completion of a certification process. Her boss made a deal with her: He would send her to the training so she could be certified if she would agree to be on call for one year after retiring at her regular salary, prorated to a daily fee. It was a win/win. The company got the benefit of her certification for the last year she was there, plus a full year of being an on-call contractor. She got the benefit of being able to charge other consulting clients more after she retired because she had this certification.
Whether or not you can work such a sweet deal with your Baby Boomers, it would serve you well to think twice before automatically writing them off for training, no matter how close they are to leaving.
Leverage Strength in New Ways Baby Boomers have had long careers to hone skills that can very often be put to use in new and innovative ways. Give them the opportunity to do so; it will help them restart their motors and renew their commitment to the organization.
Here’s an example of how one company did this. The Medical Records department at Health Central in Ocoee, Florida, had poor turnaround time that impacted Accounts Receivable days and unbilled discharges. Patient and physician satisfaction were poor because the department was not timely in releasing medical records for continuity of care. Employee morale and satisfaction were extremely low and turnover was high. Internal customer satisfaction was also very low. To make things worse, the department had recently implemented an electronic medical record system, and users had not been trained to use it. The Department Director had resigned and the hospital was looking for a replacement.
The Director of the hospital’s Quality Management Department, Kathy Deel, suggested that she could run Medical Records, as well as Quality Management. Kathy had successfully combined these two departments at another hospital.
The Executive Committee gave her the go-ahead. Kathy, who was 55 years of age at the time, told us that the challenge was like a shot of adrenalin for her. Under her leadership, the newly combined department was prospering within a year. Medical record turnaround time was reduced from 4 days to 24 hours, well below the industry benchmark. She focused the staff on eliminating waste and revamping processes, which improved efficiency so much that she did not fill the vacancies that occurred with attrition. She also let some nonperformers go and didn’t fill their positions.
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Today, the department operates with one-third fewer employees, patient and physician satisfaction is up, and the department is recognized as one of the best medical records units by its electronic medical record vendor. Most of all, says Kathy, the staff members that remained have an attitude of pride and team spirit that was missing before she took over.
The lesson here? Your oldest employees may be your most loyal, knowledgeable, wise, motivated, and the hardest working among those in your organization. If you give them a new look, you may be very surprised at the return you get.
* * * * * Larry and Meagan Johnson, a father-daughter team, are the Johnson Training Group (
www.johnsontraininggroup. com), whose clients include several government agencies, American Express, Harley-Davidson, Nordstrom, Dairy Queen, and many others. They are leading experts on managing multigenerational workplaces, and are coauthors of Generations, Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters—Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work (Amacom, 2010).
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