The Fastest Growing Group Of Workers, What Worries CHROs Now And More

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When it comes to the workplace, it’s fair to say there’s a lot more focus on employees coming into the workforce than those about to leave it. We’re not saying that’s right. But there’s always a lot of attention paid to what Gen Z wants, how millennials will manage, and how both are reshaping the dynamics of how we work now.

But a new analysis last week by the Pew Research Center takes a look at older workers, and employers may want to take notice. Some one in five Americans (19%) age 65 and older were employed this year, nearly double the percentage who were working in 1987. Perhaps most startling: Workers age 75 and older are the fastest-growing group in the workforce, according to Pew’s analysis. They’re also the most satisfied: In a separate Pew Research Center survey from March, older workers reported the highest amount of job satisfaction, with two-thirds of workers 65 and up reporting they are extremely or very satisfied with their overall job, compared with just 44% between 18 and 29.

What’s driving the shift? Expanded employer benefits, such as perks aimed at older workers or phased retirement programs, are one reason. Other major factors include that workers are healthier and less likely to have a disability, and face increasingly steep financial challenges, from inflation to changes in pensions to changing Social Security benefits. For more from the research, check out our colleague Emmy Lucas’s story.

The holidays are upon us, and we will be taking a couple of weeks off. Future of Work will not be sent next Monday, Dec. 25, and it also will not be sent the next Monday, New Year’s Day. We will be back in your inboxes on Monday, January 8. Enjoy the holiday!

HUMAN CAPITAL

As the United Auto Workers union takes its victory lap and tries to recruit workers at other automakers to join, efforts have reportedly been met with some resistance. Last week, the UAW filed union-busting charges against Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen with the National Labor Relations Board. Union members said they faced “aggressive anti-union” campaigns that amount to violating the National Labor Relations Act. Fresh off of a successful six-week strike at Detroit’s Big Three automakers—Ford, General Motors and Jeep and Chrysler owner Stellantis—the UAW has been working to bring in new members at more than a dozen automakers, targeting more that 150,000 workers. According to the complaints, management at an Alabama Hyundai plant have been confiscating, banning and destroying union literature. After hundreds of workers at an Indiana Honda plant signed union cards, they reported being “targeted and surveilled” by management. And while more than 1,000 workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee have signed cards supporting union membership, the complaints say management has harassed and threatened pro-union workers, confiscated membership materials, and prohibited employees from handing out union fliers.

The charges will be investigated in coming weeks by the NLRB, but the outcome is unclear. While the UAW won historic victories in the way of wage increases and better employee pay as a result of its strike, there are still problems to deal with. Earlier this month, Stellantis announced up to 2,455 coming layoffs at a Detroit plant where Jeep Grand Cherokees are made, and up to 1,225 layoffs at an Ohio plant making Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators. The company cited the need to control its vehicle production to comply with California emissions regulations, and a change to the shift structure. The UAW has not spoken much about these coming layoffs, which could be effective as of Feb. 5.

Delays in planned negotiation and mediator decisions mean flight attendants will not be striking over the holiday season, but leadership at the Association of Professional Flight Attendants believes the union is likely to be flexing its muscles in 2024. After all, a majority of Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a contract offering a 20% pay increase earlier this month. American Airlines flight attendants have rejected proposals from the company, but have been directed to continue negotiating. Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said the rejections are showing the union’s power.

“Flight attendants are letting managements know that they are not going to take what management could have gotten away with in the past,” she said.

DIVERSITY + INCLUSION

After a vote last week to reject a funding deal that would have brought $800 million for raises in exchange for scuttling DEI hires, the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents reversed course. In a closed-door meeting days after its first vote, the board revoted and approved the DEI cuts 11-6. The members of the board who changed their votes didn’t necessarily have a change of heart, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but were responding to political and financial pressure to improve pay and facilities for the school.

The issue is nowhere near over. Robin Vos, the top Republican in the Wisconsin State Assembly who had been behind the decision to tie the new funds to stopping DEI programs, posted on X that this was “just the first step in what will be our continuing efforts to eliminate these cancerous DEI practices” from state universities. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers disagreed with the decision, saying he was “disappointed and frustrated with this result, this proposal, and the process that led up to this point,” and said he expects everyone who said they wanted to continue working toward diversity, equity and inclusion on campuses to continue doing so.

While the Wisconsin legislators’ targeting of DEI efforts started much earlier this year, the war between Israel and Hamas—as well as student protests that have come about—has led to a new targeting of DEI initiatives. Some Republicans, deep-pocketed donors and the world’s richest person have all come out against the programs at universities, saying they do not go far enough to protect against antisemitism. Many DEI programs gained steam during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, and billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman said in a post on X that the school’s DEI faculty members don’t respond to, or take seriously, complaints from Jewish, Asian and non-LGBTQ white students. Elon Musk wrote on X last week ​​”DEI must DIE” and said that diversity programs are essentially discrimination.

