Hun­gry spir­its meet wise men

Retire­ment – a strate­gic issue

Retire­ment is an impor­tant mile­stone in the lives of all employ­ees. It is often a time of a com­plete reori­en­ta­tion with the loss of an impor­tant pil­lar of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of one’s life and the prospect of an uncer­tain future.  

From the company’s point of view, it is not only a mat­ter of answer­ing spe­cif­ic suc­ces­sion ques­tions, but also of absorb­ing a poten­tial loss of exper­tise and re-estab­lish­ing long-stand­ing (cus­tomer) rela­tion­ships.

As nei­ther of these can be achieved overnight, a long-term cor­po­rate cul­ture requires suf­fi­cient time, exper­tise and a reli­able approach. It is there­fore not sim­ply a mat­ter of replac­ing a per­son, but of a well-planned, struc­tured and accom­pa­nied tran­si­tion process. Just as ‘on-board­ing’ process­es are often giv­en a lot of atten­tion in com­pa­nies, ‘off-board­ing’ process­es should be seen as a Siamese twin and tak­en just as seri­ous­ly.

The fol­low­ing argu­ments will empha­sise that ‘pen­sion man­age­ment’ is a major human and busi­ness chal­lenge, that should be con­sid­ered as an impor­tant aspect of long-term busi­ness devel­op­ment. A respect­ful, accom­pa­nied process will pay off many times over for all par­ties involved, both inter­per­son­al­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly.

A look at the sit­u­a­tion of future pen­sion­ers

The ques­tion of retire­ment and how to deal with it is, of course, very indi­vid­ual and dif­fer­ent. What­ev­er the per­son­al approach, it is always a high­ly emo­tion­al process that has a major impact on both pro­fes­sion­al and pri­vate life. It also often has far-reach­ing eco­nom­ic con­se­quences for both the indi­vid­ual and the fam­i­ly.

It is not just a mat­ter of clar­i­fy­ing the date of retire­ment, but a long-term process of com­ing to terms with a deci­sive stage in one’s life. This usu­al­ly begins long before the so-called date with con­sid­er­a­tions of what, how, when… and ends long after retire­ment and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with the new phase of life. It is impor­tant to have an adapt­able plan as a com­mon ori­en­ta­tion.

Nev­er­the­less, it is impor­tant to set a date for retire­ment so that the process can being in a seri­ous way. Expe­ri­ence shows that ideas about what retire­ment or tran­si­tion should look like can change sev­er­al times. Regard­less of the company’s approach, these dis­cov­ery phas­es are very impor­tant for the indi­vid­ual and her or his envi­ron­ment.

For many peo­ple, the retire­ment process is one of the most dif­fi­cult peri­ods of their lives. After many years of con­ti­nu­ity, rou­tine and well-estab­lished mech­a­nisms, life in old age has to be com­plete­ly rede­fined. There is unchart­ed ter­ri­to­ry and uncer­tain­ty. It is there­fore not sur­pris­ing that this phase is often asso­ci­at­ed with defence, cling­ing, repres­sion or a search for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. Or to quote a col­league: ‘Com­ing to terms with retire­ment is noth­ing more than say­ing good­bye to a life that has been organ­ised up to now. It affects every­thing; work, week­ends, hol­i­days…’

‘What will I do when I retire?’ is just one of the chal­leng­ing ques­tions in this process. It’s not just about what you are going to do, but above all how you’re going to find per­son­al sat­is­fac­tion and achieve a healthy sense of self-esteem in the new phase of your life. How does iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with the real con­tent take place and what form of recog­ni­tion is involved? To quote anoth­er affect­ed per­son: ‘I realised that I had to reor­gan­ise my social life. It is a con­stant process between antic­i­pa­tion and hard work; I have to let go of my pre­vi­ous com­mit­ments and find new areas of activ­i­ty. Not to be under­es­ti­mat­ed is the process of my fam­i­ly, who are not only look­ing for­ward to my con­stant pres­ence.’

Some con­sid­er­a­tions from the company’s point of view

The last phase of the work­ing life of long-serv­ing employ­ees is one of the most under-utilised resources in com­pa­nies. Or to put it even more clear­ly: While every­one is com­plain­ing about the short­age of skilled labour and wag­ing a ver­i­ta­ble ‘war for tal­ent’, one of the great­est untapped oppor­tu­ni­ties is often left unno­ticed here or lit­er­al­ly put on the ‘sid­ing’.

How often is the time before retire­ment lit­er­al­ly sat out and wait­ed for? Why is the exper­tise and expe­ri­ence gained in the last phase of one’s work­ing life not seen as a strate­gic oppor­tu­ni­ty, addressed and utilised with tar­get­ed mea­sures? A clever and well-designed process will address these very aspects and ensure that the ener­gies of deserv­ing employ­ees can be har­nessed for the ben­e­fit of the organ­i­sa­tion, and every­one involved. This is an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to tar­get­ed knowl­edge man­age­ment and improved coop­er­a­tion between gen­er­a­tions.

For this to work, we need to treat each oth­er with respect and, above all, adopt a new atti­tude towards the issue and how and where expe­ri­ence can best be used. If the top­ic is approached with the right inten­tion, respect­ful­ly and in good time, as an inte­gral part of work­ing life, it will suc­ceed. With lit­tle extra effort, by the way, and with an out­put many times greater. We no longer talk about ‘being ready for the scrap heap’, but cre­ate an envi­ron­ment free of fear, where emo­tion­al fluc­tu­a­tions are nor­mal. They no longer have to be hid­den away in shame but can be legit­i­mate­ly used to find solu­tions togeth­er.

Good pen­sion man­age­ment is a key con­trib­u­tor to employ­er brand­ing. It is well known that ‘word-of-mouth rec­om­men­da­tions’ are extreme­ly pow­er­ful and can make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to a company’s rep­u­ta­tion. How a com­pa­ny sep­a­rates from its employ­ees, how peo­ple talk about it and how they are treat­ed dur­ing these sen­si­tive peri­ods there­fore plays a major role and will some­times deter­mine what tal­ent the com­pa­ny will be able to attract in the future (which brings us back to the ‘war for tal­ent’).

Final­ly, there is the cost argu­ment. Even in the short term, it is a worth­while invest­ment. If we look at the untapped oppor­tu­ni­ties, the paralysing frus­tra­tion and the inse­cure pre-retirees who — for the first time – can get involved in projects and top­ics at short notice and with­out fear, then all sides ben­e­fit direct­ly and the pre­ven­ta­tive expens­es for struc­tured and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port are more than cov­ered in a very short time. Expe­ri­ence and a deep­er under­stand­ing of the com­pa­ny are resources that are all too rarely used and under­es­ti­mat­ed.

Con­verse­ly, the direct and, above all, the indi­rect ‘social repair costs’ that arise if the tar­get­ed off-board­ing mea­sures are not approached in a struc­tured man­ner should also be tak­en into account.

Con­clud­ing remarks

A struc­tured approach and the con­scious sup­port of the pen­sion issue at an ear­ly stage not only pays off, but can also be devel­oped into a company’s unique sell­ing point (USP). This holis­tic approach to peo­ple devel­op­ment builds trust among teams and part­ners and strength­ens the cul­ture of coop­er­a­tion.

Under­stood as a strate­gic task, the off-board­ing process offers a great learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty between the gen­er­a­tions and makes it pos­si­ble to expe­ri­ence the ben­e­fits of the best aspects of both worlds. Or as the col­league so apt­ly put it: ‘Hun­gry spir­its meet wise men.’