Policy overview
We recognise and value the contributions made by the people who work for us. As part of this, we are committed to embracing innovative working practices to:
- achieve excellence in service provision
- excellent work-life balance
- recognise the choices in the length of working lives
Some employees may wish to transfer from work to retirement on a gradual basis.
We are committed to having a flexible approach to retirement. There are benefits for employees and us alike. We value the expertise, skills and knowledge of our people. By adopting this approach, we can retain those skills and expertise.
We can put in place a planned approach for retirement, in collaboration with the individual. To enable this, we do not have a retirement age. Employees may continue working until they give their contractual notice to retire.
Principles
Employees who wish to retire are encouraged to give an early indication of their planned retirement date. We will then:
- put in place appropriate succession plans and arrangements
- support employees with pension information
- provide support as they transition into retirement
Employees aged 55 or older may wish to voluntarily reduce their grade or hours of work whilst still working. This is known as 'flexible retirement'.
An employee may continue to pay into their pension scheme unless they opt not to. Agreeing to requests is at our discretion.
We recognise the benefits of flexible retirement provisions, including:
- enabling employees to ease their way into retirement
- allowing us to retain skills and expertise which may otherwise be lost
- balancing work with other commitments such as caring or a wish for increased leisure time
- helping with the management of organisational change. For example to avoid redundancies and associated costs
- allowing for the completion of specific long term projects
- helping to develop a balanced age profile within the workforce
- offering better succession planning
- providing greater flexibility and choice for employees
- taking account of demographic changes in the population
- providing equal opportunity and fairness for employees
- providing service benefits
- complementing our existing employment policies and our role as a good employer
We consider all requests for flexible retirement against this policy. We will take into account the wishes of the employee in the context of the adequate and proper provision of our services.
Flexible retirement requires a permanent change to the contract of employment. An employee will not be able to revert to the former hours or grade of work.
