Working together to iron out the wrinkles of retirement

Employers and employees need to work together to manage a change in lifestyle as many older staff work on after the scrapping of the default retirement age.

The default retirement age was scrapped from April 6, leaving the way open for employees to choose when they want to give up work rather than have their employer show them the door on their 65^th birthday.

For many employers, this means a new strategy of managing a smooth transition between work and retirement.

Employers need to figure out how to get the best value from over 65’s, how to prolong their working lives and how to smooth the way to retirement, according to a joint study published by The Age and Employment Network (TAEN) and Saga, the lifestyle and financial firm for the over 50’s.

They have published two guides – Rethinking Retirement: An Employer’s Guide to Managing the Workforce without a Fixed Retirement Age, and Rethinking Retirement: An Employee’s Guide to Working

TAEN is of the view retirement will cease as an abrupt event that dictates individuals should stop working on a date set at their birth.

The likelihood is, work will taper off at a different pace for individuals, depending on their health, lifetime savings and other lifestyle choices.

TAEN chief executive, Chris Ball, said: “Many people do want or need to continue working and earning in some way, but they often find the option of working full time, in demanding roles or under great pressure, not to their liking. They begin to see the attractions of a more relaxed pace in which knowledge and skill is more important than ‘hurry, hurry, worry, worry’.

“Part work and part retirement makes an awful lot of sense. The challenge is to make it possible by putting sensible retirement policies into place.

“There is no reason in principle why people should not continue to work and earn in some form much later in life – but to be able to do that, they must be supported, with employers adopting radically different employment policies that make working later an attractive and plausible option.”

Download the employer’s guide

Do you want more than what Diversity Training can deliver? See Diversity Leadership at Work .