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Pongo™Resume Offers a Solution to Help Employers Bridge the Gap
NORTHBOROUGH, Mass, August 5, 2008 —Pongo™Resume, the premier full-service online resume-building resource that provides a suite of online tools to help job seekers market and manage their career, sees a workforce dominated by two generations of people - the older Baby Boomers and the younger Millennials, or Generation Y - and offers a solution to help employers bridge what Pongo sees as a gap between them.
On the one hand, Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, and in most cases the parents of the Millennials, are beginning to retire. By 2016, the oldest of the Boomers will be 70 years old, collecting Social Security and drawing on their retirement “nest eggs.” On the other hand, Millennials or Generation Y, born between 1977 and 1994, are coming of age and within a decade will be the dominant demographic force in the U.S. workplace. As this perfect storm continues to grow, the question on employers’ minds—given their penchant of watching their spending and satisfying shareholders with higher profits—is whether they should dump the Boomers from their payrolls and avoid hiring them at the pay levels they might deserve and replace them with less-experienced Millennials.
In an era of mutually diminished loyalty between employees and employers, this is becoming a more commonplace practice. While job hopping has become nearly synonymous with Millennials, it’s a growing fact that an employer is less likely to keep someone on the payroll until retirement anyway. However, employers who have their finger on the pulse of workplace trends should be able to see a clear picture of what’s happening between Boomers and Millennials today and use this to plan for tomorrow.
“The solution for today with tomorrow in mind may be hybrid roles for Boomers,” suggests Michael Neece, Chief Strategy Officer for Pongo™Resume. “Employers should consider hiring Boomers, either on a part- or full-time basis, into hybrid roles that give them meaningful work but that also assign them as mentors to Millennials as a way to help build the workforce of the future and, by extension, give the younger worker reason to stay with the company longer.”
Both Boomers and Millennials want to do something meaningful and valuable in the workplace. Meanwhile, some employers are making it a priority to better manage their talent and keep their workforces engaged. Yet, while they fear hiring the more experienced Boomers because they might cost too much, there is plenty of good reason to lean on them to fill critical gaps on their payrolls while simultaneously training the younger Millennials so they feel they’re learning and growing in their chosen careers.
For the Boomers, especially those who like the idea of being respected as teachers, sages, and fonts of wisdom, the advantage is apparent. If such an arrangement is done right, with organized training and career development programs, younger workers can grow in their careers and may stay at their jobs longer, Boomers can continue to build their retirement nest eggs, and employers can come out on top by bridging this modern generation gap by developing the leaders of tomorrow.
For more insight on workforce issues, visit the PongoResume Blog.
About Pongo:
Pongo™Resume is a premier full-service online resume-building resource that provides a suite of tools to help job seekers market and manage their career. Pongo generates over 100,000 resumes per month through its 4+ million registered users and has in excess of ½ million unique visitors per month. The company is privately held and headquartered in Northborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.PongoResume.com or call 1-866-486-4660.
Contact: Diane Coffey; Kel & Partners; 508.366.2099, ext.117; Cell: 508.259.9584; diane@kelandpartners.com
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