RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 30, 2010 — While summer’s reruns may be winding down, the alarm bells continue to sound on the hit CBS series Undercover Boss. The Sunday evening program produced by Stephen Lambert follows high-level chief executives who go undercover to explore the inner-workings of their companies, and the nerves it hits are just as raw as when the series originally aired. The televised fieldwork of Undercover Boss exposes the gap that often exists between leadership and employees — a gap that executives can bridge by a simple yet effective strategy, according to Stephen Xavier, an executive coach and author with more than 20 years of experience coaching Fortune 500 executives.

“It’s impossible for a CEO to understand everyone’s situation or story, considering that companies can have thousands of employees,” says Xavier, America’s Top Coach® (http://www.americastopcoach.com), “yet that doesn’t necessarily have to be cause for alarm. Good leaders can be extremely effective if they ‘manage by walking around,’ meaning they observe their people working in the field at every level, interact with employees — with or without their bosses present — and hold weekly ‘town hall’ style meetings to monitor the business’ pulse and employee satisfaction. This is exactly what several of the CEOs that I coach do, and, today, they’re ‘poster boys’ for success when it comes to modeling exceptional leadership.”

Xavier notes that whenever employee satisfaction surveys are conducted, “more money” rarely tops the wish list. Rather, employees rank job security, a healthy, safe work environment, and being treated respectfully above money. This is a powerful message that plays out again and again on Undercover Boss, Xavier notes. Xavier explains, “Let’s face it, the issue of ‘job security’ is no longer just applicable to the rank and file either. CEO’s and other top leaders are also on notice in this shaky economy and need to produce results, too.”

“For anyone who has watched Undercover Boss, there are several simple yet critical takeaways regarding America’s CEOs,” Xavier says. “The Undercover CEOs and other corporate leaders have strayed too far away and become too out-of-touch with who their people are and what makes their companies function effectively.”

The show points out that many decisions at the executive level fail to anticipate consequences downstream. Xavier’s advice for leadership is to create a culture that fosters deeper, more meaningful engagement in the workforce, so senior leaders can make better decisions that ultimately boost the company’s bottom line.

Recent Gallup Organization findings underscore the need for this approach. Gallup data on employee engagement – and disengagement – correlates to various impacts on companies, including financial consequences, now a formidable loss of $300+ billion annually.

“This monetary hit is staggering, especially considering these economically challenged times and that there’s a proven strategy that helps prevent such loss,” Xavier says. “While I certainly don’t expect any CEO to walk the shop floor day in and day out, a significant amount of visibility on the part of the CEO has real value, and Undercover Boss demonstrates exactly that.”

In the Wall Street Journal they reported that more U.S. workers quit their jobs than were laid off in March, the second month in a row this occurred and a sign of employees’ growing confidence that more positions are becoming available in a slowly recovering job market.

Although I truly trust the Journal as a trusted news source, in my experience as an Executive Coach working in a wide range of Fortune 500 companies I couldn’t disagree more strongly with the Journal’s reporting. Over the last 18 months other data has been released from a variety of sources reporting that worker dissatisfaction has risen sharply and the highest in decades. What if this exodus of the workforce is due less to worker “confidence” and more to do with the issues I see in large organizations every day:

Workers who are afraid of their own future as they see co-workers laid off – in some cases – by the thousands

These same workers who remain on the job being “coached” to do “more with less” i.e., do their jobs, their former co-workers job and in many cases, the jobs of subordinates who were also laid off

And finally, the combined stresses of issues # 1 & 2 being simply too much to bear.

During a recent cross-country flight I had the good fortune of sitting in FIrst Class and seated next to an executive of a large, global company in the Agri business who vented about the aforementioned issues and ended by saying both she and her Peers at work now have one big question they face every day; “What work, task or project do I KNOW I can’t finish today …?” That is the reality of today’s tough economic times and the lay-offs and other resource cut-backs occurring in US businesses.

The Journal went on to say that nearly 1.9 million employees quit in March compared with more than 1.8 million who were laid-off or discharged, the Labor Department said Tuesday. February, they went on to say, marked the first month since November 2008 when the number who quit was larger than the number who were laid off or discharged.

