Recruiting Boomers

I recently sat down with Tim Driver, CEO of RetirementJobs.com, at their offices in Waltham, MA. RetirementJobs.com is a job board dedicated to workers over 50. They’re a relatively young company, but have built quite a head of steam in a short time. They’ve been ranked the #1 career site for the 50+ worker population and they’ll see over 5 million unique visitors to the site this year. There are 75 million baby boomers in the work force and they’re entering retirement age now. With that many people ready to retire and so few coming into the workforce to replace them (30-40 million new workers), many baby boomers will stay in the workforce past 65 years old. These workers are going to be in incredibly high demand in the coming years, both for skill and expertise. To accommodate a partial retirement lifestyle, flexible schedules and shorter term contracts are going to replace permanent, full-time engagements. The opportunity for the staffing and recruiting industry is massive – both in serving the workers and helping corporations build programs to attract them. There’s a lot of discussion around how to cater to the needs of Gen Y workers, but far less attention has been given to the 50+ set. The staffing and recruiting firms that master working with both of these groups will be truly positioned for success in the next decade.