A session for leaders on the hidden psychosocial risks of later career - and what your organisation can do about them
Most psychosocial risk frameworks focus on what's happening to employees right now — workload, relationships, change fatigue. But there's a growing risk that sits just outside most WHS programs: the stress and identity disruption experienced by employees as retirement moves from a distant idea to an approaching reality.
While the 17 psychosocial hazards identified under WHS legislation provide a solid foundation, they don't capture every risk your workforce faces. Pre-retirement stress is one that often goes unrecognised — yet its impact on employee wellbeing, engagement and psychological safety is very real.
In this session, psychosocial retirement educator Dr San and career transition specialist Robyn Greaves bring together their complementary expertise to help P&C leaders understand, recognise and respond to one of the most underexplored dimensions of workforce wellbeing. Drawing on research, practice and deep experience working with both individuals and organisations, they'll explore what later career transition actually looks like from the inside — and what it means for the people and teams you support.
About the session
As employees in their 50s and 60s move closer to retirement, many begin to experience a growing sense of loss — of identity, purpose, meaning, connection, and direction. This existential unease rarely announces itself loudly, but it shows up in disengagement, distraction and a quiet withdrawal from the work and people around them.
At the same time, many of these employees are not looking to disappear. They want to keep contributing — but differently. More flexibly, more purposefully, on terms that reflect where they are in life. The challenge for organisations is that the structures, assumptions and cultural narratives around later career often don't make space for that.
Together, Dr San and Robyn will examine both sides of this challenge: the psychosocial risks that build as retirement approaches, and the opportunity to reshape what later career contribution looks like — for the individual and for the organisation.
Underlying this conversation is a broader shift in how people think about later career and retirement itself. While traditional retirement works for some people, for many it does not fit their reality or aspirations.
What you'll take away
A clearer understanding of pre-retirement stress as an emerging psychosocial risk and why it deserves a place in your wellbeing strategy
Insight into how later career transition affects identity, engagement and psychological safety across your workforce
Practical approaches for supporting experienced employees through this transition in ways that benefit both the individual and the organisation
A new lens on later career talent — one that moves beyond the wind-down narrative toward contribution, flexibility and sustainable performance
An understanding of why retaining the wisdom, judgement and perspective of experienced professionals is a strategic priority, particularly as AI reshapes the future of work
About the speakers
Dr San (Sandra Walden Pearson) PhD MBA Psychosocial Retirement Educator
Dr San specialises in the emerging intersection of retirement psychology and workplace wellbeing. With a PhD in Business, an MBA specialising in HR, and qualifications in teaching and coaching, she brings academic depth and decades of people leadership experience to a challenge most organisations haven't yet named — let alone addressed.
Robyn Greaves Career Change Specialist, Author & Speaker
Robyn Greaves is the author of Your Third Chapter and creator of The Third Chapter Companion AI. Drawing on decades of experience in senior leadership and change roles across organisations including BHP, Apple, Woolworths and Westpac, she works with experienced professionals and organisations to rethink later career, workforce participation and what meaningful contribution can look like in a longer working life.
Robyn has taught on the AGSM MBA and Change Management programs and has designed and delivered non-retirement, international later career transition programs for professional services organisations. She has contributed to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Channel 7 Sunrise and a wide range of podcasts and print media on later career and the changing nature of work.