Succession planning: Find success while avoiding age-bias lawsuits.

• Position: Nuts & Bolts

With the Baby Boomers getting older (and more reluctant to leave the workforce), today's workforce is trending grayer than ever.

In fact, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workforce is people age 65 and older. And people are waiting longer to retire. A 2018 Gallup survey found that 41% of Americans plan to leave the workforce at age 66 or older--a number that has risen from 12% in 1995 and 26% in 2004.

In the face of this shift in retirement planning, employers need to be more careful than ever to avoid age discrimination claims when conducting succession planning.

One key risk: Federal and state age discrimination laws make it dangerous to make assumptions about an older worker's potential retirement plans and to focus too narrowly on age when planning succession.

Forced retirement is almost always unlawful under age-bias laws, and it is also unlawful to discriminate against older workers in pay and job conditions. As such, you should be careful how to discuss, plan and implement succession planning measures.

Reducing litigation

You can reduce your legal risks by focusing succession planning on employees in key positions rather than age.

The goal behind succession planning is to plan in advance for and be prepared to quickly address a key employee's departure to avoid business disruption or loss.

This is a neutral concept unrelated to age. Key employees of varying ages may leave a company for a number of reasons other than retirement. They may want to pursue another job, relocate or care for an aging parent or ill family member. They may also leave because they have been terminated.

That is why it makes good business sense to focus succession planning on employees of all ages, which, in turn, reduces the risk of an age discrimination claim.

Practical tips

To reduce the risk of age bias during the succession planning:

* Avoid making age-based stereotypes when planning for succession. More workers are choosing to work longer, and it is dangerous to assume an older worker is planning to retire or reduce his or her schedule based on age.

* Don't focus solely on older workers when gathering information for succession planning.

Gather information from a cross section of employees of different ages and diverse backgrounds.

* Tread carefully if asking about potential retirement plans when talking about succession planning. What seems like an innocent question could be interpreted as age-based stereotyping.

A safer approach is to ask more...