Will they or won’t they? That is the $64,000 question. As baby boomers edge toward retirement, there is lots of speculation about how they will spend their retirement years. Baby boomers have done many things differently than the generations before them – will they do retirement differently, too?

Compared to the generation before, baby boomers have generally had more opportunities and are healthier, wealthier, and better educated. They are also more likely to work part-time during retirement, have children that still live at home, and find themselves caring for aging parents. Baby boomers have less religious affiliations and are more skeptical of institutions. They are also quite certain about their expectations. So when it comes to volunteering, will newly retired baby boomers follow the established trends or will there be a dramatic shift?

Golfing in the sunny south vs. volunteering

A national poll conducted by Decima Research for Investors Group reports a stark difference between the values and activities of today’s retirees and the retirement plans of baby boomers. For instance:

• 56% of today’s working baby boomers (45-54 year olds) say they plan to get away for some or a lot of the harshest months of winter in retirement, while only 27% of current retirees do the same;
• 51% of baby boomers plan to work on their own or do some consulting work in retirement, compared to only 22% of retired Canadians who currently do so; and
• 70% of baby boomers plan to spend some or a lot of their time doing volunteer work in retirement, but only 48% of retired Canadians today report that they are spending some or a lot of their time volunteering.

The latter statistic about volunteerism is attention-grabbing. It is a high number, but also contrary to current volunteering trends. Research indicates that the life cycle pattern of volunteering is bell-shaped: fewer young volunteers, more middle aged volunteers (peaking between age 35 and 44), and then declining numbers of older volunteers.

“Maybe there’s headway being made around the definition of ‘volunteering'” says Marlene Deboisbriand, president of Volunteer Canada. “It’s hard with a survey with a small sampling [i.e. the Investor Group poll]. You don’t necessarily know how the questions were asked, how specific they were. If the question was ‘will people help their neighbour?’ then the numbers may go up significantly. We don’t know if the survey separated out formal and informal volunteering. The real answer is that we don’t know if baby boomers will volunteer more when they retire.”

What it takes to recruit baby boomer retirees

With such a large number of baby boomers heading toward retirement, organizations need to think strategically when it comes to recruiting them as volunteers, yet “not many organizations are thinking about baby boomers specifically,” says Marie Claude Wilkins, volunteer coordinator at Volunteer West Island in Montreal. “But nobody can be complacent about looking at this group – the numbers are too large to ignore.” Recently, Volunteer West Island held a workshop on the topic of recruiting baby boomer volunteers. Fifteen people attended the workshop from a variety of organizations, plus some baby boomers who came to provide immediate feedback.

Job design is key

Wilkins recommends that organizations take a hard look at volunteer position design. It is important to sit down and find out how people want to be engaged and build jobs and strategies around their interests, time, etc. Strategic questions to ask include: Are we ready to offer these people an opportunity to draw on their previous experiences? How are we going to satisfy their needs? How do we increase their motivation? Are we ready to take what they are willing to give?

These are questions that Volunteer West Island asked itself recently. They’ve recruited a group of young retirees from Air Canada to put together a recruitment project. This group, says Wilkins, wanted a short-term project that would make a big difference. They wanted to make decisions and see results. Interestingly, the young retirees were not sure if volunteering would be satisfying enough.

The recruitment project came about after a conversation between Wilkins and one of her volunteers. “In chatting with her, I realized that she had a lot to give aside from doing data entry for us. We started talking about the difficulties we’re having with recruitment and that we wanted to look into the possibility of having a volunteer recruitment program staffed by volunteers who would be charged with finding a new approach to the challenge and get out more into the community. She was quite interested with the idea and that was the beginning of the group,” recalls Wilkins.

Strategically placing baby boomers as leaders

Woodgreen Community Services in Toronto is also serious and strategic about recruiting baby boomer volunteers. Go to the volunteer section of their web site and you’ll find a specialized volunteer program for this demographic. Woodgreen specifically appeals to “big picture thinkers and people who have the ability to lead a group of people, set goals and meet those goals.” These volunteers are asked to lead committees, plan programs with staff, and lead other volunteers. They help provide direction on setting up projects, plus execute and evaluate projects, and make recommendations for future initiatives. Although not pegged as ‘baby boomer volunteers’ once they are part of the organization, this targeted approach to recruitment of baby boomers works well for Woodgreen.

The specialized program came about a few years ago. Volunteer coordinator Carol Fox explains that a few of her long-standing volunteers were moving towards retirement. These volunteers had a lot of leadership skills that the organization did not want to lose, yet some were getting bored. So, to maintain the programs and build up her volunteers, Fox gave more responsibility to these volunteers – something they responded to favourably.

Based on her experience, Fox advises, “If you don’t have your act together, they leave. What I’ve found different with baby boomer volunteers is that they have a definite mindset; they know what they want and don’t want. They are very willing to work with you but they also have definite needs of their own. You need to work to find the balance.”

A group too large to ignore

Volunteer Canada wants to encourage organizations to think about strategically engaging baby boomers and new retiree volunteers. The Community Support Centre – managed by Volunteer Canada as part of the Canada Volunteerism Initiative – develops and tests new and innovative methods for sustaining volunteerism by funding demonstration projects undertaken by local, provincial or national voluntary organizations or local/provincial volunteer centres. One recent project was specifically about recruiting baby boomers, applying job design theory, and working in partnership with corporations to promote volunteerism as a retirement option.

The numbers are staggering. There is a huge bubble of baby boomers approaching retirement or who are newly retired. This group of people is too large to not pay attention to and “we’ll be in real trouble if we don’t think strategically about how we engage and involve them,” says Volunteer Canada’s Deboisbriand. “I want to send a real plea to the voluntary sector to give this some very significant thought.”

Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.