This is what companies can give their retiring workers
China will gradually raise the retirement age over the next five years to try to cope with an ageing population and a crumbling pension system. For similar reasons, Europe, including Hungary, has from time to time considered raising the retirement age. More and more companies are trying to ensure that they help workers who are about to retire to move on from working age. We looked into the benefits they offer their employees.
Ildiko worked in a clinic in a hospital in Budapest and retired two years ago. She told HR Portal that as a public health worker she had not benefited from any pre-retirement scheme. She said she had acquaintances whose companies paid voluntary pension contributions, but she had never dreamed of such a thing in the public health sector. She started doing administrative tasks a year or two before her retirement, and when the time came, she retired. Many people in the public and even private sector are in a similar situation, but more and more companies are trying to look after their employees who are about to retire.
Health insurance and extra days off
We approached five large domestic companies to ask about their support for employees approaching retirement. At MBH Bank, they did not tell us how many of their colleagues were about to retire, nor did they disclose whether there were any areas within the company where their number/proportion was higher. However, they did say that the bank has a dedicated scheme for pre-retirement colleagues, which includes a number of financial and non-financial elements. As they wrote: "MBH Bank's generational diversity strategy has a special programme for pre-retirement colleagues, the programme is called Active. The programme is very popular, colleagues like it and use it, and we have received a lot of positive feedback from colleagues that they think it is exemplary that we think of them as an employer," they added. The company in addition to the working time allowance provided for by the Labour Code, the company offers an additional day off (1 day off per year for children over 60 years of age and 1 day off per year for grandchildren/grandchildren), "quality time (cultural recreation - quality time off allowance: gross 50.000,Ft, which can be used for visits to the theatre, zoo, museum or other leisure activities, grandparent - grandchild photography: gross 30.000,Ft), mental hygiene counselling (with external speakers organised by HR), health screening programme (gross 50.000,Ft), mentoring programmes - reverse mentoring, digital skills development, change management care training, effective time management training, regular lunch and learn sessions, professional programmes, lectures". In addition, if seniors decide to continue working for the company after retirement, this is also an option. "We have a number of colleagues who are re-employed because of their unique knowledge, but we have also had several cases where a retired colleague has indicated that they would like to return because they miss being active," they say. In such cases, "normal recruitment is carried out to replace retired colleagues," MBH Bank officials add. At Generali, too, the support of employees approaching retirement is taken into account in a number of aspects, Magda Baba-Szabó, Chief People
Mentoring and "Retirement Reward"