With more than 20 per cent of the workers in Windsor Essex of retirement age there are significant challenges for employers.
Workforce WindsorEssex is hosting a summit for those employers to help them understand the challenges.
As part of the event they launched a new on-line tool to share information.
Among the speakers is Noah Tepperman, who says a key to succession planning is a trust factor with your workers.
Noah Tepperman, Workforce WindsorEssex Aging Summit, St. Clair Centre for the Arts, February 20, 2019 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
"This event lets us start having those kinds of conversations much earlier because it's built on a foundation of trust and sort of mutual respect. People don't have to be afraid of talking to us about the fact that they're starting to think about retirement. It doesn't mean that suddenly door shut"
Workforce WindsorEssexSenior Director Justin Falconer says retirement has to be seen as a process.
"It should not be limited to an actual event, where someone goes out the door. It is a process of how you take an experienced worker who's got knowledge, skills and just knows how to do things and to be able to transfer that knowledge to be able to do succession planning, to engage a multi-generational workforce"
Town of Tecumseh CAO Tony Haddad is about to retire and is part of a province wide group that helps municipalities deal with senior staff retirements.
Town of Tecumseh CAO Tony Haddad, Workforce Summit, St. Clair Centre for the Arts, February 20, 2019 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
"To heighten awareness and the importance of succession planning and how if we don't plan we're going ot have challenges and problems associated with that. Larger organizations have more complex plans smaller municipalities not as much capacity, not as much depth"
The sector facing the most critical issue is agriculture, fishing and forestry where close to 30% of the workforce is of a retirement age.