“The most positive thing, certainly, is hiring activity finally started to pick up,” said Harm Bandholz, a UniCredit Research economist. But “companies are still very cautious.” Cautious is an understatement. In late-2009 a survey of The CEO Roundtable, a group of CEO’s representing some of America’s largest and most successful companies, revealed that 40% of them saw things getting worse, not better, in 2010 and that same 40% saw more lay-offs coming, not growth, as the White House keeps telling us.

The Labor Department noted that, “The quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to change jobs.” I disagree. Recent numbers around those who are unemployed who simply quit looking for a job jumped. Further, there are hundreds of thousand of “the uncounted” who run small businesses that have lost their businesses but would never show up in any Labor Department statistics.  And let’s not forget that those who are either ineligible to collect unemployment or, those who’s benefits simply run out are also not counted.

Both figures—the number who quit and those who were laid off—rose slightly in March, compared with the prior month, but quits have been outpacing those who were discharged in recent months largely because the pace of layoffs has slowed from its peak during the recession, the article went on to say.

On a positive note, perhaps, the number of hires was also larger than the number of total separations, which include quits, layoffs and retirements. Separations increased 1.2% to 4 million in March from February.

Jobs still aren’t easy to find. There were just 2.7 million job openings in March and 5.6 unemployed persons per available job as employers have shied away from widespread hiring.

Small businesses have been particularly reluctant to add to their ranks. An index of small-business optimism rose 3.8 points to 90.6 in April, the National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday. Despite the improvement, owners surveyed said that, on net, they shed more workers than they added for the 27th consecutive month.

Perhaps the government numbers need a bit of a scrubbing, further inclusion of the uncounted and, perhaps some version of an “exit interview” that goes beyond speculation as to why more workers quit rather than look only at numbers. Doing so may shed some real light on what is afoot here.

Below is a blog post from Michelle Malkin that I just could not resist publishing. 100% editorial credit goes to her. Please read:

How Mexico Treats Illegal Aliens
Michelle Malkin
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accused Arizona of opening the door “to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement.” But Arizona has nothing on Mexico when it comes to cracking down on illegal aliens. While open-borders activists decry new enforcement measures signed into law in “Nazi-zona” last week, they remain deaf, dumb or willfully blind to the unapologetically restrictionist policies of our neighbors to the south.

The Arizona law bans sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws, stiffens penalties against illegal alien day laborers and their employers, makes it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to complete and carry an alien registration document, and allows the police to arrest immigrants unable to show documents proving they are in the U.S. legally. If those rules constitute the racist, fascist, xenophobic, inhumane regime that the National Council of La Raza, Al Sharpton, Catholic bishops and their grievance-mongering followers claim, then what about these regulations and restrictions imposed on foreigners?

– The Mexican government will bar foreigners if they upset “the equilibrium of the national demographics.” How’s that for racial and ethnic profiling?

– If outsiders do not enhance the country’s “economic or national interests” or are “not found to be physically or mentally healthy,” they are not welcome. Neither are those who show “contempt against national sovereignty or security.” They must not be economic burdens on society and must have clean criminal histories. Those seeking to obtain Mexican citizenship must show a birth certificate, provide a bank statement proving economic independence, pass an exam and prove they can provide their own health care.

– Illegal entry into the country is equivalent to a felony punishable by two years’ imprisonment. Document fraud is subject to fine and imprisonment; so is alien marriage fraud. Evading deportation is a serious crime; illegal re-entry after deportation is punishable by ten years’ imprisonment. Foreigners may be kicked out of the country without due process and the endless bites at the litigation apple that illegal aliens are afforded in our country (see, for example, President Obama’s illegal alien aunt — a fugitive from deportation for eight years who is awaiting a second decision on her previously rejected asylum claim).

– Law enforcement officials at all levels — by national mandate — must cooperate to enforce immigration laws, including illegal alien arrests and deportations. The Mexican military is also required to assist in immigration enforcement operations. Native-born Mexicans are empowered to make citizens’ arrests of illegal aliens and turn them in to authorities.

– Ready to show your papers? Mexico’s National Catalog of Foreigners tracks all outside tourists and foreign nationals. A National Population Registry tracks and verifies the identity of every member of the population, who must carry a citizens’ identity card. Visitors who do not possess proper documents and identification are subject to arrest as illegal aliens.

