Center for Aging and Community, University of Indianapolis

Meaningful Work for Older Adults

Urgent challenges confront employers in both the profit and nonprofit communities. The U.S. population is declining; as Baby Boomers reach retirement age, shortages of skilled workers and volunteers are expected to increase. Likewise, older adults are living longer and healthier lives, and many want or need to continue working. Employers must engage in practices that encourage people to continue working and develop the necessary leadership skills to manage this major shift in the workforce. Conversely, employees must invest in progressive personal skill development to maintain the expertise needed in today’s market.

“Gray Matters: Opportunities and Challenges for Indiana’s Aging Workforce” was a three-phase study conducted by CAC to determine how well Indiana is prepared to face and embrace an aging workforce.

Key findings of the study include:

Indiana is surviving – not thriving – when it comes to the rate at which our population is aging and the level of activity among our aging population.
While there is recognition that when older workers leave organizations they take a great deal of valuable human capital with them, most organizations are not taking specific action to prevent this loss.
In general, the workplace qualities rated as the most important to organizations are the ones associated with older workers.
Organizations seem unconcerned with the impact of the aging worker and are generally not engaging in Human Resources planning around worker turnover.
When comparing younger and older managers, younger managers respond significantly differently than older managers to issues related to older workers.

For more info contact:
Ellen Miller, PhD, emiller@uindy.edu, (317) 791-5932

To learn more, read our two publications:

"Gray Matters —The Aging Matrix"

"Gray Matters — A Workplace Conundrum."

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