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Best Employers Program Honorees

Girl Scouts of Nassau County

Winning Year: 2007
Industry: Not For Profit
Location: Garden City, NY
URL: www.gsnc.org

Highlights of 2007 Winning Strategies

Girls Scouts of Nassau County established an "Action Planning Team" and an "Idea Group" in an overall effort to enhance employees' quality of life by improving work/life balance. Both groups promoted the idea of formalizing flexible work options to meet this goal.

Additional Policies and Practices

  • Recruiting: Girl Scouts of Nassau County (GSNC) uses senior placement agencies to target mature workers.
  • Workplace Culture/Continued Opportunities: To its full- and part-time employees, GSNC offers learning and development programs: in-house classroom training, on-line training, and off-site professional development opportunities. Part-time employees must work at least 20 hrs/week to be eligible for off-site professional development. In the past 12 months, 100 percent of GSNC's employees took part in at least one training opportunity with an average of 8 training hours. Employee requests have prompted the enhancement of numerous benefits, including: adding a flexible spending account option, GSNC joining a credit union, GSNC joining a corporate discount entertainment group that offers discounts to employees, making available a discounted insurance program for homeowner and auto insurance, and permitting staff to use work hours to meet with financial advisors. Employees gain new experiences by working on temporary projects in other departments and taking part in cross-department team projects.
  • Benefits/Health: Employees working at least 30 hours per week receive individual medical and prescription drug coverage as well as short- and long-term disability insurance. Health benefits for retirees pre-65 and 65+ include individual as well as spouse medical coverage, and individual life insurance or other death benefit coverage. Retirees pre-65 also receive individual and spouse prescription drug coverage. New hires are eligible for all of these benefits upon retirement excluding the individual and spouse prescription drug coverage benefit. GSNC offers employees an FSA plan to assist with out-of-pocket health care costs.
  • Benefits/Financial: GSNC offers full- and part-time employees a 403(b) plan with employer match as well as a defined-benefit plan. Other than employer match, GSNC encourages employees to participate in the 403(b) plan by offering them the option to choose to invest in lifecycle funds, and employees 50+ can make catch-up contributions. Employees receive financial planning information from the financial services firm that administers their 403(b) plan. GSNC offers short-term time off without pay as well as long-term leaves of absence without pay to allow for caregiving. All employees can take advantage of a Weight-Watchers-at-Work program. GSNC also offers full-time employees discounts to local health clubs. Forty-five percent of GSNC employees have used at least one of these wellness benefits in the past 12 months.
  • Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements: GSNC has the following alternative work arrangements: flextime offered to full- and part-time employees, and compressed work schedules and telecommuting offered to full-time employees. Full-time employees are eligible to move to part-time work on a permanent basis.
  • Opportunities for Retirees: GSNC currently has 38 retirees. The organization stays connected with its retirees by inviting them to the organization's events and celebrations, and formally acknowledging them on retirement. It extends retirees an opportunity to take temporary work assignments.
  • Age of Workforce: Seventy-two percent of GSNC employees are 50+. The average tenure of employees age 50+ is 11 years.

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