Changes in retirement age pose an organizational and incentive challenge for companies
The lack of definition of the expected retirement age generates a very different framework of relationship
Japan is considering raising the retirement age to 70. The fact is that extending working life, whether compulsory or voluntary, is becoming an international trend that, at one time, reached Spain, by placing the retirement age progressively closer to 67 years.
Although on paper these types of changes may simply represent a legal change in a figure (the retirement age ), in reality they entail a wide range of repercussions for the australia email list 7.6 millions contact leads company . Among these, those that affect the incentives of both companies and workers are of particular interest .
The lack of definition of the retirement age
There are different concepts regarding retirement age . For example, there is a difference between the effective retirement age and the legal retirement age . There is even early retirement , a mechanism that allows a worker who is no longer providing services to receive a salary without being legally retired.
Pre-retirement is a very important aspect of retirement. One question is when a person is officially registered as retired, and another is when the moment of retirement is in the minds of that person and those responsible for the company. The latter is of enormous importance, since it determines, beyond legal qualifications, the actions of both.
On the other hand, retirement can, for many workers, be reflected in more than one moment in time. For example, some do so progressively through partial retirement . Others do so early . There are even cases (still few) of people who, after a period of retirement, end up thinking that their best option is to return to work. And, additionally, there are options to make receiving benefits compatible with a job .
It is also important to note that not all retirements are linked to age . For example, permanent disability pensions are linked to situations of illness, accident and, in general terms, reduction or loss of working capacity.
Whatever the concept of retirement we are using, we must take into account another important difference: the one between expectations and what ultimately happens. For example, an employee may believe that he will retire at a certain age, but after some time he finds that he has retired later or earlier than expected.
In that sense, context is very important.
If, for example, a worker observes that 95% of workers in similar circumstances to his or hers retire between the ages of 59 and 61, it is reasonable for him or her to think that he or she will retire around the age of 60. If, on the other hand, 95% retire between the ages of 50 and 70, even if the expected retirement age were still around 60, that date loses meaning, since there is a very wide margin.
If the legal framework and economic context surrounding retirement changes rapidly, the value of expectations about the time of retirement decreases for both the company and the employee. In practical terms, a relationship with a more or less foreseen end date becomes one for an indefinite period (or one that is difficult to define).
The challenge of worker loss of capabilities
As time goes by, the worker's abilities change. They do so positively as a result, fundamentally, of experience and continuous training . However, this does not represent a very important challenge, since work contact reveals them and, above all, because it is at the beginning of the relationship when the greatest progress is made. Once the employee has already learned, improvements occur more and more slowly.