Most of the programs being targeted are in government-supported educational institutions, but these complaints may have a ripple effect to all public sector and grant-supported employment—as well as turning public opinion against these programs in workplaces. However, according to a February poll by the Pew Research Center, 56% of employees said that workplace DEI efforts—defined as working to hire employees of different backgrounds, genders, age groups and sexual orientations and promote equity in the workplace—were a good thing, while 28% said it was neither good nor bad. Only 16% were opposed.

WHAT’S NEXT: LARRY EMOND

Larry Emond, a senior partner at Modern, an executive search and advisory firm, has built a network he now manages of some 750 chief human resources officers that he regularly brings together for dinners, workshops and meetings to discuss top issues with peers. That gives Emond, a former Gallup Leadership Advisory managing director, a window into what top talent leaders are prioritizing and what’s keeping them up at night. Forbes chatted with Emond about what top CHROs are worried about, how their priorities have shifted and what more CHROs should have on their resumes. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

What are you seeing as the top priorities for CHROs now, and how have they changed since before the pandemic?

[Before the pandemic], whenever I opened a meeting of CHROs, I would ask everybody, ‘what’s your biggest single current challenge?’ I’ve asked that to over 500 major CHROs. About 85% fell into four buckets. The first was issues around technology and automation, because there’s so much of it.

The second was attraction. The reality is 90% of [major company CHROs work at] relatively unsexy companies from unsexy industries. Very few of them are the Googles and Apples of the world. They’re all wondering, how the hell does someone like me, even though I’m big and maybe global and all that, get the best talent to want to come here?

The number three bucket was anything around development. All CHROs know that other than my boss, the biggest determinant of whether or not I stay here is if there’s a culture of development. A lot of CHROs know they’re not delivering on that in the way they need to. And then the fourth is anything to do with culture.

But how has that evolved and changed post-pandemic?

The whole conversation around the skills economy in the U.S. market—skills over degrees, and in general skills over jobs—oddly, almost never came up as an agenda item pre-COVID. All of a sudden in the last two years, everyone wants something to do with the skills economy.

Why?

Two reasons. One is at least the big and global companies, they keep getting hit with the demographic data, which is overwhelmingly dark. In all of the developed economies, we’re talking about massively decreasing workforces. It’s a huge issue. There’s no way we’re going to be able to staff our companies without either going to other parts of the world … and in the U.S. context in particular, we’re never going to be able to fill our jobs with people with college degrees.

Wasn’t that the case a few years ago? It’s not like the demographic data has suddenly changed.

The other thing that elevated the [skills conversation] was George Floyd. For sure. This awareness of equality and access—it’s simply not been there at scale. It’s had a huge impact on big companies rethinking and really ask themselves, ‘come on, do we have any evidence to suggest that for most of our jobs there’s any correlation between a college degree [and success]?’ There’s not.

What do you find is their biggest worry—the biggest thing keeping CHROs up at night?

For the big ones, it is labor supply in critical roles. We’re going to have to skill the talent, not hire it. We can’t just keep stealing from each other. We’re going to have to get really good at creating it out of nothing.

Whatever the talk is about a recession, I never hear it at the meetings [from major company CHROs]. Ever. Nothing’s changed for them in terms of their challenges getting talent. Whatever the recession is, nobody knows what that means. It’s not real for them.

Are you seeing any shifts in what CEOs and boards are looking for in a CHRO? What should mid-career HR execs know?

I think there’s been a real historic misunderstanding about who big company CHROs are. Less than a third are lifetime HR people. That went away a long time ago. The majority of big company CHROs were out in the business in other functional areas and later came into HR.

Do you need to have worked in something besides HR?

It greatly increases your chances, for sure. That’s what the data says. … At the majority of big companies, CHROs started out in the business or in accounting or another area and then came into HR. My advice to somebody is get out into the business early—get into another function early—and then maybe look to come back into HR later.

FACTS AND COMMENT

A bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives would allow some federal Pell Grant money to be redirected into workforce training programs, giving more people the opportunity to get skilled labor jobs that don’t require a college degree.

$500,000 per student: Universities with endowments at or above this level would see federal student aid funding cut for the program

$21,870 + tuition cost: The minimum salary a graduate of a program would need to earn a year after completion

‘There are more pathways to a good job after high school than just a degree’ Rep. Elise Stefanik, the bill’s sponsor, in a statement after the bill advanced out of committee