Careers Archives

Retirement Plans Are an Essential Part of Employee Well-being

April 19, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 1 Comment

(Editor’s Note: We’re happy to share with you a post originally published on HR Bartender and brought to you by our friends at Conduent HR Services. They provide advisory, technology, and administration solutions to help companies manage and engage employees. Enjoy the post!)

One of the things that I like about being in the human resources profession is the variety. Not just from the standpoint of the many different HR functions: recruiting and onboarding, training and development, compensation, etc. but from the variety of professional backgrounds that transition into HR careers. Organizations have an opportunity to harness a variety of knowledge and skills for the benefit of the workforce.

For example, I know marketing and operations professionals that have transitioned into HR. Another area is actuarial science. Now you might be saying – actuarial science?! Yes, it’s true. I recently had the chance to chat with Dean Aloise, global consulting leader for Conduent HR Services. He’s responsible for leading the retirement, investment counseling, and risk management teams in the U.S. But before becoming an HR professional, he was the operations leader for a major actuarial firm.

I was so intrigued with Dean’s professional journey that I asked if he would share his story and insights about human resources with us. Luckily, he said yes.

Dean, I was immediately intrigued by your background, particularly your actuarial firm experience. How did that translate into working in HR?

[Aloise] Actuarial science, particularly as it relates to valuing the liabilities of a pension plan, is a critical need in managing the retirement benefit programs for many organizations that sponsor a defined benefit pension plan. For some organizations, this is a key component of their benefits package, thus it’s an important part of the overall employee value proposition. So, while being a pension actuary is how I got into HR, as I gained exposure to other areas of HR, my interests and activities expanded into all other aspects of HR, which led to my career advancement.

You mentioned defined benefits plans. I know one of your areas of expertise is in the area of retirement planning. There are lots of articles these days on the topic of retirement – ranging from whether people are retiring (versus transitioning to an encore career) to the financial considerations of retirement. How do you see the retirement conversation having an impact on HR?

[Aloise] This is indeed a critical area for employees these days, and HR must lead the way in helping their employees achieve the best possible outcome for themselves and for their organization. HR needs to approach this strategically, understanding that the changing dynamics of retirement (employees are working longer, living longer, and seeking various ways to phase into retirement) should be embraced. By supporting their employees in this changing dynamic, HR will be in the best position to properly succession plan, but also do right by their people in helping them to achieve a successful retirement outcome.

Thinking about and planning for retirement can have a huge impact on employee well-being. Should HR consider retirement planning a part of their well-being programs? And if so, what would help employees better prepare for retirement?

[Aloise] Well-being must be thought of as TOTAL well-being, which includes the health, wealth (retirement), and career development of employees, as well as community and social engagement, and even spiritual elements. Traditional wellness or well-being programs initially were primarily focused on only one aspect of well-being—physical health—and this likely explains why many employers haven’t achieved the results they seek. The well-being programs of the future will achieve greater results by focusing on all five of the elements I mentioned.

Looking more closely at my area of initial focus—wealth—up until now we have focused exclusively, or nearly exclusively on accumulating wealth to fund a traditional retirement. But today, given the dramatic economic and social changes that have impacted the workplace, HR should be expanding beyond assisting employees with retirement planning and instead help them achieve greater levels financial well-being.

HR has the opportunity to educate senior management on trends in retirement and planning during the annual operational planning and budgeting process. What trends are you seeing that HR needs to keep on their radar?

[Aloise] Adding a meaningful financial well-being program into employees’ benefit offerings is a key trend. HR should be looking for what vendors are offering in this area, issuing requests for proposal (RFPs) and taking different programs for a test drive. Another trend that has been with us for a while now, but that continues to gain momentum thanks to continuing advances in technology, is supporting employees—and their families—in making more informed decisions about their benefits, not just when it’s time to choose their benefits but year-round, when they are using those benefits to meet their physical and financial well-being needs.

Out of curiosity, are the conversations and trends we see in the U.S. about retirement and well-being the same conversations that are happening globally?

[Aloise] The nuances around retirement readiness and financial well-being vary by country, as social security programs, employer and individual practices vary significantly. Some countries like France have robust programs that lessen the severity of the retirement readiness issue, while other countries like the U.K. share fully in the ‘grey tsunami’ risks and concerns such that the U.S. is seeing in the very near future. The dynamics of individual, company-provided and social security retirement programs overlaps come into play in a big way when looking at retirement issues globally.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Employee well-being must include health, career, and retirement – @DeanAloise” quote=”Employee well-being must include health, career, and retirement – @DeanAloise” theme=”style3″]

At this time, we are finalizing the results of the seventh edition of our global wellness survey, Working Well—only this year we have dubbed it the Global Survey of Workplace Well-Being Strategies, reflecting the trends I discussed earlier. Among our survey’s findings is that implementing a global well-being strategy is challenging, due to the variability in culture, laws, and practices across regions. This holds true not just for retirement plans, as I mentioned above, but also for physical wellness and financial well-being programs.

What is consistent around the world are the reasons for supporting employees’ well-being: improving worker performance and productivity and attracting and retaining employees. Clearly, employers believe that the well-being of their employees is critical to the organization’s success.

I want to thank Dean for sharing his expertise with us. I believe organizations must start viewing retirement as more than just a program they offer employees. And, as an increasing number of organizations adopt a global business strategy, it will be important to understand well-being in a global context.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Key West, FL

If Athletes Can Unretire, So Can You

April 12, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 1 Comment

Since we’ve started this blog, I’ve become very aware of the word “unretirement”.

