ZEELAND, MI --- When Jake Boeve first heard Herman Miller offered flexible retirement, he thought the idea of easing out of a job was a little odd.

But at age 66, Boeve realized he needed to start thinking about life after his decades-long career at the Zeeland office furniture maker.

"I knew at the time I had to retire, I just liked what I was doing," Boeve said.



He had seen his peers go from a busy career to no job at all in the matter of a weekend. It often made them feel lost and unproductive until they adjusted to end of their professional work life.

Under Herman Miller's flexible retirement program, Boeve had two years to transition out of the workforce as he scaled back his work week to three days at the time of his retirement last June.

With Baby Boomers on the cusp of mass retirement, companies are beginning to rethink their programs so they are better prepared for the exodus of talent and institutional knowledge.



Three West Michigan employers — Herman Miller, Steelcase and Grand Valley State University — are leading the way by giving employees the flexibility to scale back hours and mentor their replacements before they transition into the next phase of their lives.

Corporate benefits are changing to accommodate workers age 55 and older because they will account for 25 percent of the labor force by 2020, said Chris Farrell, a journalist and author who has written extensively on retirement.

“They are better educated and healthier than previous generations,” said Farrell, which makes them more valuable to companies.

He highlights Herman Miller’s efforts in his new book, “Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life.”

A few years ago, Herman Miller looked at its aging workforce and realized that a significant number of its employees would be eligible for retirement over the next decade. Nearly a quarter of the company’s 7,000 employees are 55 years or older.

Its flex retirement program gives the company an opportunity to predict retirements and train replacements.

“Our worst fear is somebody walks in after 30 years and says, ‘I’m going to retire in two weeks,” said Mike Koppenol, who oversees the company’s compensation, benefits and payroll.

Herman Miller’s program is available to all employees age 60 and older who have worked for the company for at least five years.

Since the program was put in place in June 2012, there have been 56 participants. In the past two years, nearly one-third of the company’s 76 retirements have been phased in. Just over 60 percent of those participating are hourly workers; the rest are salary.

Under Herman Miller’s flex retirement program, employee put together a knowledge-transfer plan to mentor their replacements. The flex-program gives employees six months to two years to phase out of their jobs.

“My sense is that it has been well-received and people are taking advantage of it,” said Koppenol. “We're finding a way to transition a generation of the workforce without people taking years of experience and institutional knowledge in a sudden departure.”

In addition to the flex retirement program, the company offers another benefit that allows workers more downtime: Employees, not just older ones, can take six to 12 weeks off each year without pay and maintain company benefits.

This option has allowed some employees to live the life of a snowbird retiree during Michigan’s winter months and still return to their jobs in the spring.

GVSU, STEELCASE OFFER FLEXIBLE OPTIONS

In recent years, GVSU has offered flexible work options to its staff that give non-faculty employees more say in when they start their workday, how many days they work, and from where.

Susan Sloop now works four days a week so she can spend every Friday with her grandchildren. That perk will probably keep her in job for longer, says the work-life consultant in GVSU’s Human Resource Department.

“It makes me more loyal to Grand Valley, and it makes me feel more valued,” said Sloop, who has worked for the Grand Rapids area public university for a decade.

The university’s phased-in retirement is gaining traction among employees, although it is primarily used by faculty. But it is available to staff members where the nature of their work would accommodate a phased retirement plan, Sloop said.

Like Herman Miller, Grand Rapids office furniture giant Steelcase launched its phased-in retirement program in 2012.

There are a couple differences: It’s not available for every position, but those who are approved for the plan earn a 25 percent pay premium in exchange for training their replacements.

“It’s about knowledge transfer,” said David Gast, Steelcase’s director of benefits and health services. “It’s open to certain employees in roles that are important to the business — not everyone will be approved for this.”

Those positions eligible for the program include many office and some skilled trade positions on the shop floor that require years of on-the-job training.

GOVERNMENT TO CHANGE ITS RETIREMENT POLICY

Two-thirds of organizations haven’t come up with a plan to deal with the loss of their aging workforce, according to a survey by The Society for Human Resource Management.

Only half of those surveyed track the percentage of their workers eligible to retire within the next one to two years.

While Herman Miller, Steelcase and GVSU are on the leading edge of redefining retirement, the federal government isn’t far behind.

Changes to government workforce benefits could trigger the majority of companies to look at their policies, Farrell said.

He says a framework is being developed to help federal agencies create their own flex retirement policies. The federal government is feeling the issue more acutely because it has an older than average workforce.

Phased-in retirement is being picked up first in industries where skilled workers are in short supply, such as technology and pharmaceutical.



Boeve says he appreciated that while he scaled back his hours, he continued to receive his health care as a full-time employee. He collected 60 percent of his vacation pay and bonus while working three-day weeks.

Hired in 1965 as a production worker, Boeve later transitioned into the company’s warehousing operation. For 15 years, he oversaw the inventory of computers assigned to employees.

Even his retirement didn’t mean the end of his relationship with Herman Miller.

He now works as a contractor filling in at the mail department, making deliveries to the company's various buildings when an employee is sick or on vacation. Boeve knows the routes well after nearly a half century with the business.

“I pretty well hit the ground running,” Boeve said.

Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.