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Article review week 5

Transition into Retirement

June 9, 2013

The company IBM has begun a new alternative to retirement for its employees. This program is called "Transition to Retirement”, and is geared toward employees that are near retirement.

The program, would cut a workers schedule and pay, but continue providing full benefits until the job guarantee's expiration date. The program, described in a letter addressed to IBM managers, "offers participants 70% of their pay for working 60% of their schedule." 

The new program allows managers to forecast their workplace needs and plan better for transition. Employees enrolling in the program may be exempt from any resource actions that may occur during the program period. This is a great way for employees to transition into retirement and a way to help IBM with cut backs. In my option it is a "win" situation.  

The concept of retirement is still being met but it is being done in a more creative way. The employees that participate in the new program must retire before the end of the year in order for the program to be successful. It allows IBM to ease their fears of layoffs.  I like the idea of a program that helps with workplace rebalancing. This type of program helps the economy because these workers don’t have to be laid off. Many companies have tried to force employees into early retirement with the treat of layoffs. This leaves many people out of work earlier than they had planned and forced to look for other means of income.

With a program like this one, those who are "transitioning into retirement", can assist with the training and development of the workers who will take their place. Some may be able to take the skills learned with them to other ventures and post retirement places. This week we talked about the differences between retirement plans and the methods of how they work. This type of program was not mentioned in our discussion, however maybe it should have been. If more companies used...