The Impact of Aging Population on Organizations: The Silver Tsunami

This paper discusses the effect of the aging population on organizations and the challenges they face. It explores the concept of the 'silver tsunami' and its impact on industries, economies, and workforce capabilities. The paper focuses on the organizational issues within UnitedHealth Group and how they can mitigate the loss of resources caused by the aging workforce.

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Introduction:
The aim of this paper is to discuss the effect of the aging population on the production
and process of the organostions operating in the market of America. This aging population
issues has been termed as the silver tsunami which has started impacting on the industries,
economies of the countries and the capabilities of the workforce. The main concern of this
ageing population relates to the increasing demands of the healthcare support and growing
limitations of the human resources of the country (Robison et al., 2014). According to the
National Center for Health Statistics has pointed out that less than one quarter of the adults of
the US over the age of 65 are being identified with the poor health or health issues limiting
their abilities to work in the firms and support the economy of the country (Cdc.gov. 2019).
This paper will be discussing the issues relating to the ageing employee issues in
UnitedHealth Group.
The main problem of the organizations of the country in relating to the aging
population that leads them to loss their valuable resources. In addition to this, the
organizations lose a huge amount of knowledge which these employees used to possess. This
leads to the reinvestment of the companies in the employee training process, allocation of the
resources and accommodation system. This paper therefore will be discussing the
organizational issues relating to the workforce growing older within the next five years and
retiring from the organizations vacating a large amount of resources and how these loss can
be mitigated within a limited period of time. This paper will be discussing the organizational
issues in general by focusing on the organizational culture.
Section 2:
There are various issues related to the organizational operation in this global context.
Among them the management of the human resource is one of the most important because

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the human resource of a company is the biggest asset that it has. Therefore when the
organizations expand in other countries try to incorporate the national culture of that
particular market in their own organizational culture. The main problem has been the baby
boomers who were the driving force of the globalization of economy and business are
gradually working. This is affecting the healthcare system of the world especially the US.
The companies try to recruit new talents for increasing the project scopes and their operations
HRM therefore faces major challenges regarding the selection of the best candidates and
making then familiar with the organizational environment and culture. The human resource
manager while recruiting a candidate does not depend upon the technical skill but also take
care of the other personal factors and adaptation skills so that he can mingle in the
organizational culture. In this regard the organizations face some issues like retention,
productivity training, health and safety and the workforce diversity (Cook & Grove, 2012). In
order to keep pace with globalization the companies are being flexible in hiring different
types of candidates from different cultures. Now if the employees are being aged, the
organizations will lose their experience and depend upon the healthcare system.
The organizations now a days are trying to bring diversity in the workforce so that
people from different age, educational background and education can work under one
particular system and increase the possibility of success (Davis & Roberts, 2010). In order to
increase diversity in the workforce the issues like bullying, discrimination, harassment and
other related issues may arise. For this reason the human resource management formulate and
implement the regulations of the organization.
It is not only the recruitment process which strength and the capability of the
workforce but also the process of managing the human resource and retaining them within the
organization. For various reasons, the employees can leave their organization. These include
better chances in the same industry, salary gap and retirement due to age. In this case there

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are two types of issues which the organizations usually feel. These include the demand of the
expert advice and the contingent workforce. The personal with better technical knowledge
and professional knowledge are the most demanded persons in the job market. These
employees are assets of the company hence human resource managers focus on maintaining
these type of employees (Hassmiller & Cozine, 2006). On the other hand the part time
workers or temporary contract employees create challenges for the company as they have
little attachment with the organization. Therefore these become a major duty of the HRM to
maintain such employees.
Regarding the management of the human resources of the companies, they feel
pressure in the process of training as issues related to the type of training programs and
making them effective to reach the target groups of UnitedHealth Group. Finding out all the
factors which affect the training such as cost, location time and other resources may not be
available all the time. This is why the organization faces problems in employing and utilizing
skills of the employees.
The organizations also face issues when they cannot perform properly and get
unsatisfactory results. Due to insufficient workers and inadequate resources the company fail
to maximize its profit. Therefore they find out new and alternative resources for sufficient
input to face search issues. In UnitedHealth Group, works to explore tremendous potentials of
the digital health care, helping develop solutions that are consumer-centric, integrated, simple
and safe (Unitedhealthgroup.com, 2019).
Finally the organizations also face problem when it comes to the question of Health
and safety of the employees it is not only salary that matters to the Employees but also their
needs of being secure and supported by UnitedHealth Group for which they are working. In
this cases the companies can face issues in providing Health Insurance to their employees as
they lack proper health information about them. The elderly employees of the organization do

