hr issues
of 60 would have joined the work force during the early
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?
second innings By Prof K Kunhikrishnan & Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan
hat would a Sachin Tendulkar or a
W
David Beckham do after retiring
from a sports career? Options are
many. They will be a coach, a
selector, do commentary, start their
own business or involve fulltime in an already existing
one, venture into the entertainment world. While
retirement of a sports person is driven by factors like
age, inability to take stress of sports after an age, and is
purely driven by inability to consistently show form in
playing, the phasing out of a professional is quick and
abrupt driven by the age factor of retirement. The growth
of knowledge professionals has created a different
perspective to this outlook. Is a healthy professor (may
be one of the best) not suitable to teach just as he
reaches the age of 60? Is a great scientist no longer able
to contribute to an institution or nation after the age of
65? Or simply put, is a competent HR professional no
longer required in his profession?
Exploring the scenario
The current generation that is going to retire at the age
28 MAY 2009
70s. We set policies of employment based on
considerations of creating jobs, job security, and
opportunities for young people. Also imagine the
management scenario. People just got promoted by
years of service. No words like succession planning and
career management had many takers or need. Public
sector dominated the scene as well. However, as a whole
it created a great set of people who were ready to expand
the horizon with the opening up of the economy,
information revolution, and increased need of
professionals. Many of them rechristened quickly to
the new roles.
A new challenge arises as these professionals reach
the retirement age. Early management professionals,
seasoned leaders, academicians, and many more
professional experts who have seen the times of the
License 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 just
cessation of a regular job. Quite clearly, for an individual
this is the time of quick change, especially for those
who are at the peak of their careers and power status. It
is 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
oneself, one's family and social activities. Many choose
to do this and look forward to the same, while sacrificing
professional competence.
On the other hand, studies in the west show that as
many as 70% people would like to continue in some
profession or another to keep them busy. Many even
wish that their regular job continues. In an Indian urban
context, this can also be a bigger challenge with the
nuclear families setting in and difficulty to connect
regularly with near and dear ones. The opportunity and
challenge here is the scope of re-engaging in any form
of professional engagement.
Many options exist for a professional after
retirement. However, a lot depends on the preparations
that enable the transition and life attitude and
perceptions. Psychologically, retirement is one phase in
the occupation, which would lead either to personal
satisfaction and self fulfillment with contribution to
organization, society, family and self or job
discontentment, sense of low self worth, and negative
outlook to organization and society. This ultimately leads
to positive or negative orientation to life. Either way it

LIFE ASPECTS
z More time for oneself and with the family
z Plans for exploring various hobbies
z Engaging in more social roles
z Rest and relaxation
z Spiritual pursuits
z Developing social networks
z Catching up with friends, and relatives
z Health management
PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS
z Moving out of operational roles
z Regular salary income might cease
z Power status with designation and roles might cease
z Feeling of frustration of lack of channels to express
one's talent and knowledge or freedom from job
demands
z Moving out of regular professional networks
z Continuing professional credibility
z Developing different equations with the professional
networks
z Sudden feeling of more time and less productivity
reflects the life cycle and the options possible for post-
retirement life. The happiness one feels or the attitude
towards others would largely depend on the outcome
when one retires from the career. The positively oriented
may go for better options whereas the frustrated and
negatively oriented would opt out and insulate.
Devanathan, 68 years old now, is excited about the
hr issues
balance that he has in personal and professional life.
Retired close to 8 years back, the transition was not so
tough for Devanathan. A mechanical engineer by
profession, Devanathan had worked in various
capacities with Tata Steel. While he was heading
maintenance for Tata Steel, one of the vendors of Tata
Steel, GE, was interested in getting help from Devanathan
in understanding their client needs and better. While
with GE, he was complimenting the chemical engineers
to 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 more
continuous basis. That made it easier for Devanathan
move to JSW steel as an advisor. As he himself puts it,
"These assignments made me a pure professional. I
could voice the opinion to the best of my knowledge.
Also my suggestions getting accepted and not accepted
are 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 was
planning to set up a plant as a joint venture with a
German steel plant equipment supplier. This called for
a more focused approach from his side and he agreed
to work for them, mostly from home. He set up his own
office at home and conducted a series of planned
meetings with the clients. Some of the key challenges
that Devanathan had to face in his second career were
MAY 2009 29
hr issues
AREA POSSIBILITIES
Academics A highly regarded professional is much in demand
in academia. This is true especially in fields like
management and science. While guest lectures
are routine that a professional might have engaged
in regular life itself. Here they can engage as a
permanent/adjunct faculty.
PREPARATION
It would be important to have the habit of
preparing/delivering sessions. Another important
part is to keep in touch with the academic world
and their needs. Many institutions also invite senior
professionals to be part of their subject boards.
Finishing a PhD might add a lot of value.

