Hanging On to Retirees

July 24, 2008 at 08:00 PM
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If employers want to hold onto their employees, they have a narrow window of up to two years in which they may be able to change retiring workers' decisions by offering them a "toolkit" of incentives to remain with the company, according to results of a recent survey of the aerospace and defense industries released by the Washington, D.C.-based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Making workers feel needed, offering them a full or partial pension while working part time and making seasonal or contract work available, were the most important incentives, the survey reported. But nearly two-thirds, or 63%, of the retirees surveyed also said that these incentives would have been even more effective if the retirees had known about them in the two years before they communicated their intention to retire.

The survey also found that monetary incentives were not the only reason why employees would consider remaining with their companies. Indeed, 48% of retirees said that feeling truly needed was very important to them, and a strong reason not to leave their jobs.

The EBRI 2008 Recent Retirees Survey was based on responses from 4,981 workers in aerospace and defense industry companies who retired in 2003 or later and are currently between the ages of 55 and 65.

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