Are you part of the unretired economy – or using it? Should you be?  We need your thoughts!

The unretirement economy – is there one, what is it, who is in it and what are the opportunities? I would love your views on this – and please share/comment so we can get this discussed widely.

I think most people know I am passionate about using the skills of people who have retired but want to use their skills in new ways – we call these people unretired (a lot of people think we came up with the word but we found it tucked away, obscurely, in the States and felt it describes this stage of life as well as any).

Over the last year or two I have done a lot of research and it is clear to me there is a whole economy around this generation yet very few tap into its potential.  We are so excited to be working on a project with Louise Ballard and Mackenzie Howe at Atheni Strategy to bring together our experience on the unretired generation along with their thinking about the future of work and using AI.

Here I want to share my thoughts on this and would love to hear from others – their views, case studies, any policies and more.

First, who are the unretired?

1. People who have retired and want a whole new ‘something’ that they can’t define or work out. It needs to be quite meaty but not the old 24/7 working life.  They want to take the summers off.  Would love to work on projects – even full time for say three or six months and then maybe nothing for the rest of the year.  They often end up as trustees on charity boards because they can’t work out what else to do, but if they are honest it wasn’t necessarily what they really wanted. They don’t want the relentless monthly meeting commitment in their diary, not particularly happy about potential risks and not sure it is really maximising the value of their skills
2. What about money?  I think there are four categories:
   1. Those who NEED money – they haven’t had great jobs/pay; may be helping family, particularly if they have children with disabilities or as so many now are, struggling to get even basic housing; may have had a few disasters in their life – from divorce to losing money on a house/project etc; or just enjoyed life and now realise they could have saved more!
   2. Those who don’t NEED money but would like to earn enough for nice holidays, treats, looking after family – without dipping into basic pension/savings for this
   3. The lucky ones who have had final salary pensions, done well on their houses and been good at saving and don’t need money
   4. Quite a few who positively say they never want to be paid for anything again – a visceral reaction to their working life and they feel if they don’t take money they are in control of the relationship. I actually question how this works – most people who volunteer feel a real duty and commitment to colleagues, the cause and more.  I think money is actually irrelevant here

Whatever the category – whether they do or don’t need money – most are happy to help others without payment when they feel they are ‘helping’ (such as a charity or a start-up) but don’t want their generosity abused. As an example, if the start-up is starting to look like the next AirBnB they want to be valued for their part and money is the usual currency for saying ‘you are worth it’.

So why is this an ‘economy’?

First we have a skills shortage.  I have written/banged on about the ridiculous situation where employers have massive skills gaps but won’t employ people aged over 50. This is part of the story, but not really the issue I am looking at here.

How do I think employers could be tapping into these skills?

3. I spent some time in hospital a few years ago and was struck with the multitude variations on employment contracts – many of which were being used by people in their 60s and 70s who had ‘retired’.  There were weekend only options, school holidays or after-school times, short term and project contracts.  A lot of nurses and others were physically too worn out to do the long shifts, but were perfectly capable and loved doing shorter blasts. And they want to take their holidays in school times when it’s cheaper
4. EY has created a fantastic ‘Ambassador’ role where partners take ten days extra holiday in their last year and then use their ten days however they and the business want over the first year or two of their retirement.  I heard of partners mentoring junior teams, coaching teams to win business or develop client relationships, designing a new service and more.  There were several perks with this such as getting an email address and keeping their laptop
5. Unilever has created a contract called U-Work, giving employees a basic contract with basic benefits  (pension, sick, health etc) and employees can then contract to do anything from a day’s shift to a six month contract for additional pay. While aimed at ‘employees’ I think it is a great model and could be used to maintain a relationship with retired colleagues who would like to keep working
6. We did a concept test with Eureka! The Children’s Museum and asked them if they had any projects coming up that retired people could help with. They did – developing their railways buildings and the new Wirral museum. We asked how former professionals could help and they came up with a long list from helping spec tenders to helping them understand how local councils work – the Wirral was a partnership with local government.  They said they might even pay for some of this help – not a professional rate but maybe £100 a day or so
7. We have done several inter-generational pilots with Leeds City Council, getting unretired people to mentor and help tech and social enterprise start-ups.  Their value is huge; the younger generation love tapping into the older experience – and their black books of contacts!
8. As AI becomes mainstream we need more experience to look at the results of what it is producing and challenge where needed. We all know AI is not perfect, there is huge wisdom that can help maximise its value

I think business, government, third sector and particularly start-ups could all benefit from using this experience – some might be paid, probably a lot not.

Instead we have a generation of unretired people who are desperate to use their skills and can’t find ways to do this.  It doesn’t matter what they have done before, whether ‘senior’ or in clerical jobs, I think anyone aged 50+ has huge value to society.  Mentoring younger people from all backgrounds, getting our economy growing again.

Have you got stories to share?  Or ideas to add to the above ideas?  Would love to hear from you!