to pass that knowledge workers - as opposed to those offering manual labour - will need to take more responsibility for securing work and delivering it on time and within budget.
Having the freedom to pick and choose when and where to work doesn't come without a cost. And the price may be lack of employee rights, irregular income and financial insecurity.
Tool kits to help provide balance
Two web-based tool kits to help businesses better manage flexible working arrangements and work-life balance have been introduced by Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson and Small Business Minister Lianne Dalziel.
Dyson said: "The tool kits represent the practical advice and experience of business owners and managers whose staff have already been using flexible work, such as roster management, job sharing or working from home, to other employers now looking to introduce and manage flexible work and work-life balance arrangements."
Dalziel says flexible work relationships can offer real benefits to small- and medium-sized enterprises.
"Commitment and trust are a two-way street. If you are committed to your employees they will return the favour because it develops a personal relationship in which workers feel their needs are being taken seriously," she said.
"In turn, this extra commitment by staff has lifted the level of customer service and the reputation of the business."
