Retirement age – who needs one?

Did you know that the UK has no official retirement age?

Although age legislation introduced a default age of 65 this is not mandatory and telling people they must retire at a certain age doesn’t always make good business sense. According to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, it costs as much as £8,200 to replace an employee lost in this way.

As well as being costly, having a fixed retirement age can also mean an unnecessary loss of skills and know-how.

A lot of employers are taking a more flexible approach to retirement – so their business doesn’t lose key workers and individuals can have a say in when they retire.

Many sectors are experiencing skills shortages so ignoring older employees or making them retire when there is no need is making matters worse, especially if you consider that the number of older people is increasing.

Since 1997, the number of people choosing to work past state pension age has risen by more than one million.

There are an increasing number of employers who are keen to recruit and keep staff with valuable skills and experience.

By adopting flexible approaches to retirement - such as enabling employees to have flexible hours or work part time – they have been able to retain those staff for longer.

So don’t discount implementing flexible working or flexible retirement options because you think they are too difficult or costly.

Employers agree there are some challenges, but the benefits in terms of retention of skills, reduced recruitment costs and the filling of vacancies by opening up a wider pool of recruits, bring valuable results.

Consider whether you can offer flexible retirement options. You may be able to use some or all of the following to help staff move gradually from working into retirement:

  • part-time working or reduced hours
  • home working
  • flexi-time
  • temporary or seasonal contracts
  • compressed hours
  • jobsharing
  • taking on a different role, perhaps with less responsibility

There is lot more information available about the age legislation and how business can benefit from flexible retirement and become more age positive, including a guide book offering practical information, case studies and answers to questions about Flexible Retirement on the Age Positive website.