Can’t retire, won’t retire. What are the employer options?

It used to be so simple didn’t it? Work, fill up pension pot, take retirement at 60 or 65, draw pension and take endless holidays.

Not so nowadays. Some would say that the way we work leads to multiple careers, several pensions and/or Insurance policies and a ‘live for today’ attitude. The demographics also mean that the workforce is ageing and employers can no longer ‘dismiss’ employees at their normal retirement date.

There are a multitude of consequences that come out of this mix and one of them is that an employee won’t retire, for whatever reason.  There could be an issue around poor performance which, in the past, managers would have ignored with the expectation the employee was due to retire at a given date in the near future.  Nowadays, managers can tend to shy away from dealing with issues like this for fear of reprisal –  a potential lethal and expensive mix if not managed correctly.

There are many guidelines on offer for this, and other scenarios, but the bottom line is that a sensible and structured workplace discussion must take place that opens up the dialogue about the employee’s future plans, so that they can be dealt with in an agreed and adult fashion.

Its fair to say that no two situations will be the same but if you do have a potential case coming up then why not call one of our HR experts  who can support and advise you throughout.