The removal of the default retirement age (DRA) means that older, longer-serving employees can now remain in the workforce for longer.   For some employers this may not be good news, they would prefer to provide opportunities for new younger employees but for others retirement can mean a loss of difficult to replace talents, skill sets, and knowledge and therefore hanging on to these valuable employees for as long as possible is important.

Whatever your view as an employer you need to be adaptable and flexible to meet the changing needs of your workforce and refine your performance management processes accordingly.

Consider for example John’s employee, Robin.  Robin is approaching 65 years of age and has worked for the John’s company for 10 years.  The company has had a relaxed and informal working atmosphere; however Robin who is in a customer facing sales role is no longer performing as well as he used to and doesn’t seem to be as motivated.  John thinks ordinarily Robin should have been retiring but retirement is no longer a fair reason for dismissal.

How should John deal with Robin?s under performance at this stage?  Catch next week’s blog to find out!