After the attacks of September 11, 2001 more than 40 percent of the FBI agents around the world had five or less years of experience on the job. The agency was partially to blame because of its policy of mandatory retirement at age 57. This caused what was described as a "brain drain" because so many of the more experience analysts were gone. The solution was to hire back the retirees as consultants and classify them as temporary employees so as not to affect their pensions. The problem is not unique to the FBI and seems stem from society's obsession with youth.
The CVS pharmacy chain, on the other hand, was proactive in the matter of retaining older workers. In 1992 seven percent of their employees were over 55. A study of these older workers found that they were less likely to call in sick than the younger employees. They also held their own in terms of physical labor and demanding managerial positions (Mullich, 2003).
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) conducted a survey of 2001 persons between the ages of 50 and 70. When asked their opinions about retirement sixty-three percent said they planned to work at least part-time. Five percent said they had no plans to retire either because they liked to work or they needed the money.
The FBI could have turned to AARP's Staying Ahead of the Curve 2003: The AARP Working in Retirement Study to answer the question of how to retain or entice older employees to stay with the company.
According to the executive summary of the AARP study information for the survey was gathered nationwide by telephone. The respondents were between the ages of 50 and 70 and employed either full- or part-time. The purpose of the survey was three-fold:
? It explored the respondents' ...