As we reported in our entry of 29 June 2011, the default retirement age was to be scrapped with effect from October 2011.
Now we are living with no default retirement age, what are employers now doing?
A survey of employers’ attitudes to the abolition of the statutory retirement procedure suggests that the majority of employers are doing without a default retirement age. The survey of senior HR professionals in the UK, reveals, among other things, that only 3% of employers intend to retain a default retirement age, and 22% believe they now have less capacity to take on younger employees.
The survey’s results findings include:
• 46% of employers felt that the phasing out of the default retirement age will have a negative impact on their business, making it harder to manage older employees out of the business
• 86% of employers are letting employees over the age of 65 continue in the same role
• nearly half of employers are considering flexible working arrangements for over 65s
• nearly half of respondents who have changed how they discuss retirement with employees now wait for staff to bring up the issue, while a quarter now use their appraisal system
• 76% of respondents have not given line managers any additional training on retirement conversations
• only 11% of employers recognise the potential benefit of retaining experienced employees more easily.
We would also be really interested to hear what your views are on these issues. If you would like to share these, please comment below.