States focus on retaining, hiring older workers

California has a problem: Fifty-two percent of its managers in the state workforce could decide in the next five years that they're tired of working, grab their retirement packages and go. Their departure would create a serious brain drain for the state, which has the largest number of state employees in the country — 220,000. So Jeff Douglas, California's chief of workforce development, is trying different tactics to keep senior workers on the job: offering a flexible work schedule, promoting

California has a problem: Fifty-two percent of its managers in the state workforce could decide in the next five years that they're tired of working, grab their retirement packages and go. Their departure would create a serious brain drain for the state, which has the largest number of state employees in the country — 220,000. So Jeff Douglas, California's chief of workforce development, is trying different tactics to keep senior workers on the job: offering a flexible work schedule, promoting…