I want to thank the Dallas Electric Club for inviting me to speak last Friday on the topic of Aging Workforce and Aging Infrastructure in utilities. They were a great audience and had great questions after my presentation. If you’d like to know more about this great organization, you can check them out here.

My presentation was based upon a study we did at UtiliPoint last year. We surveyed 47 utilities to find out how big an issue the aging workforce is currently and how big it will be over the next 5 years. As one might expect, doing some simple math around the age of the “baby boom” generation, most of the utilities surveyed expect to lose more than 25% of their workers to retirement over the next 5 years. The biggest problem is that these workers are their most skilled, experienced and knowledgeable. Clearly, the aging workforce is going to hit hard not only in the utility space, but across the economy as a whole. Businesses need to start preparing now to address the shortfalls that will occur and look for ways to attract and retain the new generation of workers that will be coming on board, keeping in mind that this new generation of worker is going to be a different animal that those of the past. Their expectations will differ and their attitude toward work is going to have some of the “old timers” scratching their balding heads.

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