Evergreen Retirement: How Much Does the Program Cost

When it comes to retirement, everyone knows that you need a financial plan. As soon as we enter the workforce, everyone from our parents to our friends, from our colleagues to our bosses, tell us to save, save, save, if we want to retire successfully.

And this is 100 percent true. If you ever want to retire, you will need to have saved a decent sum of money to make the transition out of full-time work.

However, there is an equally important aspect that has long gone unreported: the lifestyle change.

While most organizations have adopted financial programs for their employees in the form of 401ks and other savings programs, many have simply never considered how the change from full-time work to retirement (even if the person is switching jobs, starting their own company, or has other plans after their current role) impacts their likelihood of actually retiring in general.

This is where Evergreen comes into play.

In short, Evergreen is a program that can go alongside financial retirement plans that aims to help tenured staff members understand and plan for the social and emotional experience that accompanies retirement.

For example, how will their days look when they step out of an organization that they have worked for for years? What will their next life step be?

Many people ignore this process, deciding to instead focus solely on the monetary side of retirement, but Evergreen hopes to change all of that.

“Evergreen begins with a lifestyle-based assessment and personal coaching supplemented by a thorough learning experience. The program is value priced and configured to suit your organization’s needs,” explains Tracy Grajewski, Vice President of Business Develop here at Careerminds.

“For example, one retailer we support provides a combination of webinars, onsite workshops and individual coaching depending on the timing and availability of their associates.”

In other words, from start to finish, Evergreen is a personalized experience that allows organizations to support their upcoming retirees.

By doing so, the business can help their staff, many of which have worked with them for countless years, and also foster a relationship with the retiree, allowing for knowledge transfer and other key aspects that can impact the organization’s bottom line when someone makes their exit.

Here’s Tracy again:

“We focus on educating and empowering later-career individuals so they can plan their transition from the full-time corporate setting to their next life experiences while still employed – this could also include contributing differently at your organization. Our clients are using Evergreen to introduce creative workforce strategies like phased retirement or “project corps” that help them retain experienced team members to provide knowledge transfer or staffing for project-oriented work or technology changes – a ‘win win’ for both parties. The program nicely supplements any financial planning program you may offer today.”

While it’s obvious how a program like Evergreen can seriously aid pre-retirees on their journey, does it really help the business? Is it worth it? And, finally, what’s something like this cost, anyway?

Let’s dig in.

Like we just said, the impact Evergreen can have on your retirees is immense. This program allows them to fully realize what their retirement will look like, helping them plan ahead and change their work circumstances successfully.

And that last bit is super important for you, the organization, too.

Before we get into why, we need to understand how retirement has changed over the last decade or so.

Right now, it’s estimated that around 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age (65) every day in the US, and this trend is supposed to last for years to come.

A few years ago, HR and business leaders were super worried that this stat meant that 10,000 people would leave the workforce every day, creating a mass exodus of tenured, knowledgeable workers.

That never happened.

Sure, some Baby Boomers did retire, but the vast majority either never left their organizations or left to find new work elsewhere, deciding to strike out on their own and open businesses, to work in the gig economy, to pursue passions, and many other things.

Some continue to work for financial reasons, however, this is the first generation that was able to find fulfillment and engagement in their work. Many work because they love it.

This is because retirement has fundamentally changed. 65 is no longer what it used to be. Workers are now more empowered, healthy, and ready to keep working than ever before, and it’s taken businesses a long time to realize that and even longer to put policies in place that can aid these later career workers.

So what does this mean for businesses?

Basically, it means that businesses have to adopt retirement practices that help later-career workers transition either into a full retirement or to find out what their next steps will be.

By doing so, you will help retain valuable knowledge at your company, train developing workers, like Millennials, to take over leadership roles, and provide a way for those who want to retire to do so, prompting a healthy turnover rate in the upper levels of your business, one that is mutual, respectful, and helpful to both parties.

Evergreen can help with all of this.

This all sounds expensive, right? With all of the coaching, webinars, trainings, and helpful guidance, Evergreen must cost and arm and a leg.

Wrong.

Because Evergreen is such a unique experience for everyone going through the program, there are a ton of options for businesses.

To start out, you can have your staffers go through a webinar-based Evergreen program, which includes a Life Options Assessment, a webinar with one and a half hours of content, and a one-hour personal coaching session for under $400 per individual.

That’s a one-time payment, too.

Put that into perspective, if you have a Going Away Party for the staff member at a nice restaurant with drinks, decent food, and a few other staffers, Evergreen will be less than your group’s meal.

It’s less than an iPad or even the proverbial “gold watch.” It’s less than a conference visit. It’s less than a lot of things, but it’s importance greatly outweighs all of them.

If you are interested in providing Evergreen to your staff members, we recommend you get in touch so that we can better understand your needs and give you a custom quote that will be perfect for your business and your retiree.

To find out more about our pricing, click here:

Josh Hrala

Josh is an HR journalist and ghostwriter who's been covering outplacement and offboarding for over six years. Before pivoting to the HR world, he was a science journalist whose work can be found in Popular Science, ScienceAlert, The Huffington Post, Cracked, Modern Notion, and more.