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not have the awareness of digital healthcare demand and services. This is the reason why the
dependability of the baby boomers on the health care sector is continuously increasing.
Section 3:
As the aging population is continuing to grow, the global healthcare system is getting
hampered. According to the global health and aging report presented by the World Health
Organization, the aging population in the world is being projected to grow to 1.5 billion in
2015 and most of them will be in the developing countries (see figure 1). The report
published by WHO, the dependability of the aging population on the healthcare sector is due
to the fact that the chronic diseases that caused death previously, are becoming curable thus
increasing life expectancy. However, this is not leading to remain completely cure from the
other chronic conditions like hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease,
dementia, cancer, and congestive heart failure. Three of these like stroke, heart diseases and
cancer are the most threatening diseases having the most harmful effect on the aging
population.
Figure 1: young children and older people as percentage of global population

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(Source: Pharmacytimes.com. (2019)
There are huge implications of the aging baby boomers on the health care sector of
the world and for that matter the US. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, the first batch of baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, have
already turned 65 within 2011 and these people have been projected to be suffering more than
one chronic conditions. This management of the chronic conditions, the patient’s disability is
growing and also increasing the financial demands of the healthcare system. The cost is
increasing with the number of diseases are being treated. This is considering the possibility of
incasing twice as many hospital admissions as well as physician visit for the baby boomers
within 2030 (see figure 2).
Figure 2: Annual healthcare costs for baby boomers
(Source: Pharmacytimes.com. (2019)
The organizational theory is consisted of approaches for an organizational analysis.
Organizations are divided into social units of Human Resource which are managed and
structured for meeting the need of the organization and pursue collective goals. The theories
organizations may include the rational system perceptions, bureaucratic theory, and
contingency theory, division of labour and modernization theory. In the rational organization
system they are significant parts which include formalization and specificity of goals.

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Whereas the division of labor is understood as the specialization of the individual worker
roles related to the increasing trade and its output. The modernization theory state the modern
organizations transparently purposive and constantly evolving to gain more effective forms.
The conception of Bureaucracy by Max Weber theory the presence of impersonal positions
which are not inherited but earned rule the decision making process, professionalism, define
responsibility, follow chain of command and bound authority (Swedberg, 2018).
The organizational culture theory accepts the social elements related to knowledge
which underline the organizational and community culture. These determine values and
believe which are the integral part of the organization and its workforce. Organizational
cultural theory shares perceptions of the reality by detailing how the things are and how the
things should be. According to the national culture theory of Greet Hofstede, different
National culture determine the learning process and the culture of the organization.
Globalization many of the companies have expanded from one part of the world to the other
one.
Organizational learning theory refers to the process of creating, retaining and
transferring knowledge in the organization which improve the performance of the employees
and ensure that the create knowledge within their teams. To Shafritz, Ott and Jang (2015) the
espoused theory refers to the formalized portion of the organization. This opens that each for
has different instructions regarding the methods the employees must conduct themselves for
carrying out their jobs mainly the problem solving process. These instructions are mainly
specific and narrow in focus which can find the individuals to set a path. There are three
types of organizational learning theory which revolves around single loop learning, double
loop learning and deuterolearning. However in order to solve the problem, the employees of
any organization find out the theories in use but not focused on one particular theory of
organizational learning is a complex mechanism which refers to the general education and

