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own business or involve fulltime in an already existing one, venture into the entertainment world. Whileretirement of a sports person is driven by factors likeage, inability to take stress of sports after an age, and ispurely driven by inability to consistently show form inplaying, the phasing out of a professional is quick andabrupt driven by the age factor of retirement. The growthof knowledge professionals has created a differentperspective to this outlook. Is a healthy professor (may be one of the best) not suitable to teach just as hereaches the age of 60? Is a great scientist no longer ableto contribute to an institution or nation after the age of 65? Or simply put, is a competent HR professional nolonger required in his profession?

Exploring the scenarioThe current generation that is going to retire at the age

W hat would a Sachin Tendulkar or aDavid Beckham do after retiring from a sports career? Options aremany. They will be a coach, aselector, do commentary, start their

What are the challenges and

opportunities for organizations to have

productive associations with retiring

professionals, what are

the possible options for retiring professionals,and what does the

future hold?

oneself, one's family and social activities. Many chooseto do this and look forward to the same, while sacrificing professional competence.

On the other hand, studies in the west show that asmany as 70% people would like to continue in someprofession or another to keep them busy. Many even wish that their regular job continues. In an Indian urbancontext, this can also be a bigger challenge with thenuclear families setting in and difficulty to connectregularly with near and dear ones. The opportunity andchallenge here is the scope of re-engaging in any formof professional engagement.

Many options exist for a professional afterretirement. However, a lot depends on the preparationsthat enable the transition and life attitude andperceptions. Psychologically, retirement is one phase inthe occupation, which would lead either to personalsatisfaction and self fulfillment with contribution toorganization, society, family and self or jobdiscontentment, sense of low self worth, and negativeoutlook to organization and society. This ultimately leadsto positive or negative orientation to life. Either way it

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of 60 would have joined the work force during the early 70s. We set policies of employment based onconsiderations of creating jobs, job security, andopportunities for young people. Also imagine themanagement scenario. People just got promoted by years of service. No words like succession planning andcareer management had many takers or need. Publicsector dominated the scene as well. However, as a wholeit created a great set of people who were ready to expandthe horizon with the opening up of the economy,information revolution, and increased need of professionals. Many of them rechristened quickly tothe new roles.

A new challenge arises as these professionals reachthe retirement age. Early management professionals,seasoned leaders, academicians, and many moreprofessional experts who have seen the times of theLicense Raj, as well as new age industries are suddenly facing the challenge of finding avenues for channelizing their talent to productive purposes.

Managing the transition A retirement has many more dimensions rather justcessation of a regular job. Quite clearly, for an individualthis is the time of quick change, especially for those who are at the peak of their careers and power status. Itis a time of confusion, uncertainty, and definitely planning. One of the choices is to pursue purely life-related aspects and have an understanding of moving away from the professional realm. This entails time for

By Prof K Kunhikrishnan & Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan


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reflects the life cycle and the options possible for post-retirement life. The happiness one feels or the attitudetowards others would largely depend on the outcome when one retires from the career. The positively orientedmay go for better options whereas the frustrated andnegatively oriented would opt out and insulate.

Devanathan, 68 years old now, is excited about the

LIFE ASPECTSMore time for oneself and with the familyPlans for exploring various hobbiesEngaging in more social rolesRest and relaxationSpiritual pursuits

Developing social networksCatching up with friends, and relativesHealth management

PROFESSIONAL ASPECTSMoving out of operational rolesRegular salary income might ceasePower status with designation and roles might ceaseFeeling of frustration of lack of channels to expressone's talent and knowledge or freedom from jobdemandsMoving out of regular professional networksContinuing professional credibilityDeveloping different equations with the professional networksSudden feeling of more time and less productivity

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balance that he has in personal and professional life.Retired close to 8 years back, the transition was not sotough for Devanathan. A mechanical engineer by profession, Devanathan had worked in variouscapacities with Tata Steel. While he was heading maintenance for Tata Steel, one of the vendors of TataSteel, GE, was interested in getting help from Devanathanin understanding their client needs and better. While with GE, he was complimenting the chemical engineersto have a better understanding of Tata Steel's operations.Soon Devanathan was contacting many other clients of GE in specific areas of mechanical engineering operations. This also got him in touch with JSW steel where they wanted him to be a consultant on a morecontinuous basis. That made it easier for Devanathanmove to JSW steel as an advisor. As he himself puts it,"These assignments made me a pure professional. Icould voice the opinion to the best of my knowledge. Also my suggestions getting accepted and not acceptedare also learning. I no longer have any worries regarding formal designations or higher compensation."