All of these provisions are enshrined in Mexico’s Ley General de Población (General Law of the Population) and were spotlighted in a 2006 research paper published by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy. There’s been no public clamor for “comprehensive immigration reform” in Mexico, however, because pro-illegal alien speech by outsiders is prohibited.

Consider: Open-borders protesters marched freely at the Capitol building in Arizona, comparing GOP Gov. Jan Brewer to Hitler, waving Mexican flags, advocating that demonstrators “Smash the State,” and holding signs that proclaimed “No human is illegal” and “We have rights.”

But under the Mexican constitution, such political speech by foreigners is banned. Noncitizens cannot “in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.” In fact, a plethora of Mexican statutes enacted by its congress limit the participation of foreign nationals and companies in everything from investment, education, mining and civil aviation to electric energy and firearms. Foreigners have severely limited private property and employment rights (if any).

As for abuse, the Mexican government is notorious for its abuse of Central American illegal aliens who attempt to violate Mexico’s southern border. The Red Cross has protested rampant Mexican police corruption, intimidation and bribery schemes targeting illegal aliens there for years. Mexico didn’t respond by granting mass amnesty to illegal aliens, as it is demanding that we do. It clamped down on its borders even further. In late 2008, the Mexican government launched an aggressive deportation plan to curtain illegal Cuban immigration and human trafficking through Cancun.

Meanwhile, Mexican consular offices in the United States have coordinated with left-wing social justice groups and the Catholic Church leadership to demand a moratorium on all deportations and a freeze on all employment raids across America.

Mexico is doing the job Arizona is now doing — a job the U.S. government has failed miserably to do: putting its people first. Here’s the proper rejoinder to all the hysterical demagogues in Mexico (and their sympathizers here on American soil) now calling for boycotts and invoking Jim Crow laws, apartheid and the Holocaust because Arizona has taken its sovereignty into its own hands:

Hipócritas.

Copyright © 2010 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

Following the above title should be the subtitle “Why Business and Politics Don’t Mix” – One need not look much further than any recent daily paper to find articles entitles “FedEx, Teamsters Battle on Bill” to get a flavor of what is brewing in Washington; dangerous legislation funded by Unions, blessed by the WHite House and a jobs-killer.

In case you missed it I am referring to current legislation aimed to give Unions the right to more easily unionize within the airline industry, something they are hindered from doing and with good reason. And the AFL-CIO, the primary funding source for getting Obama in office, is making this bill a “top priority”.

Although in this current round it is the Democrats, headed by James Oberstar (D.Minn) either party can be found “guilty”. In this round nine of the top 11 campaign contributors to Oberstar’s campaign are labor unions and needless to say, they are on a mission to get this bill passed. Proponents and big donors include the Teamsters, Airline Pilots Association and the Machinists/Aerospace Workers Unions who collectively, gave upwards of $725,000 to date to Oberstar’s campaign. If the bill passes it will ease unions into a “strategic space” to potentially increase membership at companies like FedEx and even in overseas locations while trying to recapture maintenance work that has drifted there as a means to save sky-rocketing costs.

But let’s face it, although this round belongs to the Democrats should we as Americans continue to tolerate any US corporation donating hundreds of thousand of dollars to influence any elected official? The answer should be a resounding “No!” It’s time for our Congress to step up and do the right thing and create true campaign reform that limits corporate donors to “zero” and allows the American people to fund campaigns, with limits, to stop this game of “whoever has the biggest stick wins” – enough is enough.

Have you noticed a decline in the quality of leadership in America?

I don’t care if it’s in business or in government. It’s getting worse, much worse. One would think that in the worst of times – like right now! –  that people would be motivated to improve but instead, leadership is on the wane when it is, ironically, most needed.

Courageous leadership? Not a chance! I wonder what would happen if leaders would actually step up, demonstrate courage and actually lead with vision where we would be right now; where we at least might be heading in our near-future.

What do you think? Is it just me? Or, is this problem reaching near-empidemic levels all around us?

In this current economic down-turn there have been two distinctly different, diametrically opposed leadership trends that have surfaced in American companies; leadership that has gone underground and leadership that has surfaced in full-force and full-engagement with its workforce. There is nothing like a hit reality show to inspire water cooler exchanges and surface both trends and that is exactly the effect of the hit CBS series Undercover Boss. The Sunday evening program follows high-level chief executives who go undercover to explore the inner-workings of their companies. This televised fieldwork is exposing the great divide that often exists between leadership and employees — a gap that can be bridged by a simple yet effective strategy, yet it is a strategy that is rarely employed.