Consulting Being an independent consultant to organizations Create a sense of depth in one of the areas where
bringing in thought leadership and assisting in the past experience and knowledge can be utilized.
transformational projects. An example would be a senior professional
becoming a recruitment consultant.

Advisors/ Board In this the association with the organization is Contacts and strong lineage of contributing to
members more independent and beyond consulting involved corporate governance. CXO level interactions
in strategic thoughts with more responsibilities.

Non profit Working with NGOs in an advisory role. Volunteer Contact with NGO activities. Requirements of NGOs.
for government programmes. Volunteering spirit.

Part time assignment Having a part time job. This might be a flexi option Specific skills sets / relationship with the
in the current job during transition. management.
Entrepreneurial Setting up own ventures. Setting up a team, networking, funding, business
Ventures plan development.

to balance the work life demands, move into a purely
advisory role, set expectations of an advisory role, and
manage networks. The key was to not disturb the
balance that he wanted from the second career and fun
from life.
Another example is of Professor Dr. Manoharan,
who retired as deputy director of collegiate education
having jurisdiction over 25 colleges of Thrissur and
Palakkad districts of Kerala state. He was the Principal
of 5 Government colleges before that. He retired 6 years
back having been intensely involved in both academic
and administrative functions. Dr.Manoharan had a
background of commerce having further focused on
management studies. Immediately after retirement, he
was contacted to nurture a new institute in management
by 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 an
associate dean of the institute, he was responsible for
the academic, administration and teaching activities.
As he puts it, "I have never worked so hard in my entire
career". The efforts at the institute did pay off and he
had multiple offers coming from across the state to
help them set up and be a lead professor in his subjects
and personal development programs.
Dr. Manoharan also got involved as an invited board
member with Manappurum General Finance and
Leasing Ltd, a NBFC from Kerala, putting his efforts in
professionalizing of management and training. As an
independent director, he is now helping in corporate
governance and setting standards for human resource
management. He continues to get involved in many
professional activities like development of regional
management associations, social activities like public
library 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 in
post retirement plans and the key is to select assignments
that 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 the
promoters of b-schools.
According to V P Nandakumar, a veteran in the field
of NBFC and Chairman of Manappuram Group of
companies, senior retired professionals like Dr.
Manoharan provide two distinct advantages. They have
deep knowledge in areas where there are lack of
experienced professionals in the market and also proven
track record of integrity that helps him make them a
sounding board for critical decisions.
The transition may also call for a lot of adjustment
and change. A simple example is the availability of
support mechanisms. A senior professional in a regular
job might have assistants, secretarial staff, and access
to plethora of other support mechanisms. Another
aspect of a regular job is that expectations are clear and
set in terms of goals. Many things are also expected to
fall into place because of the power structure. The
arrangements post-retirement might have
fundamentally different orientation. Support
mechanisms need to be created on need basis, power
comes from influence and knowledge support, time and
results commitments become more adhoc, and
contracts are aligned more with the outcomes.

