Protirement is coming – is your organization ready?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to outline an emerging trend that is replacing traditional retirement; this trend is called “protirement.” Protirement is defined as early retirement from professional work with the positive idea of pursuing something more fulfilling and has originated from the “blend of pro- and retirement.”

Design/methodology/approach

This paper’s approach is to define the trend of protirement and then back the idea with data and cases of where and how this is implemented by human resources (HR) organizations.

Findings

Retirement, in its traditional sense, is becoming increasingly unattainable for individuals but is also less necessary than it has been in the past. People are living longer and healthier lives, and in fact, data show that working in some meaningful and valuable manner actually increases life-span and allows more time to save for the day when one cannot work anymore.

Research limitations/implications

The findings in this paper should spark others to do more research into the area of aging workforce and new models that will leverage senior workers for the benefit of individuals, organizations and society at large.

Practical implications

HR executives and their organizations will need to drive change in the areas of recruitment (senior workers), pension planning and saving and HR policies around retirement.

Social implications

People productivity has been in decline for over 10 years now. The authors are going to need all hands on deck to help fix this and overcome the economic challenges created by the 2020 pandemic. Leveraging senior workers brings deep expertise into the workplace that could be lost otherwise, improving productivity and organization learning.

Originality/value

This paper takes an idea coined in the 1960s and brings it into the 21st century, when and where it is really needed. This long-forgotten idea is being resurrected to help deal with today’s workplace challenges.

Citation

Ringo, T.A. (2021), "Protirement is coming – is your organization ready?", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 51-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-11-2020-0093