Responsible Employers

We ask companies to show concern for the welfare of retiring or outgoing employees by registering them with The Challenge Hub under our “Bridge to Retirement” scheme.

Transition

A mass of evidence exists on how difficult many people find it to transition from the workplace into meaningful retirement. Even the most self-sufficient people find that leaving the disciplines and structures of the workplace is a major life transition.

Retirement requires planning and a determined sense of re-invention. Done badly people lose a sense of purpose, status and social context. The evidence shows that this in turn can lead in varying degrees to a sense of boredom, frustration, undervalue, low self-esteem and even irrelevance. That in turn may lead to introspection and from there to depression, health issues, matrimonial disharmony and other social ills.

That in turn leads to an increase in demand for the NHS and social services.

Encouragement

If those same people can be encouraged from the start of their retirement to lead healthy lives and to make a social contribution then not only do they require less support but they also become useful contributors to charities and to society more generally.

The Challenge Hub is specifically designed to provide that encouragement.

Its members are motivated towards simultaneously learning new things, taking physical exercise and making a social contribution. That philosophy is given coherence by The All in One – a challenge which calls for achievements in all three.

Whether or not taking part in the challenge, members of The Challenge Hub are shown clear pathways into:

(a) low cost and easily accessible learning opportunities (skills-based or otherwise)
(b) physical events which actively encourage participation by older people and
(c) volunteering opportunities which are rewarding.

Programme

The Challenge Hub operates a programme called “Bridge to Retirement”. It calls on all employers to recognise the difficulties which will be faced by their retiring employees and to play a small but vital part in their future wellbeing. We argue that this is both compassionate and socially responsible.

We simply ask employers to apply to The Challenge Hub for third-party membership registration codes which they can pass as a link to their outgoing employees. There’s no cost but if you choose to make a voluntary contribution towards our own costs then we offer, as a “thank you”, formal Challenge Hub invitations to enable a physical presentation to take place.

The retiring employee will in his / her own time activate the membership registration. The Challenge Hub then takes over. Through automated e-mail drops and all our other motivational initiatives we will inspire, encourage and inform.

As an employer you will have done very little but you will have given so much.