How to have a conversation about retirement as a leader

As the population ages, the nature of retirement is changing, and it is important for organisations and their leaders to be aware of this. Historically, retirement was a standard process of a quick and permanent exit from full-time work at 65 years of age. Now there is no formal retirement age in most circumstances, and people are working longer either by choice or necessity. Some workers are seeking alternative forms of retirement, including phased retirement, transitioning into unpaid work, entering an entirely new field, or starting a business.

Organisations need to engage older workers before they begin to think about retirement. Rachael Palmer, who led Transitioning Well’s Ageing Workforce Ready Project, says what organisations need to do, in collaboration with employees, is find out what are the most appropriate work adjustments for older workers. ‘Ask, don’t assume’ what your workers need in this life stage. 
 
“The alternative is, all the wisdom, experience, emotional intelligence, diversity – all these things that are good for business – walk out the door,” says Rachael Palmer.  

As a leader, navigating the conversation about retirement can be a delicate dance. You might be wondering how do you initiate the conversation? How do you have the conversation without seeming insensitive? What do you say if they want to keep on working?  

While some older workers may be planning  permanent retirement, others will prefer a phased retirement, or some may be feeling ‘stuck’ emotionally or are unable to retire due to financial reasons.  

Initiating the conversation about retirement is often avoided by leaders due to it’s sensitive nature. However, with thoughtful planning and clear communication, you can maintain a positive working relationship and ensure a smooth transition in the late career phase for both the individual and the organisation.  

Laying the Groundwork: Know Your People 

The “know your people” principle is paramount. Regular check-ins, not just performance reviews, provide an opportunity to gauge an individual’s future plans. Listen for subtle cues about retirement aspirations, such as changes in work-life balance preferences or discussions about caring for grandchildren, future travel goals or alternate interests outside of work 

Planning for the Talk 

Instead of solely focusing on full retirement, acknowledge the growing trend of a phased retirement. This caters to individuals who may desire continued work, but with more flexibility or a shift in focus. 

Consider highlighting the value proposition for the employee to consider a different role within the organisation. Their experience can be invaluable in mentoring younger colleagues or taking on a consultant role or project-based work.  

Financial security is a major concern for many employees contemplating retirement. Explore the resources your organisation offers to help them plan for their future, such as retirement planning workshops, ageing well, or financial/superannuation advice. Additionally, investigate phased retirement programs – a growing trend – that allows them to gradually transition out of the workforce. 

Research by the Ageing Workforce Ready project suggests that flexible work arrangements can be beneficial for mental wellbeing, allowing older workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance while continuing to contribute their valuable expertise. Retiring can be a shock to the system for many workers who have worked for decades and have a strong work identity- even if they wanted to stop working. A poorly planned retirement can leave people feeling lost and without a purpose.  

For some individuals, retirement may not signify a complete disconnect from the organisation. Discuss the possibility of joining your alumni network which allows them to stay connected with former colleagues, contribute their expertise in an advisory role, or participate in mentorship programs for younger team members. 

Understanding the Benefits of Older Workers

• Older workers bring a wealth of experience and knowledge accumulated over their careers. This can be invaluable for problem-solving, innovation, and mentoring younger colleagues.

• Statistically, older workers tend to be more reliable and have lower turnover rates compared to younger generations. This translates to a more stable and predictable workforce.

• Older employees often possess well-honed communication and interpersonal skills, leading to positive customer interactions. This can be particularly valuable in industries where trust and rapport are crucial.

• An age-inclusive workforce fosters a more diverse talent pool. This leads to a richer pool of ideas, a wider range of perspectives, and a more representative customer understanding.

