The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released a survey today. The survey polled recent retirees and asked them what would have kept them at their companies. The results were interesting. According to their survey, companies have a narrow window of about two years where they can convince workers to delay retirement and continue working. 

Timing is everything; nearly two-thirds of the retirees surveyed (63 percent) said that retention efforts by the company would have been far more effective if communicated before the employee announced his or her retirement. 

Although money is an important factor for anyone nearing retirement age, it is not the sole motivation to keep working.  Here are just a few of the reasons that experienced workers listed as incentives: 

• 48 percent of the retirees polled said that feeling truly needed for their role or for a particular assignment would have been a major incentive. Of those who ranked this reason as one of the top two reasons to stay, 72 percent said it might have prompted them to stay for at least two more years.  
• Another popular incentive was the ability to do contract work or work seasonally. Among the respondents who indicated this was one of the top two incentives, 77 percent said that this would have enticed them to stay on.  
• A number of retirees mentioned the desire to be able to work part-time and, at the same time, start to receive partial or full payments from their defined benefit pensions. Seven-in-ten said that they would have stayed on the job if this was offered to them. Currently, this is not an option under federal law, and would require a change to the law to become available.

 Among the other incentives that retirees expressed support for: 

• A pay increase
• Continuance of health benefits
• Telecommuting or working from home
• Part-time work
• More meaningful job duties
• A guarantee of pension benefits 

Another surprising finding was that, contrary to conventional wisdom, many workers only begin seriously thinking about retirement when they are about to do so. A majority or retirees indicated they thought about or planned retirement within two years of their retirement date. 28 percent indicated they started to contemplate retirement plans 18 to 24 months in advance, while 22 percent thought about it a year beforehand. Another 22 percent developed their retirement plans only six months before the big day.

To see more about the survey, check out this link.