Pre-Retirement Counseling: Characteristics of Programs and Preferences of Retirees

Abstract

In an attempt to determine the extent to which major pharmaceutical companies have developed pre-retirement counseling programs and how people who worked for these companies and who retired feel about pre-retirement counseling, questionnaires were sent to 46 companies and to 222 retirees. Completed questionnaires were returned by 40 companies and by 95 retirees. The results indicated that only 9 companies had counseling programs, that many of the companies with programs appeared to be less than fully committed to making their programs work well, and that most of the retirees felt that company sponsored preretirement counseling programs are needed. While most of the counseling programs covered the topics that most retirees felt were interesting and important, a substantial proportion of programs also ignored many topics that sizable numbers of respondents felt were of real interest and importance to retiring employees.