QOTW: Great Resignation

In the last 18 months many employees have left jobs as the pressure from the pandemic caused a shift both in the responsibilities people are juggling, and the mindset of many Americans around work and work/life balance. We were curious if, as part of this “great resignation,” employers were noting an uptick in workers retiring sooner than they had planned, and what impact that may have on retirement plans down road.

Thirty percent of respondents to last weeks QOTW stated they have had more retirements than expected within the last year. The majority of those that did stated that though there has been an uptick, its not a significant number and not expected to impact the plan in any way. Sixty percent of members have not noted an uptick in retirements, though many noted an uptick in resignations among younger workers and that could very well have an impact on plans down the road. Comments from readers follow. 

Yes:

• It has not seemed to have had an impact as most have left their funds in the plan.
• More employees have retired in the past year, but nothing excessive. I don't expect any major impact on our retirement plans.
• Not great enough to have a significant impact on the plan.
• Retiree Health Care Premium rates increased in NM for those under age 55, so that triggered more than usual retirees; and yes, COVID has also influenced individuals to retire if they were eligible.
• Some concern about long term employees with large account balances retiring and moving their accounts out of the plan. How will that impact the plan?  Should we be concerned about this?
• This along with additional resignations will have an impact on our ESOP distributions especially.
• We had a couple of people approaching retirement age that had previously expressed wanting to work well beyond normal retirement age who have instead chosen to leave the workforce.
• We have employees who have found balance through the pandemic, some leaving for new opportunities with more flexibility and some leaving because of the location of our corporate offices and the desire for employees to come back to the offices to work.
• We have had 8 retirements and 10 return to school in the last 8 months. For the last 2 months we have had more people leave than we hired.
• While we saw more than expected retire in the last year, it wasn’t a significant number and it is not expected to have an impact on the plan.

No:

• Doesn't appear to have been a big impact on our multi-employer plan.
• I've seen this more in hourly employees - they are able to get significantly more base pay if they change companies.  When a person who is making $14 an hour is offered $20 - better benefits don't help.
• In general, all sites are experiencing a challenging labor environment
• No we haven’t had more retire, but more have been inquiring on pension, benefits etc. for retirement.
• No, we had people leave for other jobs rather than retire.
• Our employee population is younger and not ready for retirement.
• We did loss more about 10% more employees than usual to other companies that offer what they perceived as better benefits or pay.
• We do not expect to see any significant increase in retirements, but we do worry that we will see more resignations due to the enforcement requirements of the recent Executive Order mandating vaccines for federal contractors.
• We don't have an older workforce.
• We happened to have lots of layoffs in 2020, so perhaps that's why we didn't see lots of "retirements." That also caused an exit of 401k funds from our plan.
• We have a younger employee population so we don't generally have concerns around anyone retiring.
• We have had an uptick on resignations (i.e moving to a new employer) but have not seen higher retirement percentages.
• We have more people resign than expected but not retired.
• We have not had a greater number of employees retire but we have seen a larger number of individuals who have separated from service.
• We have not had a lot of employees retire but we have had a lot of employee resignations.
• We have not seen that trend here, so it's not on the immediate radar.  Recruiting is where our problems are with personnel, like everyone else.
• We mostly have a younger group due to the physical nature of the job
• Year over year we are steady with retirements.  1/3 of the population are close to retirement age and the other 2/3rds are millennials, gen x and z's.
   

Unsure:

• I feel like the Great Resignation is more about working-age folks in the middle of their career just up and quitting for no reason or with no job replacement...more so than actual retirement.
• Our turnover has been higher but they are not retiring as they are a younger population.  In retail there is often turnover but we did lose several more during 2020 and the recent hires seem to be job-hopping and not staying very long. Our participation in the 401K has always been a bit lower than desired but I think that is also due to the higher percentage of younger employees. They are less 'planted' and are more skeptical of whether the retirement benefit is to them or to the company, despite assurances otherwise. But also if they do not intend to stay for long, they feel it is unnecessary to establish a retirement account.
• We've seen an uptick in resignations but those "retiring" have remained steady.