For many years, doctors, scientists, researchers, and politicians around most of the world, have been talking about the baby boomers, and how their leaving the marketplace will put huge strains on an already over stretched economy. Even the military and police are concerned, and are recruiting and training up as many people as possible, before the crunch starts to kick-in, in 2010.

A group of researchers in Finland produced a report back in 2003 called, Preparing for the Labour Market Change, Caused by the Baby Boom Generation. In it they say that from 2010, the population will start to decrease, and by 2030 will have decreased by about 400,000 people, and that labour capacity will continue its downward spiral through the 2010s, with 30,000 people walking out the door every year. And to make matters worse, we dont have the young people to replace them.

But Kevin Coyne, lead researcher of Coyne Partnership Inc., recently contradicted these predictions. He claims that theres no real crisis at all, and that this baby boom thing is much ado about nothing.

David Walker, US Chief Accountant, would say otherwise. Hes noted as saying, that the US will see a major crisis in the near future, with the walk out of baby boomers, which will put the US economy on red alert.

But with so much hype comes apathy, a it wont happen in our company syndrome, and due to this, very few companies are doing anything to get ready for the looming human capital crisis.

They think that the crisis will pass them by, and that hiring and firing will be business as usual.

A given, some companies wont be so affected, but can they say, hand on heart, that it wont affect the companies they serve; which in turn will affect them anyway; even if indirectly?

And can we honestly say that no company will be affected by the loss of so many staff over the next 5 years? I dont think so.

If the facts are accurate, then this is a glimpse of how the marketplace could look within the next 18 months and how this could affect your company.

Tension will rise in the marketplace as companies (who didnt prepare) look to their governments for solutions and quick fixes. Pressure is brought to bear on Colleges and Universities to churn out graduates who are good to go so companies dont have to spend much time or money on investing in training or e-learning on new recruits.

Others will expect much more from their e-learning, LMS and professional development service providers, and will move-on in a heart-beat if an e-learning or LMS product or service, doesnt show good ROIs much faster.

Still others will freeze their budgets to survive and others will go under.

For recruitment agencies, competition will become unbearable, as searching for the right calibre of people from an ever-decreasing recruitment pool, will become tougher than ever before.

We cant stop baby boomers from retiring in their droves, but there are three key marketing tactics smart, forward thinking companies can put into place now, to protect themselves against the looming storm.

They could:

-- Understand how the looming human capital crisis will affect them;

-- Build stronger customer profiles; then use those profiles to...

-- Create razor-sharp marketing campaigns geared towards building long term relationships.

Smart companies who want to survive and thrive in 2008 and beyond, have no option but to start preparing right now, and these three proven marketing tactics are the best way to do it.