The next move was much more interesting for him.He took up a role with a small company which wasplanning to set up a plant as a joint venture with aGerman steel plant equipment supplier. This called fora more focused approach from his side and he agreedto work for them, mostly from home. He set up his ownoffice at home and conducted a series of plannedmeetings with the clients. Some of the key challengesthat Devanathan had to face in his second career were


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to balance the work life demands, move into a purely advisory role, set expectations of an advisory role, andmanage networks. The key was to not disturb thebalance that he wanted from the second career and funfrom life.

Another example is of Professor Dr. Manoharan, who retired as deputy director of collegiate educationhaving jurisdiction over 25 colleges of Thrissur andPalakkad districts of Kerala state. He was the Principal

of 5 Government colleges before that. He retired 6 yearsback having been intensely involved in both academicand administrative functions. Dr.Manoharan had abackground of commerce having further focused onmanagement studies. Immediately after retirement, he was contacted to nurture a new institute in managementby a veteran management Guru in Kerala. Although it was considered to be a post retirement opportunity,this was equally or more challenging for him. As anassociate dean of the institute, he was responsible forthe academic, administration and teaching activities. As he puts it, "I have never worked so hard in my entirecareer". The efforts at the institute did pay off and hehad multiple offers coming from across the state tohelp them set up and be a lead professor in his subjectsand personal development programs.

Dr. Manoharan also got involved as an invited boardmember with Manappurum General Finance andLeasing Ltd, a NBFC from Kerala, putting his efforts inprofessionalizing of management and training. As anindependent director, he is now helping in corporategovernance and setting standards for human resourcemanagement. He continues to get involved in many professional activities like development of regionalmanagement associations, social activities like publiclibrary and lectures in various management institutes.

As a state President of Govt College Teachers'Organization, President of Gazetted Officers Union,Chairman of Commerce Education Promotion Council,Member of the Syndicate and Senate of the University of Calicut, he is widely known in varied circles. Dr.Manoharan believes that networking definitely helps inpost retirement plans and the key is to select assignmentsthat give professional satisfaction. His advice: Stay away from any commitments that might be ethically

challenging. As his passion for building and developing management institutes is still profoundly burning in him,he has become a much sought-after person by thepromoters of b-schools.

According to V P Nandakumar, a veteran in the fieldof NBFC and Chairman of Manappuram Group of companies, senior retired professionals like Dr.Manoharan provide two distinct advantages. They havedeep knowledge in areas where there are lack of experienced professionals in the market and also proventrack record of integrity that helps him make them asounding board for critical decisions.

The transition may also call for a lot of adjustmentand change. A simple example is the availability of support mechanisms. A senior professional in a regular job might have assistants, secretarial staff, and accessto plethora of other support mechanisms. Anotheraspect of a regular job is that expectations are clear andset in terms of goals. Many things are also expected tofall into place because of the power structure. Thearrangements post-retirement might havefundamentally different orientation. Supportmechanisms need to be created on need basis, powercomes from influence and knowledge support, time andresults commitments become more adhoc, andcontracts are aligned more with the outcomes.

AREA Academics

Consulting

Advisors/ Boardmembers

Non profit

Part time assignment

Entrepreneurial Ventures

POSSIBILITIES

A highly regarded professional is much in demandin academia. This is true especially in fields likemanagement and science. While guest lecturesare routine that a professional might have engagedin regular life itself. Here they can engage as a

permanent/adjunct faculty.

