Managing Baby Boomer Retirement When You’re Not Allowed to Ask
With 10,000 people turning 65 every day, employers are grappling with how to handle the exodus.
When a service technician with more than 30 years of tenure at Ingersoll Rand Plc told his bosses he was considering retirement—his knees were no longer strong enough for him to climb rooftops—they created a new job for him and urged him to stay on. Now he works part time from home. Less experienced technicians send him photos of the equipment they need to repair and, using their headsets, confer about how to proceed.
“They’re getting trained, and our older technician, who knows our products so well, can keep working with us for many more years,” says Michelle Murphy, chief diversity officer and vice president for global talent acquisition at the industrial equipment maker. She wants employees in their 50s and 60s, who make up about a third of the company’s workforce, to collaborate with managers about their retirement plans.