Do You Plan to Work After Retiring?

The one thing that we’ve always looked forward to since we were mid-career, is the luxury of retirement and the knowledge that we would never have to work anymore. Some retirees will be financially set; allowing them the option to return to the work force simply because they enjoy it. Others will find it a necessity due to inadequate retirement funds or planning.

With an estimated 12% of current workers stating that they don’t think that they will ever be able to retire, companies will need to do some short and long term evaluations of their workforce.

A 2013 survey by CareerBuilder showed that sixty percent of the workers aged 60 and older will place themselves back on the job market due to their financial situations. This is a 5% increase over 2012.

The good news is that the study also showed that more companies are welcoming mature workers into their companies. A few short years ago, many over the age of 50 were considered ‘unhireable’ due to the perception of being untrainable and nonproductive. Since the economy has been slowly improving, the lack of (available) quality talent has been the catalyst for the change in thinking.

Hiring Managers have determined that the value of these ‘old-timers’ has been underrated. These very experienced workers have already been trained on industry computer programs, are already connected to social media and are in touch with current technology.

My predictions for the next five years:

• More value will be placed on Senior Salespeople and Managers due to their ability to mentor and train new and recent hires.
• As companies continue to be presented with remote-work options, there will be more viable opportunities for ‘seasoned’ workers to work from home offices.
• We will see a significant growth in independent contractor/1099 hires. This is a win for older workers (more opportunities) and it will enable companies to keep headcount up but salary and benefit expenses low.
• Companies will develop plans and strategies to retain or hire mature workers to balance their early- and mid-career employees.

Whether one wants to or needs to work later in life shouldn’t have an impact in the way they are perceived. Everyone has a value; it’s up to individual companies to determine that worth. Old World wisdom combined with the fast-paced way of doing business now and in the future will make for a great partnership; we just need to embrace it.