Are you ready for your Sir Alex, Paul Scholes or David Beckham moment?

In the last week there have been three very notable announcements of retirement. Sir Alex Ferguson and Paul Scholes will both retire from Manchester United and football in general on the 19th May 2013 after Manchester United have played West Brom. David Beckham has recently announced that he too will be retiring from professional football at the end of this season.

It is inevitable that an employer will have people retire, but the difficult part is making sure that there are proper procedures in place to deal with retirement.

There are many things that employers need to be aware of regarding retirement. Generally when employers are considering what points to include in their retirement policy and procedure, they should think about the need to include a compulsory retirement age, the way in which any discussions regarding employees plans for the future will be conducted to ensure that there can be no allegation of discrimination for example on the grounds of sex or age, and indeed, the notice provisions that will be required.

Requiring an employee to give as much notice as reasonably possible is crucial and would allow for appropriate planning. Certainly with any manager or senior employee such as Sir Alex Ferguson, the steps needed to ensure that a replacement is found need to be taken swiftly to ensure that the right candidate is recruited and also to allow for a proper handover where necessary.

If a retirement age were going to be imposed then employers must make sure that the retirement age is capable of being objectively justified, something we look at in more detail another time.

For the time being however it is simply sufficient to say that appropriate planning and discussions with staff should be at the forefront of all employers minds to ensure that they are not “left in the lurch” when employees do decide to retire.