Senior Moments: Retaining Retiring Workers August 06, 2008 Incentives can play a role in older workers' decision to retire
By Jeanie Casison
Retaining potential retirees requires an attractive offering of incentive options. A new survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) indicates that employers have up to two years to convince retiring workers to stay with the company. Although there is no one size fits all formula to motivation, EBRI findings suggest successful strategies include making workers feel appreciated, offering them a full or partial pension while working part-time, and making seasonal or contract work available.
Timing is everything. According to the "EBRI 2008 Recent Retirees Survey," nearly two-thirds of retirees (63 percent) reported that such offers would have been a lot more effective if the retirees had known about them in the two years before they communicated their intention to retire. The majority of respondents (61 percent) also revealed to being receptive to employers asking them to stay longer.
The EBRI 2008 Recent Retirees Survey focused on 19 key areas that would have a possible impact on postponing retirement. Feeling truly needed was ranked as effective in encouraging older workers to stay for half of the retiree respondents (48 percent); and 72 percent said that it might have prompted them to stay at least two more years with the company.
The EBRI 2008 Recent Retiree Survey is a joint effort of EBRI, American Benefits Council, HR Policy Association, Greenwald & Associates, and several aerospace and defense industry companies including BAE Systems Inc., Ball Corporation, The Boeing Company, Honeywell International, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, among others.
More information about the survey is available on www.ebri.org.
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