Retirement support: preparing for the end of careers
Longer working lives, changing retirement rules, keeping older employees in work: companies need to rethink how they support the final years of working life.
The challenge is both collective and individual: building end-of-career management schemes suited to the organisation, and enabling each employee to understand their entitlements, key dates and options for moving into retirement.
Alixio Group supports both HR departments and employees in preparing for this stage of working life and making sure it goes smoothly.
Anticipate retirements and their impact on the organisation
A cluster of retirements can weaken certain functions, accelerate the loss of skills or create significant recruitment and knowledge-transfer needs.
Strategic Workforce Planning gives you a broader view of these issues by analysing, in particular:
- the age profile of the workforce and the risk of a retirement “cliff edge”;
- the roles and skills likely to become critical;
- succession needs for key functions;
- projected changes in headcount and skills over the next three to five years;
- the financial impact of retirements and end-of-career schemes.
This forward view lets you plan recruitment, mobility, training or knowledge-transfer needs in advance, rather than reacting when someone leaves.
Organise late-career paths
Workforce and skills planning then turns this forward-looking view into practical solutions for employees.
Depending on the situation, the company can work on:
- mobility or changes in responsibilities;
- keeping employees in work;
- adjustments to working hours or conditions;
- passing on skills through coaching or mentoring;
- gradually preparing the transition into retirement.
The aim is not to reduce the end of a career to a leaving date, but to build career paths that meet the company’s needs and suit each employee’s situation.
Inform and support employees in their retirement choices
As retirement approaches, the questions become more individual.
A career can involve several employers, schemes, interruptions or particular situations that affect accrued rights and retirement options.
Alixio Group supports employees so that they can gain a reliable reading of their situation. The support can cover:
- analysing the career;
- checking accrued rights;
- estimating the retirement date;
- assessing pensions;
- examining different end-of-career scenarios;
- the steps required through to the settlement of the pension.
The aim is to enable each employee to measure the consequences of their choices before making a decision.
Phased retirement: a more flexible transition
Phased retirement allows employees, subject to certain conditions, to reduce their working hours while drawing part of their pension before fully retiring.
For the company, it can be a useful tool for managing the end of careers, making it possible to:
- reduce working time gradually;
- retain certain skills for longer;
- organise the transfer of knowledge;
- prepare for succession.
However, using it means balancing the employee’s entitlements and plans with the organisation’s constraints and needs.
Support HR teams in managing the end of careers
The variety of individual situations and frequent changes to the regulatory framework can quickly make retirement management complex for HR teams.
Alixio Group can help at several levels:
- Anticipate: analyse the age profile, projected retirements, critical skills and financial impact.
- Train and support HR teams: provide guidance on specialised, constantly changing regulations, deal with complex cases and make sure employees receive the right support.
- Organise: build late-career paths, working arrangements and knowledge-transfer schemes.
- Keep schemes compliant: incorporate regulatory changes and explore end-of-career solutions suited to the company’s context.
- Inform employees: explain the current rules, the schemes available and how they are changing.
- Provide one-to-one support: review careers, accrued entitlements and retirement scenarios, and support employees, where needed, through to claiming their pension.
This joined-up approach gives HR teams a consistent framework while addressing each employee’s individual situation.
Make the end of a career a stage of the professional journey
Managing the end of careers does not begin a few months before retirement.
By planning ahead, the company can organise its resources more effectively, prepare the transfer of skills and offer suitable solutions to the employees concerned.
For employees, this support gives clarity on their entitlements, their options and the different possible steps towards retirement.
Q&A – Workplace retirement support
How do you support an employee approaching retirement?
Support can combine a review of their entitlements, an analysis of several retirement scenarios and, depending on their situation, options for staying in work, adjusting their working hours or taking phased retirement. Pre-retirement workshops can also help them prepare for this new stage of life and picture their day-to-day life after work.
What is phased retirement?
Phased retirement allows employees, subject to certain conditions, to reduce their working hours while drawing part of their pension. At the same time, they continue to build up entitlements towards their full pension.
Why include the end of careers in workforce and skills planning?
Workforce and skills planning helps anticipate changes in career paths, organise the transfer of skills and prepare mobility, working-arrangement or transition solutions for employees in the later stages of their careers.
What role does Strategic Workforce Planning play in managing the end of careers?
Strategic Workforce Planning helps anticipate the number of retirements, the risks to key roles or skills, and their impact on the company's future resources.
