Beaumont Hospitals: AARP Best Employers 2008
By: AARP.org | Source: AARP.org | September 2008
2008 Best Employers
View winners of the 2008 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Program.
Winning years: 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004
Industry: Hospitals/Health care
Location: Royal Oak, Mich.
URL: www.beaumonthospitals.com
2008 Rank: 19
Highlights of 2008 Winning Strategies
Although Beaumont does not have a formal phased-retirement program, the hospital works individually with employees who want to reduce their work hours or to transfer to less demanding jobs. The Beaumont Alumni program keeps retirees informed about employment opportunities, special rewards, and discounts. Twenty-nine percent of Beaumont employees are age 50+.
Additional Policies and Practices:
Recruiting: Beaumont’s Human Resources Department contacts retired employees about work opportunities. In addition, the hospital participates in AARP job fairs that are held in the community.
Beaumont collaborates with local universities on producing refresher courses for nurses. The hospital celebrates long-service anniversaries with announcements, parties, awards, and gifts.
Responding to employee requests, the company has made numerous changes to benefits, including: combining separate hospital newsletters into one, cohesive newsletter; enhancing the hospital’s intranet to make it more user-friendly; and launching OneVoice, which gives employees a way of electronically submitting ideas and concerns to management.
Employees gain experience by working on temporary assignments in other departments and on team projects. Accommodations have been made for employees with special needs, including job reassignments through transitional-duty positions and adjustments to work stations to meet specific physical needs.
Benefits/Health: Full- and part-time employees working 20 or more hours a week receive individual and family medical coverage, individual and family prescription-drug coverage, individual and family vision and dental insurance, individual and family long-term care insurance, and short-term disability. Employees working at least 40 hours a week receive long-term disability.
Retirees under age 65 and 65+ receive individual and spousal medical and prescription-drug coverage, individual and spousal vision and dental coverage, an employee-assistance program, and individual life insurance or other death-benefit coverage. New hires are eligible for all of the benefits upon retirement.
Beaumont offers employees flexible-spending and health-savings accounts to help cover out-of-pocket health care costs. In addition, the company funds retirees’ supplemental accounts and extends certain hospital and pharmacy discounts to employees and their dependents.
Benefits/Financial: Beaumont offers a 403(b) plan with an employer match and a cash-balance plan to its full- and part-time employees. All new hires are automatically enrolled in the plan, and employees age 50+ can make catch-up contributions to their 403(b) plans. Employees receive financial-planning information from staff members, from the firm that administers their retirement plans, and from external financial-planning experts.
The hospital system offers the following wellness programs to full- and part-time employees: flu shots, health screenings, health-risk appraisals, smoking-cessation programs, health club discounts, physical activity and exercise programs, weight-loss programs, and stress-management training. Sixty-eight percent of Beaumont employees have used at least one of the wellness benefits during the past 12 months. In addition, employees benefit from myOptimal Health, which is a total health-management strategy aimed at controlling long-term health care costs.
Beaumont offers its full- and part-time employees on-site child care, backup care for child care and eldercare, and referral services to help employees find child care and eldercare. In addition, the hospital system offers up to 40 hours of subsidized backup care annually for all employees, giving them an additional option when faced with unforeseen caregiving responsibilities.
Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements: Beaumont offers alternative-work arrangements, such as flextime, compressed work schedules, and telecommuting, to its full- and part-time employees. Part-time employees are also eligible for job sharing. Full-time employees are eligible to switch to part-time work on a permanent or temporary basis.
Opportunities for Retirees: Beaumont currently has 2,402 retirees and an employee directly responsible for retiree relations. The hospital system stays connected with its retirees by communicating on a regular basis, by inviting them to organization events and celebrations, by providing retirees with ongoing access to retirement planning workshops/information, and by formally acknowledging employees on the occasion of their retirement. Beaumont offers retirees temporary work assignments, consulting and contract work, telecommuting, and full- and part-time work assignments.
Age of Workforce: Twenty-nine percent of Beaumont employees are age 50+. The average tenure of employees age 50+ is 9.1 years.
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