UK finance directors are braced for a significant skills gap when baby boomers retire over the next two to five years, which they believe will have a negative impact on their business, research has found.

Finance directors in small businesses looking further ahead are the most concerned about losing their experienced baby boomers, with 84% predicting that the departure of older professionals over the next five years will have a negative impact on their business. This compares to 77% for medium businesses and 69% for larger businesses, where the impact of key leavers can be more easily accommodated.

Not only will employers need to consider the impact of the skills shortage that this mass-departure will create, but they will also have to accommodate different demands and expectations from younger Generation X and Y workers coming to replace them.

Companies are already preparing for the loss of older workers by increasing training and development programmes (45%), enhancing benefit programmes to retain baby boomers (32%), hiring mid-level talent to develop a skills pipeline (27%), increasing mentoring programmes and knowledge transfer (25%), hiring senior-level talent to replace retiring employees (22%) and offering flexible and/or part-time work arrangements to attract and retain baby boomers (16%). Only one-in-10 (10%) finance directors said that they did not foresee a potential skills gap.

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