I came across an interesting research report I want to share with all of you. According to Pew Research, just over half of all working adults ages 50 to 64 say they may delay their retirement – but here is the surprise: another 16% say they never expect to stop working.

See box below:

Pew calls these folks the Threshold Generation, meaning those who are perpetually on the threshold of exiting the workforce. Even those Thresholders who do plan to retire some day say they will keep working, on average, until they are age 66 — four years older than the age at which current retirees report that they stopped working. This is certainly contributing to the shifts in workforce demographics as the participation rate of those ages 65 and older has increased from 12.9% in 2000 to 16.8% in 2008.

What’s driving this commitment to continue working? The Pew Research survey finds it may not be how much you earn but how much you lost in the investment market meltdown that determines whether you are re-thinking your retirement plans, with those that have lost 40% or more of their portfolio being firmly in the Threshold Generation.

If you are the head of HR or Corporate Learning and members of the Threshold Generation are employed at your firm, here are some questions for you:

• Is your organization prepared to have an increasingly aging workforce?
• Do these Threshold Generation members have the skills their employers need to win in the marketplace? If not, are they committed to building new skills in areas such as social media literacy?
• How are these organizations preparing for managing a multiple generation workplace?

Share your thoughts here, in the comments section, via email, or send me a note on Twitter.

[tags]Threshold Generation, Multiple Generations At Work, Pew Research[/tags]

I have been using Twitter and just like you fascinated at how Twitter has been a leading forum in reporting the situation in Iran. The US State Department themselves requested Twitter delay scheduled maintenance to avoid disrupting communications among and reporting from Iranian citizens as they gathered in protest.

Twitter has become an unexpectedly powerful tool. As “the technology writer Clive Thompson calls part of what Twitter provides ‘ambient awareness’: by following quick, abbreviated status reports from members of your extended social network, you get a strangely satisfying glimpse of their daily routines…The social warmth of all those stray details shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

So, I asked myself how are companies using Twitter for recruiting purposes? Are they using it to it’s fullest potential? What advantages will these give employers? What advantages do employers have if they take an active and early role using Twitter to have a dialogue with employees?

First, thanks to Job Hunt for doing the research here to compile the below list.

Some comments on the list:

It’s interesting to see which companies in a particular industry are on the list and which are not– Burger King, but not McDonalds. PepsiCo, but not Coca-Cola. Microsoft but not Oracle, Sybase, or Adobe. IBM but not Dell or HP. MTV and WArner Brothers are there, but Disney and Pixar, are not. Intel and EMC are the only manufacturers that made the list.

U.S. Department of State is the only branch of the U.S. Federal Government or ANY American government entity, that is recruiting on Twitter.

This reminds me of another list I complied—CEO’s of companies that are bloggers. That number has gone up, but still only 12% of Fortune 500 companies are blogging.

Food for Thought For HR & Learning Executives

1. How are you using Twitter for your own personal use and to explore how to use this to drive more collaboration inside the company?
2. How are you using Twitter as a personal learning tool? Check out my earlier post on the subject for more ideas on how to do so.
3. Now think forward five years—how will your Human Resources and Corporate Learning department change with the explosion of these new technologies?

My overall take here: Just registering for Twitter account and using this for recruiting is not enough. Companies must be authentic, include real voices of their employees, and engage Millennials in conversations they are already having online. Share your comments with me and if you find an employer’s Twitter recruiting account that is not included, please let me know.

List of Companies Using Twitter for recruiting in alphabetical order:

Employer / Twitter Account
Accenture @Accenture_Jobs
ACULIS, Inc. @aculis
ADP @ADPCareers
Allstate Insurance @AllstateCareers
Assurant Solutions @AssurantCareers
AT&T @ATTjobs
Burger King @BKCareers
comScore @comScoreJobs
Davita, Inc. @DaVitaJobs
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu @JoinDeloitteUS
Ecolab @Ecolab_Jobs
EMC @EMCCareers
EMC @EMCCollege
Ernst & Young @Ernst_and_Young
Follett Software Co. @FSCCareers
Forrester Research, Inc. @forresterjobs
Fullhouse Interactive @fullhousecareer
Hershey Company @HersheyCompany
Hewitt @HewittCareers
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts @Hyattcareers
Hyatt San Antonio @HyattSanAntonio
Intel @JobsatIntel
J.B. Hunt @WeHaveFreight
Kaplan Test Prep Services @KTPA_Careers
Keller Williams Realty @KWCareers
Kissito Post-Acute Care @kissitocareers
KPMG @KPMG
KPMG @KPMGUSCareers
Wipro, LTD @WiproCareers
Kroger @KrogerWorks
LexisNexis @LN_Recruiting
Mattel @MattelRecruiter
Mattel @mattelmba
McCormick & Schmick @Careers_At_MSSR
Microsoft @JobsBlog
MTV Networks @MTVnetworksjobs
MTV Games @MTVGamesJobs
Raytheon @Raytheon_Jobs
Razorfish @RazorfishJobs
Sodexo @SodexoCareers
Spotsylvania Medical Center @CareersAtSRMC
Thomson Reuters @TRCareers
Twitter (of course!) @jobs
United Parcel Service @UPSjobs
UPMC @UPMCCareers
US Dept. of State @DOScareers
Verizon @VerizonCareers
Warner Brothers @WBCareers
Wipro, LTD @WiproCareers

What are your experiences using Twitter for recruiting? Let me know in the comments, or send me a note on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jcmeister.

On May 6, 2009 Amazon will unveil plans for a new version of its Kindle e-book reader. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the new improved Kindle will sport a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to academic textbook publishers as the Kindle begins to target the college textbook market, a $5.5 Billion market in the U.S. alone.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be one of the first universities to have textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed on the Kindle. Case Western then plans to compare student reactions to reading textbooks on Kindle with a control group who will use traditional textbooks. Five other universities—Pace, Princeton, Reed, the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and Arizona State University—are also involved in this pilot.

The world of higher education is being changed right before our eyes. And the reaction to the Kindle is impessive. While Amazon does not officially divulge sales number for Kindle (many suspect because of a desire to avoid direct comparisons to Apple’s iPod ) Michael Arrington of TechCrunch suspects that Amazon will sell at least 800,000 of the devices in 2009 alone, which would put sales for Kindle ahead of the iPod’s numbers when each device was in its second generation. What’s more, since Amazon owns the audio book company Audible, Kindle owners may be able to read a few chapters at home and then when they are in their car pick up where they left off, only this time via an audio version of the book. While you may not want to do this for your chemistry book, it can be a big plus for a best seller.

So, what can we expect in terms of penetration of the Kindle for the corporate training market? Imagine being able to access performance support, real time feedback on the job, updates to training programs a plethora of corporate documents from a Kindle at work?

Share your thoughts on opportunities and barriers to using Kindle as delivery device for corporate learning & development.

[tags]Kindle, corporate learning, iPod, Case Western Reserve, Pace, Princeton, Reed, Darden School of University of Virginia, Arizona State University[/tags]