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technical skills and using them properly in the performance of the organization. According to
Dixon (2017), the employees when possess huge experience for a long period of their
professional lives.They become indispensable group for the organization.
The general education disciplines can inform the field of organizational life as the
organization not only focus on hiring only the candidates who have specialization in there
works. To Dixon (2017) rather they depend upon the the interpersonal skills and flexibility of
the candidates to match the expectation of the organization. This type of education disciplines
can help the organizations as is have the skills in basic communication which ensures that the
employee can give feedback for understand what the organization is demanding. The general
education programs for the employees include the knowledge in natural and Social Sciences
which help them to understand the environment both externally and internally. Moreover
these allow the employees to remain flexible with any type of works and be adaptable with
any situation. General education disciplines allowed the employees to grow their knowledge
about the changing situation of the trade and industry hence study the regions of the world
that directly connect the organizational culture while expanding.
Section 4:
As mentioned before the American under over the age of 65 years have been
identified with Poor health. As pointed out by Mann et al. (2017), this is a huge problem for
the organizations operating in this country first of all this will affect the human resources of
the companies eliminating the scope for drawing knowledge and implementing changes on
the basis of experience. The population of America when utilized as the human force of the
companies are treated as a valuable resource (Eggersdorfer et al., 2018). The companies are
going to lose most skilled and product employees in next few years the survey among 2500
human resource managers, this has been identified that the ageing population which serves as
the employees of different companies in different industries are having some very important

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advantages (Ahmed, 2018). Hence the dependability on the healthcare sector is increasing.
These advantages of the older workers include having greater experience, skills and
knowledge, maturity and professionalism, stronger ethics and morality, reliability, loyalty and
lesser threat of turning over. The aging population will affect the organization and cultural
aspects because they have already experienced the problems of entering new market and
through increased adaptability.
According to Bengtson, (2018) the baby boomers born in between 1946 to 1964
comprises the largest group house employees who are on the verge of their retirement. This is
the reason why it is called a silver Tsunami where the workers aged from 55 to 60 and older
are projected to nearly a double in the period between 2000 and 2020. Hence one out of 4
workers I will be rejected to be more than 55 of age by the year 2020 which is a striking
demographic shifts in the liver forces of the world . Disability prevalence therefore increases
with age and the incidence of visibility also doubled between the ages of 40 to 55 according
to the American community survey (Asaging.org. 2019).
The issues of aging population as relates to the human resources of the company
mainly affect the knowledge system, learning and efficiency of the organizations. As the
issues relate to employee retention, productivity training, health and safety and the workforce
diversity, all these get manipulated by the aging employees. According to Murdock, (2018),
the aging employees mainly the millennial, are the most loyal and dependable employees of
the organizations. Therefore, their superannuation may lead the companies to change the
existing policies for employee retention because the young employees have less or
professional connection with their organizations. Whenever they get a better chance, they
leave for better.
Productivity of the firms after globalization and technological development has
increased no doubt but for the manual or psychological tasks, the organizations highly depend

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upon the experienced employees. Now in this situation when the silver tsunami is in the
operation and affecting each and every type of industry of the country. Moreover, the issues
with the health and safety of the employees of the firms, the HRM is being expected to be
investing more on the human resource this due to the fact that their workforce are getting
older and needing health support from the companies they have been working for these years.
As pointed out in the organizational learning theory, the learning cycle in the organization
actually lead them for improvement these are the issues along with the knowledge gap in the
organization is curbing the power of the organizations.
Recommendation:
As the population aging is affecting the workforce of the country, lower fertility
and increase the age dependency ration, finding solution to these problems have become
essential. There are two most important solutions can be applied to reduce the risk of the aged
population in the workforce.
Firstly, as work plays important role in the materialistic and psychological wellbeing
of the people. The paid work contributes both psychological and materialistic wellbeing as
these relate to the social interactions and professional and personal growth. Om the other
hand the unpaid works like article work, volunteering and care work can give same
psychological benefits. Thus encouraging and rewarding these paid and unpaid works among
the elderly people can be a pivotal part of the solution for mitigating ageing population
problems in America.
Finally, encouraging the elderly employees to remain longer in the labor force can
be a viable solution of the aging population. This phased in retirement can support the fiscal
sustainability and the wellbeing. This the companies will be able to unities the knowledge for
compelling projects and the younger employees will be benefitted with these knowledge.

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Conclusion:
Therefore it can be concluded that, there is a huge blow of silver tsunami that is
affecting the growth of the workforce of the US. It is the loss of the organizations as their
experienced employees are being replaced by the less experienced. The maturity of the
companies therefore will be reduced and the organostions are to be increasing their
investment in the taking care of the employees before their retirement. Now if the companies
follow the method of phased in retirement and encourage the elderly workforce to get
engaged in the voluntary and unpaid works, they can remain more physically and
psychologically strong and contribute in the growth of the nation.

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