Do you know where the word unretirement (or unretire) shows up a lot? In sports. Professional athletes decide to retire and then unretire. Some famous sports figures who’ve unretired include Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Roger Clemens, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Bjorn Borg. It made me realize that if athletes can unretire, then so can we.

There’s no rule that says once we retire, we have to stay retired. If you define your current status as retired and want to do more, do it. If in a few years, you decide that you’ve had enough and want to do something else or just retire, that’s fine too.

I believe that’s the beauty of unretirement.

I will say though, that this approach takes a little thought and planning. Like athletes, we have to decide if we’re both physically and mentally able to perform a task that may be required in unretirement. Athletes cannot play a sport forever. They know it. But they might be able to transition into a role that allows them to use their existing knowledge and skills in a new way. Like the athlete that becomes a coach or a broadcaster. Troy Aikman and Cris Collingsworth are examples. A big potential unretiree for 2017-2018 is former Dallas star quarterback (now CBS sportscaster) Tony Romo.

We also have to be honest with ourselves about how much we want to do something. Just because we’ve done a job for years doesn’t mean we have to keep doing it in our unretirement. It’s okay to try something new. If former Seattle Seahawks star running back Marshawn Lynch can unretire from football and make chocolate bars, then you can totally make a change too.

Unretirement isn’t a new concept. Maybe using the word “unretire” is. I think what’s new is giving ourselves permission to officially unretire and pursue something we really enjoy.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while wandering the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland

6 Reasons You Should Embrace #Unretirement

April 5, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 4 Comments

Over on my other blog, HR Bartender, I recently wrote about the reasons that human resources professionals should embrace the concept of unretirement. But it occurred to me as I was writing the post that individuals looking at their future might not be totally convinced that the concept of unretirement is right for them.

So, I came up with a list of reasons that someone might use to decide if they should think about unretirement as an option.

You like working. According to Gallup, 2 out of 3 employees are disengaged. We spend so much time focused on the disengaged statistic that we forget 1 out of 3 ARE engaged. There are plenty of people in this world that their passion is their work. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe at some point, those engaged employees will simply want to work less. And organizations will be thrilled to retain their expertise.

You want to finally do your dream job. While I understand that I just finished talking about employees who are happy with their jobs, let’s face it, some of us like our professions and we’re good at them, but it’s not our dream job. Unretirement allows us to get the education we want to pursue our encore career.

You want to make a little extra money. Regardless of how much money you have and what’s going on with Social Security and Medicare, we have to think about living on a budget. Which means that having the ability to make a little extra money might be attractive. Maybe it’s for a trip you’ve always wanted to take. Or a little splurge – like shoes and handbags.

You’re ready to give back. When we’re busy climbing the corporate ladder and raising children, volunteering can move lower on the priority list. Now it’s time. It could be mentoring someone in your industry or volunteering to be an usher at your local theatre. The point is, that carving out time to give back to the community that supported you is important.

You want to learn something new. If you aren’t looking for an encore career, you might want to take up a new hobby. It might be to play an instrument or learn a language or take up crocheting. Maybe there’s something that’s been on your ‘to-do’ list for a long time and you want to make it happen.

You want to pass along your knowledge and skills. This kinda goes along with #4 about giving back. Whether that’s coaching someone inside the company you work for or by sharing your experiences writing a blog/book, unretirement allows you to do those things.

Unretirement says that there’s no pre-determined age restrictions on living life. Of course, there are government retirement-related programs and you’ll want to understand how those work. That doesn’t mean that life stops. However, unretirement takes planning both in terms of figuring out what you want the future to look like and designing a road map to get there.

Image captured by Keith Lauby on the streets of San Francisco, CA

Why Unretirement and Why It’s Important

February 1, 2017 by Keith Lauby 8 Comments

We remember what retirement used to look like. One day, you just stop working and start retiring – living off your company pension with a little help from Social Security. That’s what our parents did. Today, for the most part, all of that has changed.

To help us understand, we might want to look at what retirement really is. The Cambridge Dictionary defines retirement as “the point at which someone stops working”. If we accept that as the true definition of retirement, we can then understand the need for something new. The need for unretirement.

Unretirement is the move from working full-time to working . . . less. But it’s more than that. It’s working, but doing something we want to do. And getting paid for it. Most of all, unretirement is earning the opportunity to live on our own terms.

Best of all? It’s exactly what the labor market wants from us.

Right now, ten thousand people reach retirement age every day according to a recent Pew Research study. The National Institute on Aging reports that, on average, only 33 percent of retirees continue working full-time. The result is a growing labor shortage that is creating a real need for our skills.

In most cases, businesses don’t want to hire more and more full-time employees. But they are looking for skilled workers who want to help out and take on some of the work. This is called the gig economy, and finance company Intuit predicts that, by 2020, 40 percent of U.S. workers will fall into this category. In fact, entire enterprises such as Lyft and Airbnb have risen out of gig employment.

That’s where unretirement comes in. It’s identifying that encore career and understanding the best way for it to fit into our retirement life. Wikipedia defines encore career as “work in the second half of life that combines continued income, greater personal meaning, and social impact.”

Unretirement is also focusing on our health and wellness so we can get the most out of the fun things we want to do in retirement. We may have to upgrade a skill or two along the way. But no successful unretirement comes without a cost.

It’s time for a fresh perspective about life after work. It’s time for unretirement.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while traveling in Maui, HI