Encouraging Your Elderly Employees to Retire with Purpose Retirement is a daunting inevitability to many elderly employees throughout the United States and the world. One of the main concerns is that the retiree will become increasingly bored and isolated until that fateful day comes. For many retirees though, this has never happened, and life has never been so exciting and fulfilling. As an employer, you may feel it’s your responsibility to help your elderly staff transition into retirement. This takes more than ensuring they have a suitable workplace retirement plan, such as a Simple IRA or some sort of combination plan. You may need to dedicate some time to sitting down with your elderly employees and helping them to find a way they can retire with purpose. Here are some tips for helping elderly employees transition comfortably into retirement, and to ensure they feel fulfilled in doing so. Help them to Identify their Passion Most people when asked their passion will begin by talking about their job, this is because we often find aspects of our passion within certain roles in our community. Identifying the core of the passion can inform us about the true calling of the individual, and can help them in seeking that sense of fulfillment beyond their career. Your elderly employees will generally be more honest than other employees, and will happily state their likes and dislikes to those who listen. What they Like About their Job Begin by asking your elderly employees what they like about their job, or perhaps what they like about the workplace. This can give you an idea of what their general desires are, perhaps they like giving advice, in which case they may benefit from becoming a mentor. Whereas if they enjoy reading and responding to correspondence, then they may have closet aspirations to become a writer. Encourage them to Explore this Passion Once you’ve helped them to identify the core passion behind what they enjoy doing, you should encourage them to explore their options within their passion. For example, if your marketing director has always had an affinity for painting, then this may be the time for them to explore that side of themselves. There are many different passions which can translate into other roles in our society, such as:  A passion for teaching or advising could translate into becoming a mentor  A passion for creating could translate into any of the various arts or crafts  A passion for learning can be encouraged and enhanced by further education There is no right or wrong way to retire, so if you have an elderly employee who has been in a leadership position their whole life who wants to try expressing themselves creatively, then encourage that too. You may also consider hiring a speaker to talk to them about their workplace retirement plan and their plans for their retirement. Focus on Family In older societies, the elderly were relied upon as the main caregivers of the very young children of the village. With the way the world has changed, this isn’t considered necessary anymore, and many elderly people can feel excluded from the family model because of this. If you have elderly employees who have grandchildren, then you’ve probably already heard about them. Those employees may benefit from taking a bigger role in the lives of their children and children’s children. Of course this should be mutually desired, as you don’t want to encourage anyone to insert themselves into the lives of others. Though many modern parents would probably benefit from having an extra pair of hands around at times. While the suggestion may come from you as the employer, the discussion between the employee and their family should remain as such, just between them. Ensuring they’re Equipped to Handle Retirement Regardless of whether they’re on a combination plan or a more simple workplace retirement plan, your employee will be concerned that they may run out of money during retirement. This is in fact the biggest fear when it comes to retirement, as the average cost of retiring in America is between $900,000 and $1,100,000 (source). While there is only so much you can do as an employer, there are several ways to supplement retirement which you could either advise or assist with. They are:  Investing in stocks which pay dividends, or municipal bonds which pay a % per annum  Investing in real estate to rent out  Healthy living as a way of mitigating medical bills Other than these, there are some ways that they can reduce the cost of their retirement, such as moving to a different state or country with cheaper living costs. Setting them Up with the Best Plan The best way to help your staff prepare for retirement is by ensuring they’re on the best possible plan for their position. Remember that simple plans are effective, but if they’re in an executive position they may benefit more from a combination plan. For help with figuring out which plan will best suit your employee, get in touch with us today.