Partial retirement: a flexible retirement option
Overview
The NHS Pension Scheme offers several flexible retirement options to help employers attract and retain experienced staff. Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust (SWB NHS Trust) shares how partial retirement has benefited employees and the organisation.
Key benefits and outcomes
- Staff turnover has significantly improved, decreasing from 15 per cent to 9.5 per cent, which reflects a more stable and satisfied workforce.
- Reduction in sickness absences.
- More staff have been retained by opting for partial retirement instead of full retirement.
What the organisation faced
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust had an unmet demand. An ageing workforce meant that the trust risked losing many skilled staff due to lots reaching retirement age. Staff turnover was at a high, around 15 per cent, so the trust decided to align one of its strategic objectives around retention to focus on the employee lifecycle.
Many staff members aged 55 and older expressed a wish to retire or reduce their working hours. This was a key reason for promoting flexible retirement options, including partial retirement, while also supporting the NHS People Promise. Part of this included giving staff the option to partially retire, allowing staff to take part of their pension while continuing to work in their own role.
This also benefitted the trust through retaining experienced staff members to support younger colleagues in their teams, thereby passing on their valuable skills and knowledge.
After COVID, staff were reportedly exhausted and many people near retirement age were considering full retirement. This led to discussions about flexibility, with retention becoming a key focus to ensure the trust retained valuable skill sets that are difficult to replace.
In general, throughout the organisation, there is an appetite for flexible working, but its outdated policy created some confusion among staff and delays in decision-making. Updating both the flexible working policy and retirement policy was a priority for the HR department.
What the organisation did
HR worked closely with trade union representatives to develop a new policy and provide up-to-date information, ensuring employees had clear guidance from the start. The trust launched its new flexible retirement policy, ensuring that all communications and intranet information were up to date and consistently promoted partial retirement alongside other flexible retirement options.
The intranet page included myth-busting and easy-to-understand information on flexible working, which was an important element to supporting flexible retirement. The trust emphasised that having a clear policy helps staff understand their options, explaining each option and its implications.
To promote partial retirement, the trust organised:
- Retirement seminars: partnered with an external company to explain flexible retirement options and the process involved.
- Retention roadshows: educated line managers on flexible retirement choices, empowering them to support staff effectively.
- Drop-in benefit days: held two successful events in summer 2024 with 800 attendees, showcasing holistic staff benefits through an employee lifecycle approach.
- Pension team support: provide personalised, up-to-date guidance to help employees navigate retirement options confidently.
The organisation also sought guidance from NHS Pensions and aligned with the ICS retention workstream, which focused on retire-and-return, to ensure a cohesive process.
Results and benefits
Staff survey results showed that participants answered more positively when asked about flexibility at work. In some parts of the organisation, employees reported improvements in work-life balance and overall happiness. Staff also noted that managing underlying health issues alongside work had become more manageable, which helped to reduce stress levels.
Managers have reported that, compared to other flexible working options, this approach involves a lower administrative burden, making the process simpler for both administrative staff and employees. As employees are not required to reapply or change roles, the administrative activity is significantly reduced.
Although measuring and monitoring the process is challenging, the trust is adopting a holistic approach to assess success. This includes tracking staff turnover, sickness absence, and utilising staff survey results.
Overcoming obstacles
One of the main obstacles the trust faced was the misunderstanding of information, making education a crucial part of the implementation journey. Educating managers was particularly important. Initially, managers were reluctant, fearing they would lose staff for several days a week, leaving gaps in the workload and lacking the budget to replace them.
However, once solutions and succession planning were explained and experiences with partial retirement were shared, it became clear that the initiative was beneficial and worked well within the trust.
Takeaway tips
- Communication and education are paramount when implementing partial retirement.
- Talk to your workforce and understand their concerns before developing your strategy. Work in partnership with trade union colleagues helps to ensure we get things right.
- Culture change begins at the top - support from your executive team is essential.
- Ensuring information available is easily accessible and written simply so it can be easily understood by all.
Contact details
For more information about the work in this case study, please contact:
Frances Jackson, Head of People Engagement & Experience.