30 MAY 2009

Prof Indira Parikh, ex-Dean IIM Ahmedabad and
President of Foundation for Liberal and Management
Education (FLAME) has unique experiences to share
on how organizations can facilitate career transition or
prepare senior professionals for retirement from both
conceptual and experiential level. In her consulting
experiences with ITC and IOC, she facilitated workshops
for a group of general managers and above on preparing
for this transition. This involved explorations on the
future social life, family life, health management,
financial management, and second alternative careers.
The workshops were about re-relating with these
multiple aspects. Some of the transition challenges are
given below based on Prof Parikh's design.
Interestingly, spouses were part of the exercise. They
voiced concerns of changing relationships between
spouses where they share the home space for longer
hours after retirement. While many said they were
looking forward to it, there were concerns like how the
husband would manage if the wife was still working.
These workshops are interesting efforts to manage life
after retirement. There are also examples of
organizations, setting up their own leadership
development efforts for senior professionals. The focus
is on selecting key senior people for the program,
providing options, preparing senior professionals for
the select roles, and finally placement after retirement.
As for Prof Parikh, her own transition from IIM A to
FLAME after retirement was also a period of preparation
and change. The tremendous responsibility of setting
hr issues
up the new institution was a challenge for her in terms
of designing the institute's academic model, culture
building, and aligning efforts of the whole team to make
it successful.
Organizational perspective
While many organizational heads and HR professionals
agree to the fact that retiring professionals are a great
resource pool, very few have established systems to
manage the process. At best, organizations have adhoc
procedures to manage retired professionals. However,
change is setting in and is happening in both the
academic world and industry. For example, the
University Grants Commission has a system to make
use 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 as
an adjunct faculty if they wish to do so. "At IIM
Kozhikode, we have a very eminent emeritus professor
serving as a Distinguished Fellow. He takes select
lectures, teaches doctoral students, and also mentors
junior faculty members. It is a great step for institution
building. The key is in having flexibility around such
arrangements where there is a mutually rewarding
experience" says Prof T N Krishnan, Faculty, IIM
Kozhikode who has done extensive research in career
management. With knowledge professionals the key is
that they are not bogged down by routine issues that
take away charm of a post retirement engagement.
Industry also has many models of making use
MAY 2009 31
hr issues
retiring professionals and the trend is setting in. "We
have recommended our key clients to use retiring
professionals with specific skill sets to be retained as
advisors for key projects through contractual
agreements. Many professionals use their extensive
business knowledge and experience to coach CXOs. We
also have seen retired professionals from public sector
occupying 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 take
up 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 move
from the traditional power associated with designations.
"They should have the maturity of moving from the
traditional power structure and act as respectable
advisors and consultants. They should be seen as a
helping hand rather than a threat to the employees in
the organizations" says Ratish Jha, Head of HR, RPG
Cables. It is also important that organizations create an
atmosphere that respects the need for which the senior
professionals are retained. Their special demands like
flexi time, less travel, careful planning of meetings,
clearly defined scope of engagement, and extended
office at home may be thought of. A reworking of
compensation and benefits also is critical. "As senior
professionals move into retirement, they can be
identified to play senior advisory roles either within the
same organization or as expert freelancers for various
organizations and businesses. The plan should be treat
them as a separate talent pool. The shift in engagement
terms would move away from administrative to
planning, 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 impact
employees and businesses. The key is to have a right
mix of 25:75 value, 25% having a direct impact while the
rest being transformational" comments Joseph Gonsalo,
HR Manager with a major IT organization. However,
many also choose to chart out their own options. An
interesting example would be Jagdish Khattar, ex-
chairman of Maruti Udyog. After retirement his passion
for the auto industry landed up as an entrepreneurial
venture that is an all India, multi brand sales and
servicing company.
Arvind Agrawal, President HR, RPG Group, has
come across very interesting examples of how
organizations have employed retired professionals. A
renowned multinational organization, for example, had
an extensive pool of ex-employees who were used as
trainers. "Every organization has a great need for
trainers who have skills and can understand the
organizational context. Retired employees are the best
pool to be trainers and mentors". Similarly, at Xerox he
found a network of retired employees used for both
regular and advisory jobs. For example, a retired senior
professional may be called to do an induction for an
important visitor. This might really help the regular
employees not to get stuck with visitors or new
32 MAY 2009
employee familiarization. It is a win-win for the
organization, senior professionals, and also the visitors/
inductees. Also from an HR context, retired
professionals can be used as effective interviewers for
the organization. For example ex-CEOs and functional
heads can provide excellent first-round interview inputs
for a senior level recruitment. This helps in freeing up
senior management time as well. Also, special projects
like setting up a plant in a foreign location, a post-merger
integration, etc are excellent examples where
professionals 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 knowledge
utilization and retired professional's flexibility needs.
Another aspect would be how the professionals are
compensated. The most popular model is of
retainership, where they are paid on a monthly on the
basis of what is negotiated in a contract. The other
models are pay as per project outcomes, hourly
payments (coaching), sitting fees (board membership),
stock options etc. The challenge for the organization is
also to identify the senior professionals who are available
post-retirement. Having a strong alumni network of
established organizations is a route. Also headhunters
can focus on senior folks once they have a mandate.
According to Dr. PVR Murthy, a veteran in the field
of HR, associated with number of organizations and
NHRD, who manages a firm called Exclusive Search
Recruitment Consultants, there will be specialist
recruitment consultants who will coach senior
professionals for second careers and focus on their
placements. He is the opinion that while it has become
a 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 for
professionals to take choices in their lives. While the
transition is fast, it is important to plan and take up
choices that can balance interests and life aspects. The
concept of second career and transition for an individual
is a process of change both at psychological and social
level. Multitude of options exists for a respectable
professional post retirement and it is important to
prepare oneself both in terms of expectations of
outcomes and attitude required. Organizations can
benefit a lot from the experience, and skills at a
reasonable cost. Organizations need take a more mature
and strategic outlook by creating processes both for
identifying engagements where senior professionals can
be engaged, training senior professionals, creating
engagement models, and measuring performance of
such engagements. HC
Prof K Kunhikrishnan is currently the Pro Vice Chancellor of Kannur University,
Kerala. He may be contacted at k.kallidil@gmail.com. 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
sandeephrm@gmail.com