While
speaking on the subject of Retirement at an event organized by one of the major
public sector corporations in India, I was pleasantly surprised to see the
Chairman and the entire Board of Directors attend the function to felicitate
and support the retirees. On hearing the Chairman and several board members
speak fondly and with anecdotes of their retiring colleagues I was left with a
very positive impression thinking that this was a forward looking and caring
organisation, something that I have generally not seen.
Most
organisations would host a small departmental party for the retiree and help
the person ride off into the sunset. Unless the person is the Chairman of the
company who does a “victory lap” to every far flung asset of the organisation
anywhere in the country or the world and then flies off into the sunset. The
end result is generally the same – the organisation does nothing to help the
individual prepare for retirement. This applies to the Government employees,
Public sector employees as well as Private sector employees.
The
end game is the same though the number of parties or the number of gifts may
differ based on how senior or junior the retiree is. From the perspective of
the organisation, they have given a “warm farewell” to their colleague while
from the perspective of the retiree, the life has changed as he / she comes to
the end and stepping of the cliff is imminent. Employers must remember that
these retirees have a huge wealth of institutional knowledge and staying
connected with them will help the organisation and the future employees in the
long term.
So
what can organisations do help and support retirees to prepare for life after
retirement?
Management
of time post retirement is a process of adjustment
Most
retirees would have spent two to three decades, working hard for the company
without thinking of their personal lives and must have worked 60 hour weeks,
compromising holidays and family time. Such people are the classic retirees who
will face the most serious challenge on what to do with their time when they
stop working.
Some
forward looking and caring employers are beginning to introduce a process of progressively
slowing down the lives of their employees as they start to reach the age of
superannuation.
I
was delighted to find that in these companies, in the three years prior to
retirement,
- The paid earned leave of an employee is increased by one third of the annual entitlement each year. Therefore, if the annual leave entitlement is 4 weeks, in the third year before retirement, the employee starts to get 5 weeks, in the second year before retirement the leave increases to 6 weeks and in the year of retirement it is 7 weeks. This permits the retiree to internalise what to do with free time and gradually ease himself into his new life.
- Some companies permitted their retirees to move to a flexi time schedule in the last two years before their retirement.
- Other companies allow their retirees to choose their own work timings in the last 6 months before retirement allowing them the time to plan out their personal affairs.
Of
course, the option to take extra leave or flexi time is at the option of the
retiree. What surprised me was that very few retirees took up these offers,
either because of an inherent insecurity about their jobs or because they were
not willing to confront the reality of their retirement and kept trying to delay
acceptance of the inevitable to the very last day!
Financial
and Asset Management
The
single biggest source of worry for retirees is whether their savings will be
enough to take care of their needs as they retire. It is not enough to say that
they should have planned better or that they knew that retirement was
inevitable.
Different
employees would have planned differently. I have met retirees who have invested
a lot of money in buying properties in the belief that they are de-risking
themselves against inflation. They are asset rich but cash poor. There are
others who have saved money and not even bought their own home in the mistaken
belief that they will buy on retirement and when the moment arrives, they
suddenly realise that the house will take a significant chunk of their savings.
Employers
can play a very significant role in helping their employees plan their finances
in their journey to retirement. Enlightened should companies start this process
when an employee is five years away from retirement. Getting professional
guidance to plan finances would be huge service an employer can provide to
their retirees.
Irrespective
of how senior or junior an employee maybe, they need help in planning their
finances post retirement and most individuals, more particularly their spouses,
are not aware of what to expect since they have been used to their monthly pay
cheque. A very large cross section of future retirees have never bothered to
sit down and take stock of the amount of money they have in their corpus nor
have they considered the amount of money they will need to meet monthly
expenses post retirement. Employers can select and empanel credible financial
consultants and ask them to hold camps during office hours so that future
retirees can ask questions that have never been able to before. This would be
great start in helping retirees to start their planning process.
Most
retirees, who have not invested in buying their home will need help to decide
what on the kind of home they can afford based on the current and future cash
flows. For those retirees who have purchased their own property, it is
important to explain to them the need to keep their home in their own name or
that of the spouse and not transfer it to their children as long as one of the
two partners is alive. There have been far too many cases of elderly parents
being “thrown out” of their homes by their children.
Most
people have not bothered to sit down and write their Will. This is another area
which needs urgent planning and enlightened employers can assist in the
process. Most of us assume that after the primary earner passes away, the
wealth will automatically go to the spouse. This is not necessarily true and
there are thousands of cases in Court where these matters are under dispute
simply because clearly defined Wills were not prepared. It is always a good
practice for both spouses must write their Will and keep it away in a Bank locker.
Skilling
Post Retirement
Enlightened
employers can take several steps to help their retirees to re-skill themselves.
Re-employment
in the company – Companies could support those
employees who wish to continue working with re-employment offers. This could be
in the form of consulting assignments or fixed term contracts. Such options
work sometimes though most times, the re-employed retirees resent the fact that
people who were junior to them while they were employed are now senior to them
and this could lead to conflicts.
Corporate
Social Responsibility – Several
organisations have large CSR budgets and they can ask their retirees to look
after these departments since these retirees have extensive knowledge about the
organisation and would protect the interest of the organisation.
NGO’s
– Several companies support NGO’s as a part of their annual budgets. Retirees
can be encouraged to work with such NGO’s. This process, based on the interest
level of the retirees, can start in the last couple of years before an employee
retires and can continue well past retirement.
In
addition, retirees could also be asked to mentor their successors, beyond the
normal “handing over process” that is followed in all organisations.
I will cover the
subject of Health, Counselling and Support to Spouses in part 2 of this article
titled What Support can Employers give to their Retirees?
*******************
The author is the founder Chairman of
Guardian Pharmacies and the author of 5 best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent.
Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for
an Eye; The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur and The Buck
Stops Here – My Journey from a Manager to an Entrepreneur.
Twitter: @gargashutosh
Instagram: ashutoshgarg56
Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com |
ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com
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