ANDREWS

Aging baby boomers make up a large percentage of today's engineering and construction senior-management teams. Tomorrow, many of these managers will be gone, leaving a giant hole in our industry's talent pool.

Ferocious recruiting and massive training are potential solutions to the problem. Redefining retirement is another one.

Starting at 55 years old, many construction professionals today are channeled into a retirement mode and begin to contemplate transitioning responsibilities. For these professionals, the future offers personal travel, golf, Florida, grandchildren, time at home, etc.

This works for some, but it is not a preferred solution for others or their spouses. Further, it is a lousy solution for the organization. Why send some of our best talent out the door in the name of retirement when demographics predict the talent shortage will get worse?

"Free agents" best defines our industry's senior-manager opportunity. These key employees have built personal value during their careers. The market will pay handsomely for their experience and proven judgment.

Engineers and contractors can hire each others' free agents, and owners' managers of construction also are viable targets. Similarly, owners target the engineering- and contractor-experienced managers for their teams.

Perhaps the best approach is to create an aggressive, internal free-agent program. Managers in their late 50s can negotiate a long-term, career-development plan that fits their capabilities and professional aspirations. Perhaps at age 68, some might enjoy becoming project-execution consultants for challenging jobs. Or, at age 70, some would like to do part-time engineering reviews.

Recently, participants at the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association's annual meeting were asked, "If your company put a full-court press on recruiting free agents, how many more average, productive employment years could be achieved?" The results were encouraging, with 10% saying two to three years, 17% saying three to four, 26% saying four to five and 40% saying five years or more. These additional years of service would go a long way toward closing the talent gap created by senior-management shortages.

Getting Started

Such a program requires well-structured and disciplined processes. Companies need to decide who is the most valuable for specific competencies and then devise approaches for each individual. The process begins by creating a database of identified individual competencies for professionals in the 55-to-65-plus age group. Companies can reap a major benefit by building a complete Web-based, knowledge-management system.

After building the inventory, each individual participates in a two-way coaching process that answers two questions: First, what competencies of the free agent could create the highest value for the company in the future? Second, what professional activities does the free agent find most energizing and stimulating as future career opportunities?

Prescribing a win-win career focus for free agents requires enormous flexibility and perseverance by the company's senior management and the free agent. It is not easy. Ask 60-year-olds about future career directions and many default to retirement bliss or some vague notion of advisory positions.

Free agents should explore a wide range of possible areas of contribution while understanding that even limited roles create major value. Big changes in desired work hours, position responsibilities, geographic location, activities, expected results and compensation often create challenges for the individual and the company. The best free agent development processes emrace a high level of individual flexibility. These are new careers designed and built to optimize the future for each free agent while contributing much-needed experience to the company.

ECC members indicated that 25% of the survey respondents are using more retired professionals in their organizations. These owners, engineers and contractors recognize the opportunity. Major returns await those firms that do it well, and an invigorating, challenging and rewarding career extension awaits senior managers who become free agents.

Chip Andrews is chairman of FMI Corp., Raleigh, N.C. He can be reached at candrews@fminet.com or 919-785-9333.

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