AARP Best Employers: Where’s the business sector?
September 25th, 2007AARP released it’s list of “Best Employers for Workers over 50″ list for 2007. Although S.C. Johnson topped the list of 50, what caught my eye is the dominance of health care and non-profits in the annual ranking. Companies apply to be listed, and AARP judges the applicants based on a range
of human resources practices and policies, including recruiting practices, training, education, career development opportunities and flexible work arrangements. Retiree and health benefits are also considered. It’s interesting to see that business is under-represented here compared with other sectors of the economy. I threw the list on a spreadsheet and did a quick analysis; 52 percent of organizations listed are in the health sector; about a third were publicly-held or private companies like S.C. Johnson.
Business awareness of attracting and retaining older workers does seem to be on the rise; just 22 percent of last year’s AARP listees were public or private companies.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Is there any correlation between the Working Women’s Best Places and the AARP Best Places?
My thinking is that health care and non profits are much more flexible in their staffing needs. Health organizations also usually have a myriad of healthy living benefits that would appeal to AARP members.
Is the fact that this is an AARP survey skew the results?
Interesting post. Thanks.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:59 am
While they are certainly all credible employers in AARP’s survey. The real transition to the better use of the over-50 talent will be in the small business sector (companies employing less that 500). These employers are motivated by the talent, energy and work ethic that will grow their business. Resources for those employers can be found at http://www.workforce50.com .