Southeast Minnesota's workforce is getting older. Across all industries, nearly 25% of workers are 55 years or older (Figure 1). But some industries are aging faster than others, and the differences are worth paying attention to.

For example, Transportation and Warehousing has the oldest workforce at almost 40% aged 55 and above. Real Estate and Rental and Leasing comes in at 36.7%, followed by Finance and Insurance at 30.7%, and Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting at 29%. These numbers suggest these industries will see significant turnover in the coming years as workers reach retirement age.

When workers retire, they take years of accumulated knowledge, established client relationships and expertise with them. Someone who's been doing a job for two decades has built networks, developed shortcuts, and learned to navigate situations in ways that can't be quickly replicated. For industries with older workforces, a wave of retirements means a lot of institutional knowledge could disappear in a relatively short time.

Organizations with aging workforces might want to think about how they're capturing and transferring knowledge:

• Documentation. Have employees write down processes or create guides to preserve information that might otherwise be lost when someone leaves the organization.
• Mentorship and shadowing. Pair newer employees with veterans to capture the nuances that don't make it into written procedures.
• Cross-training. Spread critical knowledge across multiple people so organizations aren't vulnerable to unexpected departures.
• Leadership development. Give emerging talent time to grow into larger roles before there's an urgent need.
• Flexible retirement options. Consider semi-retirement or phased retirement arrangements that let experienced workers gradually transition out while continuing to mentor, maintain key relationships and pass along expertise. This can be more cost-effective than recruiting and training replacements while keeping institutional knowledge in-house longer.
• Recruitment and retention. Build pipelines through internships and school partnerships, and keep experienced workers engaged with competitive pay and positive workplace culture.

Industries with older workforces face a natural transition period as employees retire. Organizations in Transportation and Warehousing, Real Estate, Finance and Agriculture in Southeast Minnesota have particularly large cohorts nearing retirement. Thinking about knowledge transfer now means being better positioned for the years ahead.

For more information about workforce demographics in Southeast Minnesota, contact Amanda Blaschko at Amanda.Blaschko@state.mn.us.