By Dee DePass

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Roger Klug started talking about retirement as he neared age 65 a few years ago, but his bosses wouldn’t hear of it.

Klug had been the 13th employee at the company, Alexandria Industries, when he joined in 1971. He had unique skills from the start, when he was the only one who “corrected” aluminum extrusion molds by grinding away precise slivers — by hand — until the mold met specifications. Over the years he excelled at picking up the newest technologies.

In a tight labor market with accelerating baby boomer retirements, his experience made him too valuable for the company to lose. He eventually agreed to a two-day workweek, with more days filling in for vacationing co-workers.

Staying “was a very good thing to do because I enjoyed my job,” he said. “I didn’t want to be working full-time on one day and doing nothing the next.”

Hanging on to talented older workers steeped in institutional knowledge has become a critical issue for many manufacturing businesses. About 78 million baby boomers are nearing or at retirement, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimates that factories will need 3.5 million new factory workers in the next 10 years just to keep production lines and distribution routes going.

The workers, experts say, are not there right now. In fact, factories are struggling to grow because they don’t have enough well-trained staffers. The shortages are already are acute in manufacturing.

The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that 19 percent of factory employers like Alexandria Industries, Harmony Enterprises and Dotson Iron Casting now float the idea of phased-in retirements by asking senior employees to stay, work fewer days or adopt more flexible hours. That’s up from 6 percent four years ago.

“There has been a definite increase in informal phased retirement programs over the last five years,” said SHRM spokeswoman Kate Kennedy.

Lynette Kluver, Alexandria’s organizational development director, said the 550-worker company has 56 experienced workers nearing retirement and is trying to steer them into job-sharing or part-time work, even consulting or mentoring.

“Boy, if they are willing, we sure are willing,” she said.

The Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College found that other firms go further. Some have started to retrofit production lines with older workers in mind.

They’ve installed assembly tools that reduce reaching and moved supplies closer to staffers so older machinists and assembly workers can save knees and backs. Some trucking firms have even made ergonomic changes to truck cabs so desperately needed drivers are comfortable and stick around, said Sloan Center co-director Jacquelyn James.

Retaining older workers “is something we have been encouraging for a long time.”

A decade ago, BMW realized a fifth of its German employees would be age 65 by 2020. It started a pilot program to retrofit one auto plant in Germany. Managers enlarged type on factory computers, installed ergonomic assembly tools and replaced concrete floors with wooden ones that were kinder to feet. They bought workers better shoes and had physical therapists retrain line workers on safer ways to move. With the changes, pros with seniority stuck with jobs longer. BMW spread the pilot program to other plants.