# Four Ways to Adapt to an Aging Workforce

1 Opinion April 8, 2014 Harvard Business Review ![](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_038271.gif?itok=ukCeZjYQ) By Hal Hershfield > Given demographic trends in the developing world, corporate workforces are set to age significantly in the next few decades.

Calls to maximize the utility of older workers — by honoring experience, providing training opportunities, and offering flexible work and retirement options — began to sound at least a decade ago. HBR contributors have suggested we “retire retirement” and “adapt for an aging workforce.”

But proposing reform is one thing. Instituting it is another. Have companies followed through? Our analysis suggests that some are starting to. We’ve found four best practices for accommodating older workers that should serve as a model for other organizations.

Read the full article as published in [Harvard Business Review](http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/four-ways-to-adapt-to-an-aging-workforce/).

\_\_\_
*Hal Hershfield in an Assistant Professor of Marketing.*## More Opinions from Hal Hershfield

- [Would You Rather Travel to the Past or to the Future?](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/hhershfi-time-travel)
- [To Change Environmental Behavior, Should We Really Tell People the World Is Ending?](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/hershfi-environmental-behavior)
- [You Make Better Decisions If You “See” Your Senior Self](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/better-decisions-senior-self)
- [How to Make Iranian Sanctions More Effective: Lessons From Behavioral Economics](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/hal-hershfield-iran-sanctions)