09 Sep 2025

Save, plan, retire well: why this should matter to your organisation

For employees who have spent their whole career building up their retirement savings, their lifestyle and financial security for the next 20+ years relies on them getting their retirement decisions right.

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Planning for a financially secure, healthy and fulfilling retirement is part of most people’s long-term plans. And while retirement is an important goal for individuals, supporting positive and smooth transitions is also vital for organisations to aid succession and to do the right thing for loyal employees moving onto the next phase of life.

For most people, the decision of when to retire sits with them; some will count down the days, some will struggle with the decisions and others will bury their heads in the sand and avoid it entirely.

So it is vital that they have access to the right information, guidance and support, particularly in the years immediately ahead of retirement.
Here are some ways to support your people to retire well.

1. Affordability: Knowing you can afford to retire and when is usually the first step on most people’s retirement plan. Typically, retirement income is now funded from a number of different sources including the State Pension, workplace pensions, and other savings and investments. So here are some tools to make available to those planning their retirement:

State Pension forecast – encourage all those aged 55+ to check their State Pension and their State Pension age.
Pension statement – remind employees to check their workplace pension statement regularly. Also, ask your pension provider to give you details of which employees are accessing this and for their ideas on how to engage others, especially those aged 55+.
Pension modeller – similar to the pension statement, encourage all employees to check in and use this modeller at on a recurring basis, with this being essential for those from age 45. This modeller should enable employees not only to check their current workplace pension but also to add in what they will receive from the State Pension and any other legacy pensions they may have including defined benefit pensions.
Budget planner – access to a budgeting tool is helpful to all employees from those starting out in their career, to potential retirees seeing how their budgets will change when they stop working.

2. Understanding their choices: Providing employees with access to financial education in the two years ahead of planned retirement can make them aware of the need to plan, their choices, the decisions they will need to make, how to plan their retirement income and how they can fund this and resources for further support.

3. Lifestyle as well as financial: When was the last time you had nothing in your diary for the next 20+ years? Never! Humans thrive on purpose, structure and social connections. So as well as being able to tick the financial box, your retirees also need help to manage this significant lifestyle transition. Major life changes require thoughtful planning and tailored support. Positive transitions can help your retirees and your organisation. Check whether your current providers include lifestyle transition elements alongside financial decisions in their retirement workshops.

4. Structured retirement pathways: Retaining talent, handing on experience, and wanting to ensure smooth successions are critical elements in an organisation’s people plan. Having structured programmes including mentoring and training roles and project based work can provide valuable pathways for retirees as well as enabling your business to benefit from their continued contribution. Those planning to retire may want to scale down or contribute in a different way in their final years of work. These initiatives can also provide a positive mechanism to identify potential retirees enabling you both to start that conversation.

5. Go beyond the support from pension providers: Pension providers will send retirees a pre-retirement pack six months before their stated retirement date. This pack includes their pension valuation, outlines their choices, provides details of the support available etc. However, it does have its limitations. It is triggered by an individual’s stated retirement age, however many individuals with defined contribution pensions and who intend to drawdown their pension will often put a retirement date well after their intended leaving date, as they wish their pension to remain invested. Another limitation is that pension providers will very much focus on their pension, with only limited information on other pensions, other savings and investments.

Supporting all employees to save for, plan and retire well is critical to employee engagement, people development and succession planning.

Offering extra support and guidance in the final years before retirement will also enable valued employees to have a smooth and positive transition into retirement that will benefit both them and your organisation.