Remember the days when retirement planning wasn't that difficult - the days when one was expected to retire at a particular age and all the financial legs of the stool were in place to support that retirement?

Social Security was a given. Most could expect a reasonably comfortable pension that would be delivered monthly until death - a reward for an often lengthy career.

And some employees were also able to save a few extra dollars during their careers, and this money was used to supplement Social Security and one's pension. From a money management standpoint, for many people there wasn't much planning necessary for retirement.

Today's landscape certainly presents a much more challenging picture for prospective retirees.

Threats of cutbacks to Social Security, exhausted funding and a government that is spending more than it is taking in puts this once-reliable funding source on unstable ground. Traditional defined benefit pension plans are going the way of the dinosaur.

The shift to personal responsibility for pension funding by way of the 401(k) puts a burden on the individual to come up with that stream of income that was previously guaranteed by DB plans. And while savings rates have improved recently, we still don't save much apart from what we put into company-provided savings vehicles.

In MetLife's Eighth Annual Survey of Employee Benefit Trends, employees said they intend to delay retirement, with 59% of employees saying they plan to work past age 65.

More than half of the employees surveyed said they are behind in saving for retirement compared with where they had hoped to be. Overall, barely a quarter of employees say they are on track for retirement.

Employers doing little

We know that many employees have been handed the responsibility for their own retirement planning. We also know employees are very concerned about their ability to plan for their own retirement, yet we find employers doing little to provide financial training in the workplace that would help employees deal with retirement planning.

In MetLife's survey, 58% of employees expressed interest in getting assistance from their employers with financial planning, but only 6% of employees indicated strong agreement that their organization does things to help them manage their finances more effectively.

Employers have not increased their focus on providing financial advice, guidance and retirement education, despite employee interest, perhaps reflecting the economic pressures of the last year.

MetLife recently released a Retirement Readiness Workbook, and their research shows that "a successful transition into retirement involves a personal, career and financial transition that is associated with the completion of 15 specific developmental tasks associated with work, leisure and activity, relationships, income and benefits, and planning.

Each of these developmental tasks should be considered before an employee retires. Not doing so puts a successful and satisfying transition to retirement at risk.

If employees don't get this training in the workplace, where will they get it? It was the companies that chose to freeze or eliminate their DB plans altogether that stirred the retirement planning pot in the first place.

In the days of guaranteed pensions, things pretty much took care of themselves. That's not the case today. A person has to do thorough planning and analysis to create a retirement that will ensure lifelong resources and contentment in retirement.

With little investment, companies can bring much-needed retirement planning education to the workplace.

I'm talking about a comprehensive training program that takes into account all those critical development tasks cited by MetLife - work, leisure and activity, relationships, income and benefits, and planning. Study and planning are necessary in all of these areas to ensure a balanced and fruitful retirement.

Those employers that care about the well-being of their employees will answer the call and ensure the resources needed to ready their employees for retirement are in place and available to employees on an ongoing basis, just as employee assistance programs are today in many companies.

Employers that make retirement planning a priority will reap the goodwill of a grateful employee population and the recruitment and retention benefits that come with a first- class reputation for caring about the welfare of employees.

Contributing Editor Wayne Hanson, SPHR, CEPF, is an HR consultant with a special interest in financial literacy. He has provided support to the private sector in a number of different capacities.

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