The show does, as I’m sure it must, hype the drama and deep personal stories of its “co-stars”; employees who are outted for good deeds gone unnoticed. Each sub-plot in this series does, without a doubt, grab at the heart-strings of the viewers through these touching vignettes of single, working mothers doing double shifts, employees working with life-threatening illness yet they triumph and excel or, others who simply work so hard for the company yet go virtually unnoticed. In each case the CEO is so rattled by what he witnesses first-hand to the point of personally committing company funds to give aid to these people, engineer promotions – all much-deserved – or commit company funds to scholarships or other perks to acknowledge employee greatness.

Although it’s impossible for a CEO or any senior executive to understand everyone’s situation or story or know the intricate inner-workings of their operations, good leaders can be extremely effective if they ‘manage by walking around,’ meaning they observe their people working in the field at every level, interact with employees — with or without their bosses present — and hold weekly ‘town hall’ style meetings to monitor the business’ pulse and employee satisfaction.

Whenever employee satisfaction surveys are conducted, “more money” rarely tops the wish list. Rather, employees rank job security, a healthy, safe work environment, and being treated respectfully above money. That delivers a powerful message, and is one of a few, but important, ongoing themes playing out in Undercover Boss.

For anyone who has watched Undercover Boss, there are several simple yet critical takeaways regarding America’s CEOs. The Undercover CEOs and other corporate leaders have strayed too far away and become too out-of-touch with who their people are and what makes their companies function effectively. The good news; even before the show’s stellar success several CEOs were already getting the message that they were out of touch with their organization, its workforce and the impact that their decisions were having on the company-at-large. Notably, as reported in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “CEOs Welcome Recovery to Look After Staff”. In this article they identify the leaders of the other trend; CEOs who are in touch.

Bill Emerson of Quicken Loans has made it his habit now to schedule regular, weekly lunch meetings with small groups of employees to listen to their concerns and feedback. In many cases feedback from employees has lead to technology or systems changes within the organization making an otherwise jittery mortgage climate more palatable and efficient. US Airways CEO Douglas Parker now also makes the rounds at all Pilot Training programs, a venue he took off his to-do list awhile ago. Such meetings boost morale and he has now increased employee face-time to 50% of his overall time commitments. He has also gotten away from Washington DC visits where lobbying lives and instead, now focuses his time and effort in the airline’s hub cities where most employees are based.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers Chairman now encourages company leaders to “roam the halls” and Olympus Corporation of America, a Japanese owned company, also has its CEO spending considerably more time on the floor and out of his office. Clearly this trend is catching on and long overdue for both the executives and the employees they lead. Until America’s CEOs get out of the Ivory Towers they too often live in and get back in touch with the heart and soul of their organizations, they will be unable to make strong, clear and well-informed decisions that effect more than just their company’s bottom line.

For these leaders to not re-engage to create a culture that fosters deeper, more meaningful engagement in the workforce is a mistake that in time will catch up to them. A disengaged leader creates a disengaged workforce. In fact, The Gallup Organization regularly tracks employee engagement, measuring the percentage of employees who are engaged, not engaged or actively disengaged in companies throughout the world. Recent data collected has measured various impacts to companies, including financial consequences — now a staggering loss of $300+ billion annually.

This monetary hit is staggering, especially considering these economically challenged times and that there’s a proven and simple strategy that helps prevent such loss. While I certainly don’t expect any CEO to walk the shop floor day in and day out, a significant amount of visibility on the part of the CEO has real value, and this show demonstrates exactly that.

Ford’s Mulally Tops Executive Coach Stephen Xavier’s Roundup of America’s Best CEOs

America’s Top Coach, Stephen Xavier - Ford Motor Company recently stunned industry experts by surpassing General Motors in overall sales for the first time in more than 50 years. Executive coach Stephen Xavier credits this accomplishment to the strategic leadership of Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and now Xavier has placed Mulally at the top of his new “America’s Best CEOs” list.

