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Greetings!
More from the little town
 The the fly on the wall strained his little ears to listen in as the door closed. This was the first monthly meeting between Mayor Putoff and new Town Manager Sid Smarterstill.
Sid looked around furtively leaned across his big oak desk then whispered to the Mayor, " we've got a problem". "Speak up Sid I can't hear you", hollered Mayor Putoff.
Quickly r ealizing that whispering wouldn't work Sid settled back in his chair and continued in his regular voice. "I was at the CAMA Conference in Toronto last week and got speaking to one of the exhibitors... Ravenhill Group Inc. Canada's Municipal Recruiting Specialists. I learned some extremely interesting things!
Did you know anything about the baby-boomer situation before you hired me?"
"Not really" said Mayor Putoff, but you're the brains around here, Sid why don't you tell me?"
"Well Mayor, the baby boomers are the members of the generation born between 1946 and 1964. At 7.9 million people, they're the largest Canadian generation in history. The oldest boomers will turn 65 in 2011 and many of them may choose to head for the exits. In the meantime a boomer turns 60 every 75 seconds!"
"Mayor, how many people work here at the Little Town who are eligible to retire in each of the next ten years?" The colour drained from Putoff's face as he thought about it. He began looking antsy.
"Calm down Mayor", Sid reassured him, "the odds are good that not everyone who can retire will retire. But Mayor, don't you think it would be a good idea to talk about it?
We really need to know just how many people might leave at a moment's notice when the time comes that they could leave?
The big problem Mayor is that our senior managers have all sorts of critical knowledge and experience. When they leave, they take it all with them."
Mayor Putoof was on the edge of his seat now, "This is incredible, why it's a baby boomer brain drain Sid, think of the loss of knowledge and experience when these boomers retire."
"Sid," gasped the Mayor "how many of our senior managers are boomers?"
"Not sure Mayor, but I have a plan...that's why you hired me! Starting today we are going to change the way we think. We are going to have to modify our recruiting, training, retention and succession planning policies.
Since Boomers may be starting to flow out the back door, it's logical to plan on increasing the flow of recruits in the front door.
It's logical, Sid, answered the mayor, but it sounds expensive.
Sid was quick to reply "not nearly as expensive as not having the right men and women here to run the town.
Something else I learned Mayor Generation X is the generation next in line behind the baby boom. It's only about half the size of the baby boom generation, so we've got a smaller pool to draw from. We can't count on simply throwing an ad in the paper to fill the spots left by retiring boomers.
Several cities are investigating the possibility of having people return to work after retirement or stay at work past their official retirement date. The Mayor leaned toward Sid," that could actually work",
The mayor sat back in his chair as the colour returned to his face. Mayor we are gonna have to analyze our corporate culture. For instance do you see our older staff as contributing members of the workforce, or do you see them as workers with their eyes on retirement and one foot out the door?
The mayor was still calculating the number of key people the little town would be losing, when he said "you seem pretty confident, Sid, what's your plan to meet the challenges of Boomer Brain Drain?"
Mayor here's one of the key things I learned at the conference. Ravenhill Group specializes in municipal recruiting...in fact that's all they do and they do it from coast to coast. If we get into a relationship with them now we'll be okay. Even if there is a shortage of good people right across Canada we can make sure the Little Town always has great staff with this kind of alliance.
But Sid how do we know they won't recruit our staff? I knew you were going to ask that said Sid. Ravenhill guarantees they won't recruit from their clients. Better still Bruce Malcolm told me there are more than 8000 communities in Canada and some 300 towns and cities with a population over 5000 ...they simply don't expect every municipality to be a client. Most of the municipalities in Canada have to be the places Ravenhill recruits from. Bruce Malcolm the Managing Partner says they are looking to develop a few strategic alliances in every province. Then they can concentrate on doing a great job for their clients.Call them right now Sid and get them over here!
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