Are Companies Ready for Baby Boomers to Retire?
Earlier this week the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP released a poll that showed U.S. employers are ramping up skills training and employee benefits aimed at closing the skills gap when the baby boomers retire. Read the rest of this entry »
An Income Gap for Baby Boomers During Career Transitions
New research from Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank aimed at baby boomers who want to combine work with social purpose illuminates some of the challenges to doing so. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Official, We’re Delaying Retirement
If there was any doubt retirement is being delayed it became clearer on Tuesday. Concerned about rising health care costs and not having saved enough, forty percent of U.S. workers are planning to delay retirement according to a new study by Towers Watson.
Those most immediately affected are older workers and those in pooerr health who are afraid of losing their healthcare coverage.
Workers who plan to delay retirement expect they will be on the job at least three years longer than originally anticipated. Over half the 9,000 respondents surveyed in May and June have also cut back on their spending.
“The economic crisis has had a deep effect on employees’ attitudes toward retirement and especially on risk … workers continue to have a fear that they won’t be able to afford retirement,” said David Speier, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson. “Despite the signs that some employees are saving more, spending less and reducing debt as the economy stabilizes, workers continue to have a fear that they won’t be able to afford retirement — and that will have significant implications on companies’ ability to plan their future workforce needs,” he continued.
Tags: career transitions, Retirement
Civic Ventures, Encore Careers and the Purpose Prize
Marc Freedman heads a unique organization in San Francisco called Civic Ventures. It’s a think tank that promotes careers that combine continued income, greater meaning and social impact. And in his view, baby boomers will revolutionize retirement and transform the country. His book Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life (Public Affairs 2007), which describes the possibilities, has taken on new relevance since its publication.
Instead of a traditional retirement of leisure, Mr. Freedman is advocating baby boomers undertake a significant second career of in an area of social importance. And he makes a compelling case. In Encore he offers specific illustrations of individuals who heeded that call, and moved onto areas what they consider “greater purpose.” One example is Jacqueline Khan who went from truant officer to critical care nurse. Another is Robert Chambers who went from owning a car dealership to becoming a social entrepreneur.
Paradoxically, the stifled economy may have given a lift to Mr. Freedman’s thesis. He says the downturn has provided a climate for individuals to reassess their values and priorities. “There’s a reevaluation of what constitutes success,” he said, pointing to a disillusionment many are feeling about corporate America.
Still, despite considerable research that shows baby boomers are seeking a combination of fulfillment and want to remain engaged Freedman says that there are challenges to embracing what he calls purposeful work. Why? “You are often pretty much on your own in initiating this kind of career shift,” he says. To help with the transition, Civic Ventures, is again funding a $100,000 Purpose Prize for those over sixty in second careers who are inventing new ways of solving social problems. The deadline for the application is March 5, 2010. Self nominations are allowed.
For those just beginning to contemplate “an encore” Mr. Freedman suggests trying to think about a career trajectory longer than one you might have previously anticipated. “Reset the time horizon,” he said, and think about your life as a body of work.
Retirement, Previously Known As Work
Retirement as a time of extended leisure may well be ending for some. As Michael Winerip recently reported back in 1988, only 11% of people 65 and older were still working. As recently as two years ago, 16.8% of those 65 and older were still working.
Now, with nest eggs depleted from the Great Recession, and a collective desire to remain engaged, there’s a new study out from the Department of Labor that looks ahead to 2018 when those 65 and older will be mostly boomers. And Mitra Toossi, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that 22.4% of them are expected to still be working.
The issue is drawing attention. This week The New York Times has a story which shows what a delayed retirement might look like. And The Economist weighs in on what’s ahead as businesses learn to master managing an aging workforce.
For a generation where both genders entered the workplace in record numbers, and grappled with work/family responsibilities, it may be time to break out the cartography tools once again. There’s only a sketchy road map of what its like to be “Working Retired” to use the phrase coined by Mark Penn in Microtrends.
This week we’ll be taking a look at some of the issues surrounding this new concept of retirement that was previously known as work.
Tags: Retirement, Working
