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Asking about an employees retirement plans

HRAnnieHRAnnie 6 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
For business strategic planning purposes, is it legal to ask an employee who is of retirement age what their plans are for retirement?
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  • 7 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • hrbankerhrbanker 243 Posts
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    I don't see a problem with asking them their plans as long as you don't try to hustle them out the door. We request that our employees give six months notice before retirement to give us time to replace them. I have one who was nice enough to delay her retirement for 8 months in order to help us out.
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  • KD13KD13 44 Posts
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    Yes, you can ask. You do not want to seem as if you are encouraging them to leave however. I have found by explaining the reason behind asking, "planning purposes", the of age employees are more receptive and less suspicious.
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  • Don DDon D 9,834 Posts
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    What does 'of retirement age' mean? I retired from the State when I was 46 but never missed a beat.
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  • HRAnnieHRAnnie 6 Posts
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    Oops, my goof. I guess when I think about it, my "retirement age" was always going to be 45.
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  • mrbillmrbill 89 Posts
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    In a past life, our attorney advised me never to inquire, but I did any way without any problems.
    Companies do have a right to plan.
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  • pork1pork1 1,054 Posts
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    Yes you can ask, but be careful of remarks after the fact. I once had an employer "President" make the statement to me: Well with your military retired pay, we can get you for half pay, right? Having any altery motives for asking is not wise, so don't do it. Ask for planning only, I plan to be here for as long as I am providing a reasonable performance which meets the companies' expectations as considered by the owners and senior leaders. I could very easily die in this chair, while typing all of this good wisdom! I just hope it will not be today!

    PORK
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  • WhirlwindWhirlwind 882 Posts
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    Year before last, our state legislature enacted a retirement incentive for state employees that would cost agencies a bunch of money but encourage people to retire on their first date of eligibility. We needed to know how much this was going to cost us, so we looked at age and service records to estimate who would be eligible within the two year incentive period. I sent them all a form letter that said something like, "Hi - Looks like you might be eligible to retire with the new incentive within the next two years. So that we can plan accordingly, we're inviting you to voluntarily inform us of your plans." Then we had a couple of fill-in-the blanks asking whether and when. It worked well. We got a lot of valuable information and the employees liked having everything out in the open so they could get some help with their paperwork and planning.
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