Capable employees are at the heart of every organization. Their experience, skills, intuition, and ability add greatly to the overall success of the firm. Throughout an employee’s tenure, the company engages their talents and helps develop them for future challenges.

And yet, when faced with the natural evolution of retirement, those same organizations often ignore their responsibility to prepare employees for life after work.

With many people retiring earlier, whether by choice, through organizational restructuring or downsizings, or unexpected personal events such as failing health, we may find we’re retired for 10, 15, 20, 25, or more years. That’s a long period of time!

Retirement is one of the most challenging yet exciting times of life. It’s filled with adventure, change, and the unknown. The opportunities are endless; however, a successful retirement doesn’t come without its hurdles. There are many considerations such as living on a reduced income, creating a health and wellness strategy, examining relationships with family and friends, allocating personal time, and finding purpose, establishing living arrangements, and adopting and adapting to different social roles.

Three Actions of a Caring Organization

If we acknowledge that it is hard to have a great retirement without help, why is it most boomers are either not seeking or not receiving information, ideas, and options designed to achieve retirement goals? And what can be done?

There are a several actions an organization can do to assist employees to prepare.

Action 1: Understand

Understand what’s keeping boomers up at night when it comes to retirement. Here is a partial list:

• How much money will I need?
• What will I do when I’m retired?
• What’s going to be my purpose in life?
• Fear of change and fading into the woodwork from social isolation
• Will my relationship with my spouse/partner change?
• How do I maintain or improve my health and wellbeing?

Fear, panic, and discomfort are common emotions experienced by people preparing for retirement. These emotions often occur because the pre-retiree is entering a new world – one with different circumstances, behaviours, and activities.

Action 2: Be Empathetic

By being empathetic to those employees between the ages of 45 to 65 – the age group when questions of retirement begin to surface, supervisors, managers, and human resource professionals can assist employees to prepare for life after work. Being open and accessible to employee concerns and willingness to listen and help goes a long way. Appropriate questions to ask include:

• What does retirement mean to you?
• What scares, attracts, or excites you about life after work?
• What will make you happy in retirement?
• How do you imagine spending your time?
• What are you doing to maintain/improve your health?
• Who do you know who is successfully retired and what are they doing?
• How can I help? How can the organization help?
• I’m available as a sounding board.

Action 3: Best Practices

When considering what assistance to provide, here are “best practices” used by various organizations:

• Offer workshops / lunch ‘n learns (i.e., invitations for both employees and their spouses/partners to attend);
• Provide books, articles, and online resources (i.e., CANNAV, with over 3,000 employees, commissioned 10 articles on fulfillment retirement planning and included them in the CANNAV monthly employee newsletters);
• Offer one-on-one coaching with a fulfillment planning specialist (i.e., Agency for Co-Operative Housing offered personalized coaching to its employees);
• Form a retiree’s social group, including inviting employees nearing retirement to attend group meetings (i.e., Lincoln Electric Canada).

Payoffs for Employees and Organization

a. Employees: Rather than wasting precious time and energy – wishing things were different and settling for second best – employees gain a sharpened understanding of their retirement needs and interest before crisis occurs. They find direction in creating a fully integrated life plan to protect their time and money and, discover opportunities that add excitement and heighten personal fulfillment. In addition, they find increased peace of mind (mental health) resulting from being better prepared.

b. Organization: Employers report improved engagement by their senior employees knowing the company is investing in their well-being and mental health. Also, productivity increases as a result of less worry about life after work. Helping actions help build a stronger culture and recipient employees become ambassadors to friends, family, and acquaintances.

There is life after work. The trick is to find it and make certain to do it right! When an organization helps an employee smoothly transition to retirement, not only is there a sense of satisfaction but the value-added service differentiates you and your organization from others. Caring for those facing retirement demonstrates leadership and corporate social responsibility.