BusinessWeek

Busi­ness­Week cov­ers a best prac­tice in a top­ic of grow­ing impor­tance: how large com­pa­nies can retain old­er work­ers in pro­duc­tive ways beyond a set arbi­trary retire­ment age.

Issue: Retir­ing Employ­ees, Lost Knowl­edge (Busi­ness Week)
A pilot pro­gram at Amer­i­can Express gives soon-to-be retirees less work and more time to pass along their exper­tise to younger generations

- “Before long, the group made an impor­tant dis­cov­ery: Not only would a huge num­ber of employ­ees become eli­gi­ble for retire­ment in the next five to 10 years, the com­pa­ny had done lit­tle to retain the wealth of insti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge they would be tak­ing with them. From the intri­ca­cies of key client rela­tion­ships to main­frame com­put­er lan­guages no longer being taught in school, many expe­ri­enced work­ers pos­sessed crit­i­cal know-how that, if lost, would be costly—if not impossible—for the com­pa­ny to replace.”

- “These para­me­ters helped shape the Amer­i­can Express phased-retire­ment pro­gram, an ini­tia­tive launched in pilot mode dur­ing [Read more…] about Retain old­er work­ers beyond retirement