Professor Mary Dean Lee releases Executive Report on Change vs. Status Quo in Organizational Retirement Regimes

The study, based on interviews with Human Resource executives in twenty-four companies in Canada and Australia, explores how firms are responding to the retirement of large numbers of Baby Boomer professionals and managers.

The research—led by Professor Mary Dean Lee at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management with colleagues from York University and University of Melbourne—examines the key human resource challenges around the Baby Boomer exodus and provides information about the kinds of new approaches being pursued, focusing specifically on three sectors: financial services, high-tech manufacturing, and extractive natural resources.

The report highlights specific changes in retirement regimes found among the participating organizations, in addition to a range of perspectives on why these firms believe it is critical to pursue new initiatives. The results reveal a great deal of variation in how different firms are seeking change, for example with a range of objectives and different kinds of employees targeted. There are examples of different degrees of formalization of new practices and indications of different key actors involved.