HR Professional - February/March 2009 - (Page 61) I N T ERV I EW conflict with the boomers, busters and echoes? DF: My students today are saying the same thing I said when I was in my 20s, “I’m never going to be a workaholic like my parents.” I say to my students, “there’s nothing like a kid and a mortgage to get you focused on your career.” People in their 20s have always been different than people in their 50s. The boomers behaved exactly the same way when they were in their 20s. The different generations have always had different needs from the workplace. HRP: What are the future trends in the Canadian workforce? DF: We’re going to have lots of healthy, experienced workers in their 50s and 60s who want to keep working—but not full time. For this to come to fruition two things have to happen in organizations: there has to be a culture change at the top, so the workaholics of the world no longer see someone working half-time for half-salary as lacking commitment to the company; the second is pension reform. When you are working, you want to accumulate pension benefits and when you’re not working, you want to withdraw from your pension—but it’s illegal to do that with most pensions in North America. So, it’s becoming increasingly important to redesign pensions and add flexibility to the workplace, otherwise when those boomers hit 65, they will walk out the door and go work part-time for the competition for another 10 years. HRP: Which countries are going to be the biggest global players in the next 20 years? DF: Turkey, Brazil, Vietnam, w w w.H RThought L ea der. c om 399813_TheCanadian.indd 1 and if we hadn’t isolated them, Iran, because they all have big, young domestic populations, well-educated workforces— all of those countries have educated women during the last 25 years—and a shrinking population base in the future, which is going to lead to higher per-capita incomes. HRP: What about China and India? DF: China and India have entirely different demographics and are heading in very different directions as a result. China has a one-child policy and, although it isn’t fully enforced, they are still only F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 09/12/08 9 61 8:22:48 PM http://www.payroll.ca http://www.hrthoughtLeader.com
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