Employee Separation

Causes

•    Retirement

- Mandatory
- Voluntary

•    Death
•    Lay offs, redundancy, retrenchment
•    Discharge/dismissal
•    Voluntary quits/resignation
Employees are terminated/separated from an organisation using the above methods

1. RETIREMENT:

May be defined as the exist from an organisation or career path of a considerable duration, taken by individuals after middle age and with an intention of reducing psychological commitment to work.
Types of retirement: -
There are two types of retirement: -

i) Mandatory retirement

It is also known as fixed/compulsory retirement. This form of retirement employees are compulsorily retired after attaining the retirement age set by organisation 50,60 etc.

Benefits of Mandatory Retirement

•    It is simple to administer with no complications to prove that older people no longer meet the job requirements.
•    Openings are created to which younger employees can advance.
•    Human resource planning is facilitated when retirement schedules are known.
•    It stimulates employees to make plans for retirement in advance of a known date.

Disadvantages of Mandatory Retirement

•    Fixed retirement age will often lead to a ‘short time’ attitude in the years just prior to retirement ‘short timers’ tend to be less committed to the organisations challenges or problems and may even ‘retire’ on the job.
•    Fixed retirement age may also lead an organisation to suffer losses or lower productivity when there highly experienced personnel leave.


Voluntary Retirement/Flexible retirement

It refers to the type of retirement whereby organisations allow employees to retire voluntarily before attaining the mandatory retirement age. Early retirement may be on medical grounds or inducement to retire under structural adjustment programmes e.g. Golden handshakes.

Managing The Retirement Process
This involves designing programmes intended to prepare prospective retirees prior to and after retirement.
Pre-Retirement Programmes.
Are basically conducted with the intention of reducing anxiety associated with retirement. Lack of pre-retirement programmes for employees to prepare employees psychologically and emotionally may lead to damage of their physical and mental health.

Pre- retirement programmes in terms of cancelling are therefore given to educate employees on the benefit of retirement and also actively facilitate effective transition from the working to the retirement role.

Administrating a pre-retirement programme.

The following instructional devices are used to: -

•    Organising group meetings where expert speakers are invited to speak on certain areas eg a lawyer to speak on estate taxes, a doctor to speak on health problems of senior citizens, a state employment service represented to speak on availability of part time jobs etc.
•    Meetings may be held with former retirees for an informal exchange on the problems of switching roles
•    Work sessions are conducted where a potential retiree is asked to fill out a personal affairs check list so that retirement income can be estimated. In relation to that income a prospective budget can be worked out.
•    Some organisations may provide access to a library with materials on retirement as well as subscribing to publications on retirement planning.
•    In large organisations specialised counsellors may be provided to counsel individuals on problems of adjustment.
•    Training programmes may be conducted for running small business.

Benefits of Retirement Programmes to the Organisation and Society at large:-
Pre-retirement programmes can provide considerable value for the organisation and society.

Benefits to the Organisation

•    Successful retirees are walking ambassadors of goodwill for the organisation.
•    Productivity of prospective retirees prior to retirement are enhanced because of the lessening of anxiety about the future.

Benefits to the Society

•    Retirees possess a valuable societal resource:-
•    A daily supply of free time. Programmes that inform prospective retirees of places where they can continue to serve in voluntary organisation enhance society’s wealth.
•    Programs that enable greater self reliance and self sufficiency in financial planning can do much to reduce the burden of the society for taking care of old age citizens.