Should I do anything special to retain baby boomers?

While they won't all be retiring at once, and some will work into their 70s, the importance of the boomers to your operation is worth noting. They know a lot of stuff, and there are certainly a lot of them. Their numbers almost double Generation X, according to "Beating the Boomer Brain Drain Blues," and unlike their younger cohorts, many boomers have spent a large chunk of their careers in one company building up experience and knowledge.

You should increase your efforts to leverage employees who want to work past the traditional retirement age. "Sixty-five is the new 40," says a recent Forrester "IT Roles and Skills" report. CIOs should encourage their valued senior employees to stay on, at least in part-time, seasonal or on-call roles. According to a study by AARP, more than 60 percent of U.S. companies are currently bringing back retirees as contractors or consultants. (This could be worth considering as a personal option for you as well. According to a Robert Half Technology survey, 46 percent of CIOs are likely to consider consulting or project work as a way to "ease into" retirement.)

Unfortunately, according to CIO's staffing survey, only 18 percent of IT leaders are pairing up new employees with experienced workers. That's too bad, because such mentoring relationships not only offer the opportunity for knowledge transfer (old dog = new tricks, new dog = old tricks), but also usually prove to be a motivating force for both mentor and mentee. (To learn how Raytheon pairs experienced workers with new employees, read "Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks.")

Can I skip these recruiting headaches by outsourcing more of my shop's work?

Nice try. But if you think you can insulate yourself from personnel problems, personnel decisions and personnel strategy by outsourcing, you're sadly mistaken. That is, unless you want those outsourcing relationships to fail. If you don't mind failure, then, yes, you can avoid all the headaches. In that case, however, you'll soon be searching for a job yourself.

Mary Lacity, professor of information systems at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied outsourcing best practices for more than 15 years, notes that with successful domestic outsourcing relationships, clients review the resumes of their suppliers' employees before they are assigned to their delivery team. And when it comes to a successful offshore outsourcing arrangement, clients often personally interview each potential offshore-supplier team member.

And, as anyone who's done significant outsourcing knows, it's never long before any HR problems your supplier has (from recruiting to retention) trickle down to you. An outsourcing decision should never be made with the idea of removing all risk or responsibility for something—recruiting or otherwise. The work may move; responsibility stays. (If you have more questions related to outsourcing, refer to The ABCs of Outsourcing.)

Where can I find more information about recruiting and other HR issues?

Here are a few places to start:

• American Society for Training and Development
• Society for Human Resource Management
• The Workforce Stability Institute
• National Urban League: Diversity Practices That Work
• CIO.com Staffing Resource Center