Being an independent consultant to organizationsbringing in thought leadership and assisting intransformational projects.

In this the association with the organization ismore independent and beyond consulting involvedin strategic thoughts with more responsibilities.

Working with NGOs in an advisory role. Volunteerfor government programmes.

Having a part time job. This might be a flexi option

in the current job during transition.Setting up own ventures.

PREPARATION

It would be important to have the habit of preparing/delivering sessions. Another importantpart is to keep in touch with the academic worldand their needs. Many institutions also invite seniorprofessionals to be part of their subject boards.

Finishing a PhD might add a lot of value.

Create a sense of depth in one of the areas wherethe past experience and knowledge can be utilized.An example would be a senior professional becoming a recruitment consultant.

Contacts and strong lineage of contributing tocorporate governance. CXO level interactions

Contact with NGO activities. Requirements of NGOs.Volunteering spirit.

Specific skills sets / relationship with the

management.

Setting up a team, networking, funding, businessplan development.


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Prof Indira Parikh, ex-Dean IIM Ahmedabad andPresident of Foundation for Liberal and ManagementEducation (FLAME) has unique experiences to shareon how organizations can facilitate career transition orprepare senior professionals for retirement from bothconceptual and experiential level. In her consulting experiences with ITC and IOC, she facilitated workshopsfor a group of general managers and above on preparing for this transition. This involved explorations on thefuture social life, family life, health management,financial management, and second alternative careers.The workshops were about re-relating with thesemultiple aspects. Some of the transition challenges aregiven below based on Prof Parikh's design.

Interestingly, spouses were part of the exercise. They voiced concerns of changing relationships betweenspouses where they share the home space for longerhours after retirement. While many said they werelooking forward to it, there were concerns like how thehusband would manage if the wife was still working.These workshops are interesting efforts to manage lifeafter retirement. There are also examples of organizations, setting up their own leadershipdevelopment efforts for senior professionals. The focusis on selecting key senior people for the program,providing options, preparing senior professionals forthe select roles, and finally placement after retirement. As for Prof Parikh, her own transition from IIM A toFLAME after retirement was also a period of preparationand change. The tremendous responsibility of setting

up the new institution was a challenge for her in termsof designing the institute's academic model, culturebuilding, and aligning efforts of the whole team to makeit successful.

Organizational perspective While many organizational heads and HR professionalsagree to the fact that retiring professionals are a greatresource pool, very few have established systems tomanage the process. At best, organizations have adhocprocedures to manage retired professionals. However,change is setting in and is happening in both theacademic world and industry. For example, theUniversity Grants Commission has a system to makeuse of the senior professors who retire from the service.IIM Ahmedabad has changed a policy where retiring professors have an option of continuing till 65 years asan adjunct faculty if they wish to do so. "At IIMKozhikode, we have a very eminent emeritus professorserving as a Distinguished Fellow. He takes selectlectures, teaches doctoral students, and also mentors junior faculty members. It is a great step for institutionbuilding. The key is in having flexibility around sucharrangements where there is a mutually rewarding experience" says Prof T N Krishnan, Faculty, IIMKozhikode who has done extensive research in careermanagement. With knowledge professionals the key isthat they are not bogged down by routine issues thattake away charm of a post retirement engagement.

Industry also has many models of making use


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retiring professionals and the trend is setting in. "Wehave recommended our key clients to use retiring professionals with specific skill sets to be retained asadvisors for key projects through contractualagreements. Many professionals use their extensivebusiness knowledge and experience to coach CXOs. Wealso have seen retired professionals from public sectoroccupying key positions in private sector. They certainly bring in a lot of experience and at an affordable cost"comments Indira Bhardwaj, Executive Director,Business Advisory Services, Ernst and Young Pvt Ltd.