Conversation Starters  

Planning and Goals:

• Do you have a general timeline in mind for retirement? (Open-ended question to gauge their current thinking)
• Have you started thinking about your financial goals for retirement? (Opens the door for a discussion about support they might need)
• Beyond finances, what are some things you’d like to achieve or experience in retirement? (Helps understand their broader vision)

Current Work Situation

• Are there any aspects of your current role that you’d like to continue into retirement, perhaps in a modified form? (Identifies transferable skills or interests)
• Would you be interested in exploring options for a phased retirement, such as transitioning to part-time work? (Gauges openness to flexible arrangements)
• Is there any knowledge or expertise you’d like to pass on to colleagues before you retire? (Highlights their value and opens the door for knowledge transfer)

Communication and Support

• Do you feel comfortable discussing your retirement plans with me openly? (Establishes clear communication)
• Is there any information or support the company can provide to assist you in your retirement planning? (Offers support and demonstrates company commitment)
• If you have any questions or concerns about transitioning to retirement, please feel free to bring them to my attention. (Opens the door for ongoing dialogue)

Remember: 

• Maintain a positive and supportive tone throughout the conversation. 
• Actively listen to their concerns and avoid making assumptions. 
• Let the conversation flow organically, building trust and openness. 
• Express your appreciation for their contributions to the team. 

The goal isn’t to force an immediate retirement, but to plant the seed and initiate a dialogue with your ageing workers. This conversation can be revisited in the future as their circumstances or perspectives change. 

Following the initial conversation, continue fostering open communication. Creating a supportive environment and facilitating a psychologically safe environment helps empower people to navigate their later career stages with confidence. Fostering a positive and respectful transition ensures older workers leave with a sense of accomplishment and a lasting connection to the organisation. 

Establishing a reputation as an employer that provides genuine and practical support to older workers can contribute to a healthy and engaged workforce. Workplaces that educate and encourage help-seeking behaviours by providing practical tools, resources and information can help those in the late career phase to successfully navigate this tricky life stage. 

To find out more about how Transitioning Well can help you older workers in your workplace, take a look at our retirement transition coaching and late career and retirement resources.

The post How to have a conversation about retirement as a leader appeared first on Transitioning Well.

Leading through hard times

Given the prevalence of redundancies and the increase in self-directed career changes, it is important for organisations to shift their practices to understand, support and respond to these transitions.

As long-term unemployment significantly increases the risks of individuals experiencing poor mental health, it is important for organisations to support displaced employees through the transition and to find suitable work. Just under one-third of displaced workers are still unemployed after 12 months and re-employment rates are even lower for certain groups, including women, older workers and those with less formal education (OECD).

Australian employees change jobs 12 times throughout their life, with an average tenure of 3.3 years.

-Australian Institute of Business

Organisations that actively support exiting employees with their transition help mitigate against risks such as employee self-harm, or other mental health-related issues, as well as potential lawsuits. It also helps to ensure exiting employees maintain a positive association with the employer brand in the market. Most importantly, it helps people find their pathway through one of life’s most challenging and stressful events, with dignity and respect.

The remaining employees are also more likely to maintain favourable opinions of the organisation due to the way they have seen their colleagues being treated on exit. This is critical to help re-engage the ‘survivors’ who often feel guilty and disengaged after a redundancy process.

Transitioning Well’s Bri Hayllar says there are many things a leader can do to support the team through a restructure or role redundancies.

“The key to understanding your role is to understand the impact of change on people,” says Bri. “Uncertainty is not usually a human happy place. In the face of uncertainty, the brain literally doesn’t have a map. It can’t conceptualise exactly what’s coming, and therefore it predicts lots of potential outcomes. This can be exhausting, distracting, and depleting.”  

“In times of change and uncertainty, we need to look after ourselves more. However, people can often be really concerned about impression management and so they may actually be doubling down on their work efforts and actually reducing their self-care at this critical time. Leaders explicitly giving people permission for self-care is invaluable. Don’t assume they know it.”

Take a look at the full video below where Bri outlines strategies for leading well through hard and uncertain times.

5 Tips for supporting people during periods of organisational change

• Build open transparent communication and trust in the workplace. This includes sharing the nature of changes, reasons for the change and how and why decisions are made. 
• Ensure your redeployment process is effective at identifying and matching impacted employees to any current roles. 
• Offer voluntary redundancies as a first option, to help reduce the need for involuntary displacement, if possible. 
• Support positive exit rituals when individuals leave an organisation, including a formal farewell that allows individuals to say goodbye to colleagues, where possible. 
• Depersonalise language regarding role changes. While subtle, this can help individuals depersonalise and reframe their experience. For example, “My role was made redundant“ versus “I was made redundant“. 

