AUT eases transition to retirement for older workers

Auckland University of Technology has 1352 full-time equivalent staff, 763 of whom are teaching staff and 589 are support or allied staff. It has campuses in central Auckland, South Auckland and on the North Shore, as well as a number of small centres serving local communities.

Its workforce tends to be ageing, with staff staying longer than previously and many leaving their jobs through retirement rather than resigning to move to another employer.

Executive assistant to the vice-chancellor, Doug Stevens, says that several years ago AUT recognised that although many staff were approaching retirement, few had thought through the implications or made financial provisions for it. "We saw that AUT might be able to help, so we developed a long-term retirement policy and strategy to encourage and support staff from an early stage in their careers."

He says that the initiative partly grew out of a desire to assist staff to save and plan for retirement and to support them in the transition, and partly to facilitate retirement before staff faced medical or performance issues. It also helped AUT with succession planning.

The AUT retirement strategy includes a number of components aimed at all phases of retirement planning, from educating staff early in their careers through to supporting them for several years after they leave AUT.

These include the "four for five" scheme which allows staff to move towards retirement by working full-time for four years on 80 per cent of their salary and taking the fifth year off (also on 80 per cent salary). They can return to their positions at the end of this time.

Retired staff are also encouraged to return to work as "temps on campus" so that retirement does not have to involve a sudden and dramatic change in lifestyle and income. AUT also benefits by retaining, for a period, the skills and corporate knowledge of retiring staff members.

Doug Stevens says this aspect of the scheme is very successful. "It works incredibly well in that the older staff members are very happy to be still involved with AUT and feel like they're making a useful contribution."

In addition, after people retire they can attend any AUT courses at no cost for three years.

A pilot to test the scheme found that it would meet the needs of AUT staff. Most participants had worked at AUT for 10 years or more and said they had a lot of institutional knowledge that they would like to pass on to younger staff before retiring.

The scheme also provided a valuable chance to taste retired life. For example, one staff member who wished to ease himself into retirement took advantage of the four for five scheme. During his year off at the end of the programme he learned that he was not prepared for life outside work as he had few hobbies or other interests to sustain him, and his social contacts were based around his working life. He returned to his position with a reduced working week and intends to prepare more consciously for full-time retirement.

Doug says the retirement strategy has been positive for staff and for the university. "One benefit is the increased loyalty and commitment that has resulted from people being able to make effective decisions about their retirement," he says.

"I think it may also help us retain experienced staff, as people with certainty around their retirement may keep working for longer. And it certainly helps us retain knowledge through the 'temps on campus' scheme.

"But the most important thing from my point of view is that it really makes a difference to people; we're not doing it solely for economic reasons, we're doing it because it's worthwhile."

This attitude pervades most of AUT's employment practices and has resulted in a committed and diverse workforce.