These programs are stupid. All the smart people who can easily get another job will take the money and leave. They’ll be left with the ‘others’ to keep their business running.
I have seen cases where the leavers joined consulting companies, and their first assignment was: right back where they used to work! Only they were getting $1000 a day plus expenses.
Maybe not. This is targeted at the over 50 population. That age group may have a harder time finding a new job if they didn't want to truly retire.
It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the company is shifting its costs from a salary burden to a pension burden. They may avoid pensions by making a one-time lump sum payment instead of lifetime annuity payments, in exchange for cutting their immediate operating costs. On the other hand, they take the short-term hit in productivity while they train up the next generation.
The risk is that they are trading proven loyal workers with unproven younger workers. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the 50+ workers will retire soon anyway, so they might as well get ahead of it and manage the transition on their terms, rather than be reactive as each worker chooses to retire on their own individual timelines.
-PJ