Establishing a reputation as an employer that provides genuine and practical support to both exiting and current employees can contribute to a healthy and engaged workforce.

Workplaces that educate and encourage help-seeking behaviours by providing practical tools, resources and information can help those in a career change or role redundancy to successfully navigate this transition. 

To find out more about how Transitioning Well can help in your workplace, take a look at our redundancy and career change resources.

The post Leading through restructure and role redundancies appeared first on Transitioning Well.

How to protect older workers from psychosocial hazards and risks in the workplace

Globally, the population is ageing. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 15% of the Australian population were aged over 65 in 2017, and this is expected to increase to 20% by 2037. There are more older Australians (e.g. 50 years or over) participating in the workforce, jumping from 47% in early 2000, to over 65% today. These changes are driven by various factors including increased cost of living, longer lifespans, low fertility rates etc. all leading to longer working lives.

As the population ages, the nature of retirement is changing, and it is important for organisations to be aware of this. Historically, retirement was a standard process of a quick and permanent exit from full-time work at 65 years of age. Now there is no formal retirement age in most circumstances, and people are working longer either by choice or necessity. Some workers are seeking alternative forms of retirement, including phased retirement, transitioning into unpaid work, entering an entirely new field, or starting abusiness.

You’ll often hear us talking about the messy intersection between life and work, and the ‘messiness’ in the late career to retirement transition is no exception. Older workers are dealing with a range of issues like ageism, health-related changes such as menopause, additional caring responsibilities with ageing parents, and changes in identity from adult children leaving home.  

Organisations need to engage older workers before they begin to think about retirement. Transitioning Well’s Rachael Palmer says what organisations need to do, in collaboration with employees, is find out what are the most appropriate work adjustments for older workers. ‘Ask, don’t assume’ what your workers need in this life stage. 
 
“The alternative is, all the wisdom, experience, emotional intelligence, diversity – all these things that are good for business – walk out the door,” says Rachael Palmer.  

Watch the full video below:

6 Tips for supporting successful transitions to late career and retirement  

Raise awareness and listen to employees

• Raise awareness of the value and benefits of an ageing workforce by educating senior leaders about ageism, ‘stereotype threat,’ and implicit bias. Examine the assumptions made about age at each stage of the employee life cycle from recruitment to retirement and integrate ageing workforce considerations into strategic planning.
• Educate people about older workers to dispel myths and stereotypes about ageing. Older workers are a heterogeneous group that span at least two generations. Peoples needs change from late career through to retirement, and differ between individuals.
• Assess the supports available to older workers. Listen to older employees to understand their needs and concerns, analyse workforce data, and review existing policies and practices. Use feedback and data to identify specific risks and opportunities relating to late career and transition to retirement.

Review policies and processes

• Ensure recruitment processes are free from discrimination and bias. Develop recruitment material that is attractive to older people. Consider age diversity when choosing the make-up of the interview panel. Incorporate ‘blind recruitment’ where possible (applicants do not disclose their age or other identifying information and are instead judged only against inherent job requirements).

• Enable knowledge transfer through formal and informal mechanisms. Introduce mentoring or buddy systems that facilitate two-way learning across different age groups. Succession planning is also an important part of this knowledge transfer and can help individuals feel comfortable and prepared to retire.

• Be open to flexible working arrangements. Flexibility is valuable for all ages and people 55 years or older are entitled to request flexible working arrangements. Best practice flexible working arrangements go far beyond part-time work or work- from-home. Options that appeal to older workers may differ from other life-stages and include longer periods of leave for travel, ‘lifestyle rosters’, and ramping down to retirement.

Establishing a reputation as an employer that provides genuine and practical support to older workers can contribute to a healthy and engaged workforce. Workplaces that educate and encourage help-seeking behaviours by providing practical tools, resources and information can help those in the late career phase to successfully navigate this tricky life stage. 

To find out more about how Transitioning Well can help you older workers in your workplace, take a look at our transition coaching resources.

The post Protecting older workers from psychosocial risks appeared first on Transitioning Well.