CHICAGO (NewsNation) — More companies are taking new steps to accommodate an increasingly aging workforce. One idea behind it is gaining a lot of traction, called “grandternity leave,” which is basically parental leave for grandparents.
The Department of Labor reports there are 10 million job openings in the country right now, and according to the AARP, nearly four out of every 10 U.S. workers are over 50 years old.
Companies are desperate to fill vacant positions and even more concerned about keeping the staff they do have.
Bradley Schurman, the CEO and founder of the Super Age — a consulting firm that helps companies with staffing problems, said there are wide variations now in terms of what companies are offering grandparents who want to spend time with their grandchildren.
For some companies, it’s as few as a day or two to take off for plays and celebrations with their grandchild, Schurman said. Other companies, mostly larger businesses, offer extended leave during the first year or two of a child’s life, he said.
“A grandparent can actually step in as a caregiver, much like a parent would in a traditional paternity,” Schurman said.
In fact, Schurman said that what’s driving this trend is the fact that birthrates have been dropping at a very precipitous pace worldwide, and have been for the past 20 years.
This has forced employers to find new sources of labor because there just aren’t enough people who are younger in the traditional working-age population to fill the roles, Schurman said.
“Finding new ways to engage older workers, in particular, is a great pathway forward for many businesses,” he said.
In some cases, a number of businesses discovered that not only does this trend improve employee satisfaction, but it also improves employee outcomes, Schurman said.
The new U.S. Census data has also revealed that the country is older than ever before. Schurman suggested that companies are going to have to start putting policies like this one in place as the workforce continues to age.
“There were 76 million baby boomers born in this country. There were only 69 million Gen Z. And that’s the population that’s actually coming in to fill these slots in the workforce,” Schurman explained. “There just aren’t enough of them.”