VideoSome companies also are putting the onus on C-suite executives to come up with solutions to the expected spate of retirements, basing compensation in part on their success in retaining key executives, according to de Wetter. And in some cases, mandatory retirement ages are being pushed back to 70 or even 75.
Providing technology and other training to older executives is another strategy growing in popularity. "Typically in the past companies have been hesitant about allowing their older workers to take part in training because they didn't see the ROI," said Lesser. But that is changing, given how rapidly the needed skills change in today's market, combined with the goal of keeping executives around longer.
That goal is bound to have an impact on compensation for senior executives, and in fact it already is, said Terry Gallagher, president of recruiting firm Battalia Winston. "As executive recruiters, we're finding it harder to extract the 'A players' out of their current employment, because they've been better compensated," he said. "That's what is happening here: too many jobs chasing too few executives, and when that happens, supply and demand dictates that they will be better compensated. And you'll see even more creative compensation schemes."
Meanwhile, is the economic downturn having any influence on retirement demographics? One possible effect is that some executives, whose retirement funds were very tied up in investments they thought were quite safe only to see their value plummet, will delay retirement. Another is that companies may seize the opportunity to trim their "B and C players" from the ranks, noted Gallagher, though he added, "That doesn't help the issue of losing your 'A' talent." At the same time, the faltering economy may in fact present advancement opportunities to CFOs at bumpy companies where boards of directors have shown the CEO the door.
Losing any top talent is bad enough, but corporations face the very real fact that they will lose a majority of their top talent in a very short time span. "It's one thing if you're the CEO and you bring in a new CFO but your heads of sales, marketing, and operations are still there," said de Wetter. "But if you have three of your five top leaders all leaving within a year, that's an enormous change."
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