Study Overview

In partnership with:

The aging of the public sector workforce presents challenges and opportunities to state agencies as it does to all employers.  Government agencies that see themselves as employers-of-choice want to recruit, engage, and retain older workers, as well as younger workers and workers at midlife. Many of these leading public sector employers have found workplace flexibility to be an important component of an effective workplace.
 
States as Employers-of-Choice is a collaborative project being conducted by the Twiga Foundation, Inc. of Boise, Idaho and the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.  This project is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

State Issue Briefs
Our State Issue Briefs explore a single age-work-related question in-depth, with implications for state leadership and talent management.

State Research Highlight #1
Our first State Research Highlight, focused on our recent States as Employers-of-Choice project, contains valuable information concerning the effective management of an aging workforce for employers in both the private and the public sectors. Our findings show that state agencies excel in the areas of assessment and awareness, but the private sector has been slightly ahead in terms of action. The public sector, then, would benefit from rethinking policies in recruiting, engaging, and retaining a diverse age group of employees. In turn, the private sector "can learn from the approaches that state agencies have taken...in terms of their assessment and awareness of older workers within their labor forces."

Study Goals & Objectives

The States as Employers-of-Choice project:

• Promotes the adoption of workplace flexibility practices for the public sector workplace in state agencies.  
• Encourages increased awareness of the aging public sector workforce
• Assesses the readiness of states to be “employers-of-choice” for the public sector workforce.
• Provides technical assistance and tools to help states become “employers-of-choice” for workers of all ages.

Project Components

The State as Employers-of-Choice project offers resources and learning opportunities to state agency administrators with HR responsibilities.   As a result of the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, there are no costs to participating state agencies.  Participants will be given access to:

• Confidential Benchmarking Report for Survey Participants
• On-site technical assistance provided to selected states
• Dialogue with other states in Virtual Learning Circles
• On-line HR Planning and Practice Tools

Currently on-going: The State Initiatives at the Center on Aging & Work will be re-opening our survey in September 2009 to gather information from state agencies across the country about their experiences with recruitment, engagement and retention.  If you are interested in this study or have questions, please contact Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes.

If you have any questions about the survey, please feel free to contact:

Tay McNamara
Director of Research
Center on Aging & Work
Boston College
(617) 552-8971
mcnamatd@bc.edu

If you have any questions about participating in the project, please feel free to contact:

Bob Davis
States as Employers-of-Choice
208-850-9261
davismcs@msn.com

Coming Soon:
For PARTICIPANTS IN THE STATES AS EMPLOYERS-OF-CHOICE
You will soon be able to access a password-protected section of the website that will include special resources for project participants.