However, it is also not that all professionals can takeup these opportunities. The key aspect that many organizations are looking at is of retiring professionals who can take a role of a consultant/advisor and movefrom the traditional power associated with designations."They should have the maturity of moving from thetraditional power structure and act as respectableadvisors and consultants. They should be seen as ahelping hand rather than a threat to the employees inthe organizations" says Ratish Jha, Head of HR, RPGCables. It is also important that organizations create anatmosphere that respects the need for which the seniorprofessionals are retained. Their special demands likeflexi time, less travel, careful planning of meetings,clearly defined scope of engagement, and extendedoffice at home may be thought of. A reworking of compensation and benefits also is critical. "As seniorprofessionals move into retirement, they can beidentified to play senior advisory roles either within thesame organization or as expert freelancers for variousorganizations and businesses. The plan should be treatthem as a separate talent pool. The shift in engagementterms would move away from administrative toplanning, strategizing and advising on key issues. By

playing an expert or advisor, it is important that they recognize that this role they play would directly impactemployees and businesses. The key is to have a rightmix of 25:75 value, 25% having a direct impact while therest being transformational" comments Joseph Gonsalo,HR Manager with a major IT organization. However,many also choose to chart out their own options. Aninteresting example would be Jagdish Khattar, ex-chairman of Maruti Udyog. After retirement his passionfor the auto industry landed up as an entrepreneurialventure that is an all India, multi brand sales andservicing company.

Arvind Agrawal, President HR, RPG Group, hascome across very interesting examples of how organizations have employed retired professionals. A renowned multinational organization, for example, hadan extensive pool of ex-employees who were used astrainers. "Every organization has a great need fortrainers who have skills and can understand theorganizational context. Retired employees are the bestpool to be trainers and mentors". Similarly, at Xerox hefound a network of retired employees used for bothregular and advisory jobs. For example, a retired seniorprofessional may be called to do an induction for animportant visitor. This might really help the regularemployees not to get stuck with visitors or new

employee familiarization. It is a win-win for theorganization, senior professionals, and also the visitors/inductees. Also from an HR context, retiredprofessionals can be used as effective interviewers forthe organization. For example ex-CEOs and functionalheads can provide excellent first-round interview inputsfor a senior level recruitment. This helps in freeing upsenior management time as well. Also, special projectslike setting up a plant in a foreign location, a post-mergerintegration, etc are excellent examples whereprofessionals can engage in highly rewarding, yet time-bound assignments. The models may wary but the key,as per Agrawal, is to have that balance of knowledgeutilization and retired professional's flexibility needs.

Another aspect would be how the professionals arecompensated. The most popular model is of retainership, where they are paid on a monthly on thebasis of what is negotiated in a contract. The othermodels are pay as per project outcomes, hourly payments (coaching), sitting fees (board membership),stock options etc. The challenge for the organization isalso to identify the senior professionals who are availablepost-retirement. Having a strong alumni network of established organizations is a route. Also headhunterscan focus on senior folks once they have a mandate.

According to Dr. PVR Murthy, a veteran in the fieldof HR, associated with number of organizations andNHRD, who manages a firm called Exclusive SearchRecruitment Consultants, there will be specialistrecruitment consultants who will coach seniorprofessionals for second careers and focus on theirplacements. He is the opinion that while it has becomea well established focus in areas like of ex-service men,this is a trend that going to spread in other areas.Extension of retirement age will be a trend that is going

to pick up in many of the organizations.Post retirement transition is the time forprofessionals to take choices in their lives. While thetransition is fast, it is important to plan and take upchoices that can balance interests and life aspects. Theconcept of second career and transition for an individualis a process of change both at psychological and sociallevel. Multitude of options exists for a respectableprofessional post retirement and it is important toprepare oneself both in terms of expectations of outcomes and attitude required. Organizations canbenefit a lot from the experience, and skills at areasonable cost. Organizations need take a more matureand strategic outlook by creating processes both for

identifying engagements where senior professionals canbe engaged, training senior professionals, creating engagement models, and measuring performance of such engagements.

Prof K Kunhikrishnan is currently the Pro Vice Chancellor of Kannur University, Kerala. He may be contacted at [email protected]. Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan, an HR professional is currently working in the area of talent management and leadership development with a MNC IT organization. He may be contacted at [email protected]

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