As the “baby boom” of the 1940s and 1950s becomes the “retirement boom” of the 21st century, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has predicted a retirement boom among its own workforce beginning in 1998.

Faced with the prospect of losing more than half of the agency’s employees by the end of 2010, including a large number of its leaders, SSA developed a strategic human capital plan based on hard data, developed among leaders from across the agency, and linked to specific deadlines and deliverables. As a result, SSA is now recruiting, developing and retaining the high-performing employees they need to ensure that our nation’s elderly, disabled and survivors of deceased workers receive needed financial support.