Many employers are nearing a point at which it will be extremely difficult to meet the demand for skilled employees.

By 2050, the global population aged 60 years and older is projected to exceed the number of people under 15 for the first time in history.

In Germany, the number of people over 50 is expected to rise 68 percent by 2020. China faces big demographic risks, too—and even nations such as Brazil, with large cohorts of young people, are not immune from workforce risks.

To stay competitive, companies will have to start preparing now for the demographic risks in all of the individual markets in which they operate. They must master the structured discipline of strategic workforce planning—and then put it into action.

Those are the key findings of a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled "Turning the Challenge of an Older Workforce into a Managed Opportunity." The study analyzed approximately 600 personnel measures at more than 330 companies worldwide.

Needed: A Systematic Approach

Demographic risk has two components: capacity risks, marked by the growing wave of retirements that see employees taking their valuable knowledge with them; and performance risks, whereby companies will be increasingly challenged to maintain their competitiveness as their workforce’s performance changes.

“To close the gaps, companies will have to train their current employees for the right skills in packages of defined measures, manage their knowledge, and hire new people,” explains Rainer Strack, a senior partner at BCG and the firm’s global head of HR topics.

“At the same time, the changing performance potential of their workforces will have to be brought into alignment with their business models—for instance, by revising workflows to match the needs of older workers.”

Adds BCG partner Jens Baier, “Only with systematic, strategic human resources planning will companies manage to stay successful as their employees age.”