A staggering 82 percent of employers offering pre-retirement support agree that it successfully aids knowledge transfer to others to help avoid brain drain.
Also, 22 percent of employees facing retirement would consider delaying retirement if they had better access to retraining/skills development.
In addition, 22 percent wish they had received access to later-stage career planning earlier in their careers
However, just over 11 percent of those facing retirement have received later-stage career development opportunities.
What challenges does the brain drain present for organisations?
A staggering 49 percent of organisations say they face challenges around brain drain and the loss of key skills as employees retire, according to a new study by Renovo, specialists in supporting employers and employees through redundancy and retirement planning.
Pre-retirement support
The research highlighted a major issue within organisations – not offering pre-retirement support and reskilling opportunities to employees.
Even though 22 percent of employees facing retirement would consider delaying it if they had better access to retraining, less than four in 10 (37%) employers are upskilling employees later in their career and just over a third (35%) of employers offer late-stage skills development as part of their pre-retirement support.
This issue occurs in spite of the fact that employee retirement habits are changing, with 54 percent of employers agreeing that more employees are delaying retirement, while 55 percent agree that more employees are opting for gradual retirement.
Initial survey questions were completed by 629 HR professionals and company directors. Of those surveyed, 253 respondents currently provide pre-retirement support to employees.
Of 986 employees surveyed, 256 have utilised pre-retirement support from their employer within the last 5 years.
Chris Parker, Managing Director of Renovo, explains: “It is evident that employee habits are changing, which in many ways should have reduced the impact of brain drain. However, many employers are still facing those issues, yet are not proactively helping mitigate the risks nor retaining key talent. While 22 percent of employees wish they had received access to later-stage career planning earlier in their career, just over 11 percent have received that kind of career development opportunity.”
Delaying retirement
The research also shows that employees would consider delaying retirement if offered further incentives – 54 percent wished to have access to more flexible working options, 39 percent wished they had the opportunity to work remotely, 12 percent wished they had increased promotional opportunities, while 17 percent wished they had an ability to mentor and support others.
Encouragingly, over half (52%) of employers agree that more employees approaching retirement are mentoring other employees.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