Xavier, an executive coach and author of the new book Not on My Watch: A Leader’s Guide to Navigating the Impending Retirement Bubble Disaster, Building a Bench and Leaving a Legacy of Success, has over 20 years of experience coaching and mentoring Fortune 500 clients worldwide.

“Ford’s CEO Mulally turned down TARP money, took a 180 strategy from competitor GM and headed toward a profit,” explained Xavier, America’s Top Coach® (http://www.americastopcoach.com/).  “Flying in the face of business and government critics alike, Mulally is heading toward recovery the old-fashioned way: with strategy, vision and guts.”

Next on Xavier’s “America’s Best CEOs” list is Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers. “While AIG, Citigroup and GM went into catastrophic tailspins after the financial meltdown in 2008, they all changed leadership,” Xavier stated. “But Cisco Systems did not. Chambers has led one of the biggest business comebacks of modern times.”

Following Chambers on Xavier’s list is Pepsi’s Indra Nooyi, who has focused on developing healthier snack alternatives, making the company less dependent on its core product line. Next on the list is Costco’s James Sinegal, who easily made the list not just by earning healthy profits and meeting consumer demand, but also for his commitment to paying his employees generous wages even in challenging times.

Others recognized in Xavier’s list of America’s leading CEOs are Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Fred Smith of FedEx and Apple’s Steve Jobs — all leaders who, against the odds, used innovation, vision and muscle to stay afloat. Angela Braly of WellPoint also made the list, with Xavier praising her courage and determination in standing up against Washington, D.C. insiders and talking actual numbers, not political rhetoric, regarding healthcare provider profits.

Rounding out the list is Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit. “Atlhough he is not one of my favorite CEOs for his more academic approach to leading,” Xavier says, “his willingness to fight the hard fight in the face of critics in Washington and Wall Street alike earns him at least an honorable mention.” SAS software’s Jim Goodnight and Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst were also included on Xavier’s list.

To those CEOs who did not make the list, Xavier offered some advice: “First, build and communicate a compelling future vision, rather than succumb to short-term cutbacks, and then empower others, from the management team to the rank-and-file, to act on that vision now.”

One need not look very far to see countless images of Toyota’s Chief bowing apologetically and repeating, without pause, his apologies to Congress and the American people for the faults of Toyota and it’s mis-steps regarding the safety issues that have blanketed the airwaves these days.

Do the American people really buy it? Never  mind the reactions of members of Congress and their Kabuki Theater performances (no pun intended), but how do we as Americans feel about his apology? As someone who has lived and worked extensively in Japan – although I don’t claim to be an expert on cross-cultural issues between our country’s cultures – I think numerous mis-steps were taken here by Mr. Toyoda and people aren’t buying this.

For those of you who were paying very close attention you may recall that just a week ago Mr. Toyoda originally announced postponing the trip to the US to testify in front of the NTSB until late-March. As more news of defects in not only the Prius and COrolla but the Lexus line as well, the media had a feeding frenzy. Enter now the stories not only of unintended acceleration with near-misses and even crashes occurring but, in numerous cases, a significant number of deaths were being reported as well. Add to that the information now slowly becoming public that Toyota was aware of these issues and intentionally ignored them as a “cost-saving measure” is inexcusable.

In Japanese culture when an executive does wrong apologies go a long way in a culture where shame has value and bears weight. However, in our culture telling the truth early on goes a long way to not only people’s acceptance and understanding of the offenders sins but, goes a long way as well towards reconciliation – if – the offending party has told the whole truth and nothing but. Bill Clinton, there’s a lesson here for you.

As sincere as Mr. Toyoda’s apology may have been, the fact that it is truly a case of too-little-much-too-late will not wash his sins away. All of the evidence points to, like the tobacco cases we are all too familiar with, prior knowledge of the safety issuesm with a choice to turn an intentional blind eye is criminal by any measure.

Mr. Toyoda, no matter what the “culture of diversity” crowd may tell you about America, we are still a land of laws and integrity and this culture dictates that truth be told no matter what the cost.

