Capture the learning from older generations

Recently I wrote about baby boomers retiring and attracting new employees to EMBs. There is another dimension to this. How do we capture the relevant learning from older generations? In one EMB that I've worked with, the most experienced election administrator reaches retirement age at the same time as the next major election. What is being done to capture the wealth of knowledge that exists in his mind. Time has shown that his keen electoral instincts have been bred through years of experience and exposure. With the re-appointment of the Chairperson of the Kenyan Electoral Commission recently, there also came a shock announcement that he is retiring after the coming December elections. The same reality confronts many of the senior and executive management and commissioners in these EMBs across the globe. The older generation is retiring with all their knowledge, expertise and experience.

While one should not delay such inevitable change, there is a significant cost of such retirement in the elections context where the timelines are unforgiving and mistakes even less so. In the next six years, people between 41 and 59 will start leaving the elections profession, just they are doing in other industries. Despite the fact that people are now retiring at a later age than 60, the loss in their participation rates and declines in economic efficiency will mean a decrease in value to the organisation. Opportunities will naturally open up to correct areas such as gender and other imbalances in staffing levels. One could also see an increase in outsourcing of certain functions as the expertise around these functions retires and prove difficult to replace. One solution is to simply just employ the younger generation and have them make mistakes and learn. This philosophy has worked over the years, but really doesn't show that we've learnt much except to allow others to fail and repeat out mistakes. In this day and age such an approach needs the support of the older generation to lend a helping hand to decrease the impact of such mistakes. If this older generation doesn't exist, then what happens? Are such mistakes allowable in the elections context?

The use of specialist education and training programmes such as BRIDGE are critical in getting new people up to speed quickly but this also has its limitations without a broader strategic framework around these matters. Executive management in EMBs need to start asking critical and strategic questions of their workforce:

• What are your EMB’s demographics (age, gender, position, years in position and anniversary date)?
• What are your EMB’s retirement policies? Is early retirement encouraged or discouraged?
• What mechanisms and programs must be put in place now to capture key competencies and critical work knowledge of employees who will be retiring?
• Demographic trends show that you may be faced with large groups of both very young workers and very old workers. Will these two groups have different learning needs? Are you prepared to customize your current programs?
• What is the gender breakdown by position? Do specific positions have gender imbalance? Are there programs to correct these imbalances?
• Is your organization positioned to meet the need of the over-60 voter segment? How will this change your organisation? What new skills and competencies will this change require?

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Ultimately the question that must be addressed is how does one go about capturing the learning of the older generation in a meaningful way that respects their dignity and at the same time does not patronise the younger generation.