Most Companies Ill Equip Younger Workers for Senior Management

October 7, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The vast majority of American businesses have done little to prepare the younger generations for senior leadership positions.

More than nine out of 10 (94%) human resource professionals said their organizations are not adequately prepared to fill upper management positions with the departure of approximately 60 million baby boomers that will be leaving the workforce over the next 15 years, according to a survey conducted by human resources consulting firm DBM.

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Intergenerational collaboration is at least partially to blame. Forty percent said their companies were unsuccessful in encouraging the collaboration of younger and older generations in the workplace.

This proved truer in smaller firms than larger ones. Larger companies – those with more than 5,000 employees – were more likely than mid-sized – employee counts of 501 to 5,000 employees – and small companies – less than 500 employees – to be unsuccessful in encouraging the collaboration of younger and older workers. More than four out of 10 (44%) of those surveyed from large organizations rated their employers as somewhat to not successful in multi-generational collaboration.

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