One solution adopted by a number of companies is to hire experienced older workers and retirees on a temporary or project basis. On-boarding and off-boarding costs are minimal and there is a large group of retirees that have found they must work to maintain the lifestyle they had planned for their retirement years. In most cases employers need not pay benefits for these kinds of assignments and can sometimes avoid a company-wide or departmental hiring freeze as temporary works are often hired from a different budget than full-time employees.
Employers are beginning to find that some of their most valuable long term employees are beginning to leave. These are the veterans that most employers can’t afford to lose. The professionals in accounting, finance, marketing, engineering, supply chain, operations, research and human resources that understand the company culture and basically can’t be replaced. According to Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads “when they leave, the firm’s institutional memory will be reset to zero and many firms will take serious financial hits without ever knowing why”. Crispin goes on to say “And the boomers...they ARE leaving! Don't kid yourself. They may be leaving to go work for another firm in a lower level less stressful position to make ends meet but they are leaving and most employers are unprepared.”
To find out how to bring retirees in to your company, a couple of firms that I would recommend are Patina Solutions www.patina.com and Retired Brains www.retiredbrains.com