Career Partners International’s (CPI) Anthony Raja Devadoss, in The Rise of the Wise, develops several statistically relevant, and persuasive points about the senior workforce, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region, and also in the United States, Australia and Europe. Devadoss is a member of the Board of Managers at CPI and is also Managing Director & Regional Business Head of PERSOLKELLY Consulting, a Career Partners International firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“The global population is projected to increase 3.7 times from 1950 to 2050. The number of people over the age of 60 will by a factor of nearly 10 and those over the age of 80 by a factor of 26. The skills and knowledge that older people have acquired through their careers are going to waste as they leave the workplace….To maintain high productivity, businesses will need to make their workplaces ‘age friendly,’” as stated by Devadoss.
These are points to be well taken. Research shows that cognitive functioning slows as people age, however consider that older people have much more information stored in their brains than younger ones, so retrieving information may naturally take longer. The information that seniors have stored is also more developed from layers upon layers of complex experiences, hence, they are valuable resources.
Doug Matthews, Career Partners International’s CEO, explains “The ageing crisis is forcing organizations to address their talent supply chains to retain retiring workers and prevent a potentially huge loss of knowledge from the workplace. This has led to a whole range of government policies and innovative retention strategies.”
In addition to outlining senior workforce challenges, Devadoss also provides several potential solutions – “win-wins” for companies and their valued senior resources. The Devadoss white paper, “The Rise of the Wise” can be found by clicking on the following link: The Rise of the Wise