How Innovative Employers Engage Older Workers – Part 2

In this adapted excerpt from What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age, by Ken Dychtwald, PhD, and Robert Morison (Wiley, 2020), we outline proven ways for organizations to engage an older workforce.

Organizations that want to make the most of the retirement-age workforce – to alleviate skills shortages, improve business performance, and promote knowledge and experience sharing – must be programmatic in their approach. It makes little difference to hire individual retirees here and there. Here are five key programs for engaging, retaining, and leveraging the experience of older employees and working retirees.

Phased Retirement programs offer reduced responsibilities and flexible role and work arrangements as employees approach retirement. Forty-two percent of pre-retirement Boomers envision phasing into retirement, yet only 29% say their employer offers any sort of phased retirement arrangements. Phased retirement enables the organization to keep talent longer, and the individual to give partial retirement a try instead of quitting “cold turkey.”

Retiree Return programs tap into the large talent pool of qualified retirees to meet staffing needs cost-effectively, as well as promote knowledge and experience exchange. Retirees can be hired or rehired efficiently. And when they are deployed in customer-facing roles and reflect the customer demographics, they can engage customers effectively. So the business case serves retirees (who want to keep their hands in), the organization (that can hire and onboard people efficiently), and often the customers (who can better relate to the employees serving them).

Retiree Networks are communities of retirees that can serve as a channel for many activities, including rehiring retirees, gathering referrals, enlisting retirees into community programs, and, depending on the business, serving retirees as customers. Retiree networks may be organized and managed by the company or the retirees themselves, and they are typically supported by a website, regular communications, and local events.

Career Reinvention programs serve employees of all ages by facilitating in-company role, location, or career changes. But these “second acts” can be especially valuable for reengaging older employees, many of whom may not be getting all the career development opportunities that younger colleagues have. Reinventors gain new skills and experience while sharing what they already know. The company can use career reinvention to fill talent gaps, expand skills and experience, and enable mobility and cross-pollination across business units.

Knowledge Exchange happens through many means – from ongoing mentoring, to occasional events, to intergenerational team structures, to online repositories of information. The objectives are both to capture and retain knowledge and experience before it walks out the retirement door, and to accelerate the development and productivity of employees. Many retirees and pre-retirees are happy to give back to their employers by playing teaching and mentoring roles.

These five programs can work together, and they must recognize what working retirees want – engaging work, enjoyable workplaces, and flexible arrangements. They must also manage an ongoing tension. On one hand, though typically part-time, retirees want to be treated like regular employees, including when it comes to learning opportunities. On the other hand, they need adjustments appropriate to their lifestage, including to scheduling and benefits. The special ingredient in many successful programs is how organizations mix the generations, enabling knowledge and experience exchange in both directions. Everyone enjoys that process.