For the next 20 years, the population of adults 65+ will increase at a rate of 2.3% a year ... the number of family members available to care for them will only increase at a rate of 0.8%. Source: National Family Caregivers Association
About the ODP
Partnership Focus
Alignment of Business, Government, Foundations, and the Nonprofit Community:
The diversity of stakeholders is what makes the Older Dominion Partnership so unique and so promising for the Commonwealth's future.
A preliminary review of statewide age wave planning initiatives across the country suggests that the age wave preparedness planning burden traditionally falls on state and regional governments. For the most part, the business community is not invited into the planning process. Age-related issues and related services are positioned as a category that's just "handled by the government" and nonprofit community.
The Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and initial Study Partners believe it will take more than the government and committed organizations in the aging-related service industry to make a meaningful difference in how Virginia prepares for the coming age wave.
The optimal strategic focus, proper allocation of finite resources, and required support will have the best chance of success if they are based on an alignment of business, government, foundations, and the nonprofit community. To this end, the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation has tasked this planning initiative with first organizing a broad community of strategic stakeholders that includes business interests -- to study, as a group, the current perceptions, beliefs, and priorities when it comes to preparing for Virginia's age wave; and to have this broad community of stakeholders lead the development of a strategic long-term plan for the Commonwealth.
Why should the business community care?
While most of the age wave media attention and related civic discussion have centered on care recipients (the needs of seniors) and family caregivers (family structure, finances, and the physical and mental health of caregivers), little attention has been accorded the profound impact the age wave may have on Virginia's businesses and, potentially, the Commonwealth's overall business climate. Business interests include:
- Workforce Supply: First and foremost, there will simply not be enough experienced workers as Baby Boomers retire. Boomers, for the most part, are the senior knowledge workers who run Virginia's businesses today. As they retire and leave the workforce, they will take with them the experience and knowledge that, for many companies, could compromise corporate values and know-how. Complicating Boomer's exodus from the workforce, their replacements will come from even a smaller pool of potential workers -- 58 million Generation Xers (Gen Xers) will replace 78 million Baby Boomers. How will companies fill this labor shortage? Retiring Boomers -- "Virginia's new seniors" -- may be the answer -- an untapped labor pool. But is the workplace ready for them?
- Long-term Corporate Recruitment and Retention Practices: The age wave will also impact Virginia's business community in long-term recruitment and retention practices as employers compete for talented and experienced employees. Caring for aging relatives places additional "home pressures" on full-time workers. Today, a quarter of Virginia's Baby Boomers are taking care of/managing the care of their own aging family members. Yet, few employers have policies in place that adequately deal with and/or support family caregivers. What will happen when an even fewer number of people -- Gen Xers --will have to take care of an aging senior population that is twice the size of today's seniors? Will Gen Xers gravitate to companies, industries, and careers that will offer them (and their parents) the assistance and age-related infrastructure they need?
- Economic Development: "Care and services for an aging population"-- in the form of civic appreciation and hard infrastructure -- will ultimately increase so much in importance that they may even become a factor in the Commonwealth's economic development efforts.
- Personal Expectations: Research suggests that Boomers possess a very different set of expectations than proceeding generations, particularly as it related to health care and other services offered through major institutional settings. "Just in Time", "High Quality at Marginal Cost", "Balance Work and Life" are concepts that have driven business and other decisions of the Boomers. These behaviors and the inherent values associated with them may have profound influences over society's current aging-related services.
- Transfer of Wealth: An enormous transfer of personal wealth is in process. Boomers are participating in one the most significant transfers of financial wealth in history. Boomers also exhibit behaviors suggesting a willingness to share intellectual and social capital as well. The generations before and after Boomers stand to be major beneficiaries of the generosity of Boomers.
Over the past two decades, quality of life has risen in importance to the point that it is now one of the major drivers in business location decisions. Quality of life is a "catch all" phrase for how residents rate a place to live -- their own quality of life when it comes to access to education, healthcare, recreational and cultural amenities. As America's senior population doubles and care-giving responsibilities expand exponentially, we can expect age-related issues and services to become more important in the quality of life equation.
Some communities are already addressing this eventuality. A nearby example is Charlottesville, Virginia. Civic leaders are already implementing plans to make Charlottesville a national model of a community that takes care of its aging population -- to ensure that the region is a great place for all ages.
How long will it be before cities, counties, and even states start to compete with one another using their reputations as national models on "caring for caregivers/caring for the aging population" as a competitive point of difference? Rather than seeing our aging population as a liability, perhaps it is time to recognize that Aging suggests maturity and should be viewed as a corporate as well as community resource. This perspective may make a difference in attracting and retaining critical workers who balance work with their own family care-giving obligations, helping Virginia sustain its long-term economic development advantage.
These business issues make "care and services for the aging population" more than just a social issue that should be addressed and managed by governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations; they make the aging of our population a long-term business and economic development issue as well.