On 1^st October 2011, employees will be able to work for as long as they want as the default retirement age is scrapped and "official" retirement age will become a thing of the past.  Our expert Judith Cork has been keeping up with the legislation and has carried out research in England and Wales to establish just how ready people are for the big step....

Judith's research gave a snapshot of retirement readiness in the light of the coalition Government bringing forward the review of the default retirement age.  The questionnaire asked respondents to consider five key areas of "retirement readiness" (work, leisure/activity, relationships, income and planning).

Judith says: "The two sections on Work and Leisure involved respondents considering whether to retire fully, part-time, look at other employment possibilities and generally think about the balance between work and leisure time.  Many indicated they had given little or no thought to these areas. Bearing in mind how poorly some people are planning, providing more information and support about the range of options open to older workers, and helping them to plan a fulfilling older age outside the workplace, could provide mutual benefits to employers and employees alike."

At BeeCLD we've always seen performance management as crucial to a high performing organisation. This legislation will make it even more important for managers to engage in an on-going dialogue with staff about their performance and future plans.  It may even require a difficult conversation!

If employers take responsibility and gear up now by helping their workers with their later life planning, this should in turn help them with their internal workforce planning issues which will become increasingly important if they have an older workforce. 

BeeCLD provide support in the following areas:

•      'Making difficult conversations easy' workshop
•      Performance management, competence development and appraisal training
•      Workforce & retirement planning and retirement coaching