I should be celebrating the fact that I’ve recently been promoted—but I feel completely alienated.  I was promoted to the director of a group I was a part of. I have heard the expression that it is lonely at the top—but I feel as if I’ve lost my entire social support network.  Any hope for restoration? —Letisha, NY, NY

Here’s a story you’ll appreciate: Sally was a 40-something, African American female staffer at a west coast-based Pharmaceutical company when much to the shock and surprise of everyone on her team of 12 people, she was promoted to run the group. Although she was delighted to have been selected, her immediate reaction was nausea. This team was a tight team with strong workplace and social ties.

When she called me to express her concerns my immediate reaction was to suggest that she remember and rely on the long-term relationships with these people and the “ties-that-bind” to get her and them through this change. I couldn’t have been any more wrong. When the group attended an already-planned night on the town the “chilliness” in the air was apparent to her but no one was willing to address it. After much awkwardness and several half-hearted congratulations, she called it a night early and went home feeling quite dejected. When we spoke the next day she reduced to tears at both the fact that these “friends” could not celebrate her success and, what she felt, was the long road ahead of now having to manage this group.

My advice to her—and to the select few of them that I knew professionally—was simple. I had her set up a series of brief one-to-ones, some in her office, some over coffee and some over lunch to address people’s feelings directly in a non-offensive, non-confrontational manner. Overall, the result was positive. Some percentage shared that with her as Boss they already knew that her social time with them would have to be limited and they felt that loss. Another group felt that they were so close that it would be difficult to rise above the “friend-factor” and be “bossed around by her” they said partially in jest. The final group, and luckily the minority, expressed that they felt that the job should have been theirs.

Although our next meeting was also a tearful one, I encouraged her to at least appreciate the fact that she knew where everyone stood and to manage from there. She did, over time, take solace in that advice and things eventually leveled off. Not without some challenges, mind you, but they did improve.

If you are in her shoes my advice is simple:

• Take the one-to-one approach like Sally did and get people’s feeling out in the open.
• Acknowledge people’s feelings – good or bad – without trying to “make nice” or otherwise “sell them” on you.
• Encourage people to be supportive of you, your transition into the job and remind them what a great team they are and how that has to continue.
• Although maintaining the close relationships are important, the reality is that it must all change – you are the Boss. Leverage the relationship as a means to keep people “on your team” and   remain productive and successful.
• Friends or not, new boundaries are required now since you are now privy to sensitive info that is sometimes intended for your eyes only, not to share .
• Avoid “water cooler talk” and gossip. Now that you are the Boss, what you say now has more clout.
• Keep an eye out for “dissenters” who may, overtly or covertly undermine your success. If spotted, nip it in the bud early and fast. Don’t be afraid to reassign someone or if needed, show him or her the door.

Situations like this can only have one of a few possible endings. Why not make yours a happy one no matter what side of the equation you are on.

Is another perfect storm looming on the economic horizon once we sort through the current financial crisis?

Key industries have not addressed the loss of critical knowledge that will hit them when a huge number of baby boomers head for retirement by 2010. In fact, although the retirement crisis is already well underway, our current economic crisis has bought management a few crucial years or so by the fact that many boomers put off retirement when they saw recent and dramatic plunges in their 401(k) and related retirement accounts. But many companies face huge losses if this looming shortage of skilled labor and management is not addressed now.

What industries are affected and why are we unprepared? Ongoing studies by organizations such as the AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, and the Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM), among others, have been sounding warning bells for the last ten years.

In 2005, SHRM President Susan R. Meisinger warned that these demographics present major challenges to America’s workplaces, saying, ”These are serious HR and workforce issues that could undermine the
nation’s global competitiveness and HR must determine how to meet these challenges.” At the same time, SHRM’s own studies showed that only a quarter of HR professionals were convinced that the flood of retiring baby boomers would be a problem for their organization. Not so. The crisis is upon us now and it is far more serious than many in business realize.

This lack of concern by HR professionals elicited a warning this fall from AARP’s Chief People Officer Ellie Hollander, who said that few employers recognized the effect of the brain drain they will suffer when
boomers retire and take all their knowledge and experience with them. Studies in the aerospace industry and manufacturing sectors, two areas likely to be hard hit, back up this concern.

The current economic crisis may have bought companies a few years time to put plans in place. One energy
company saw a withdrawal of requests for retirement among many in management as their portfolios shrank dramatically this year. But this company and others are no longer waiting for their HR departments to take the lead. Instead are bringing in outside experts to set up programs on bench strength and succession. Most organizations should take similar action now.