Age Friendly Work Culture Best Practice George Mason University

By: AARP Outreach & Service | Source: AARP.org | February 16, 2009

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Organization Profile

George Mason University (Mason) is a 36-year-old educational institution in Fairfax, Va., with 5,000 employees. In 2007, AARP ranked the school among the top-10 Best Employers for Workers Over 50. Approximately 36 percent of Mason's employees are age 50+.

Business Overview

Human resource professionals at Mason were at a standstill. Some employees were leaving their jobs for similar positions at other organizations that offered much higher salaries. HR had to do something—beyond compensation—that would attract qualified job candidates. To stanch turnover, Mason focused on creating an age-friendly work environment by introducing a variety of changes that appealed to workers of all ages, ranging from flexible work schedules to more part-time job opportunities. The university now uses its culture as a marketing tool, which has kept employee satisfaction high and keeps turnover low. In addition, the culture attracts people of all ages, experiences, and skills.

Business Challenge: Competitive Location

The university sits just outside of Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, where unemployment is rarely higher than three percent, said Linda Harber, the associate vice president of HR at Mason. The marketplace is ripe with talent, but it also offers a variety of high-paying public- and private-sector jobs that make recruitment a daunting task for even the most experienced headhunter.

"It's not like you can post a job and get 300 applicants," reported Harber. "The market out there is very painful. If you post a job, you're lucky to get three good applicants."

Although the university offers a comprehensive benefits package, she said it’s not uncommon for Mason to invest time and money into training employees that end up leaving for higher-paying positions within six months. She recalled how an HR generalist resigned to accept an offer for a similar position that paid $20,000 a year more than what the employee was earning at Mason. Another employee—an HR trainer—received a more than $26,000 bump in her annual salary when she accepted a training position in the private sector.

To address turnover issues and the tight labor market, Mason began searching for a way to differentiate itself from the thousands of trade associations, local colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and corporations in the area—all of which draw from the same talent pool. The challenge really boiled down to one question: What could the university offer that would attract and retain experienced candidates who could work elsewhere for higher pay?

"We're in a place where turnover is bad, and we can't afford to say we're only hiring Gen-Yers," she said, explaining that workers in their 20s usually don't command top salaries. "Higher education has that [eclectic] environment—employees who are 20-something to 80," she remarked. "We wanted to make sure we were working with [all] generations."

Business Solution: Flexibility and Engaging Employees Are Key

Years ago, Mason had developed the reputation of being an entrepreneurial university, Harber related. Under the direction of its president, Alan G. Merten, Ph.D., she said that the school supported a variety of innovative concepts, employee programs, and work-life balance opportunities, such as telecommuting or working remotely, which many employees would embrace.

"There was a lot of support for things that traditional universities would not support," she said. "Mason had a reputation of being more flexible and was already primed for those things."

Harber soon realized that this flexibility was the way the university could distinguish itself from other local employers, by creating an environment that catered to workers of all ages. At the time, however, such programs had not moved past the support stage. So HR began pushing, promoting, and implementing the following changes to create a workplace that all employees would want to call home:

Flexible scheduling: "Among HR’s first steps was exploring different ways to keep boomers engaged at the university," said Janet Walker, a work-life and communications coordinator at Mason.

Older workers have changing needs, she reported, so HR focused on different ways to help them stay connected. She said that many post-retirement employees had grown tired of working at full-time jobs, were missing out on important family time, and wanted part-time opportunities that would still enable them to contribute in meaningful ways. Other experienced workers grew weary of long commutes or of paying high gas prices, preferring opportunities to work from home or to adjust their work schedules to fit their changing lifestyles.

The university developed a variety of work arrangements to accommodate employees of all age groups. Employees were permitted to job-share, telecommute, work compressed schedules, work from home, or reduce their hours. To help promote the different work styles, HR decentralized the process. It empowered department supervisors to coordinate unique job arrangements with their own staffs and to send the request up the chain of command for final approval.

"These programs help everybody in different phases of their life cycle," says Walker, adding that they’re especially appealing to older workers in need of change.

Support for caregivers: Two years ago, Walker reported, the school conducted an employee survey and discovered that many workers who were age 50+ were also caregivers for aging parents, who required a wide range of support services. So HR partnered with the school’s college of Health and Human Services to create an elder-care resource and referral program, which was introduced in the fall of 2006.

The program helps employees in three ways: The first involves a part-time program coordinator, a university student who serves in the role in exchange for course credit. She responds to staff questions about available community services, such as transportation or grocery-shopping services for elderly members of an employee’s family.

The second component is a support group, in which employees who double as caregivers can share their concerns and frustrations while learning effective caregiving strategies from their peers. Last, employees can attend the school’s eldercare seminar series, in which lawyers address a variety of topics, such as medical directives.

Initially the seminars were poorly attended, so HR implemented a new strategy: It renamed the workshop "Life Planning" and invited all of the university's 500 retirees to attend, along with the 700 retirees who register for classes and cultural experiences at The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the university. While it's too soon to tell, Walker believes the "Life Planning" workshop will draw a wider, more diverse audience.

"Our goal is to go in all directions," Walker reported. "We have to keep these folks engaged and part of the Mason community in whatever way we can."

Life after retirement: In 2004, the university created a new program, "Retirement Connection," which provides new retirees with goody packages filled with perks, such as free parking passes for one semester and discount coupons to local events. But "Retirement Connection" will contact retirees for another reason: to fill in for employees who need to take time off, such as for maternity or disability leave.

Ahmed said that many older workers enjoy opportunities to work on special projects. Last year, the university obtained a federal grant to hire seven retired military personnel, all of whom were above the age of 50, to work on a security project in the Caribbean.

Likewise, the school hosts a variety of free seminars that mostly appeal to employees age 50+. For example, Mason's preretirement seminar, which is held every spring, attracted about 60 employees this past April, Ahmed reported. In the seminars, participants discuss retirement options or talk one-on-one with financial advisers. Some participants also attend the university's "Lunch and Learn" programs. Ahmed says HR uses both seminars as recruiting tools to identify employees who want to remain in their jobs after retirement or are interested in pursuing second careers.

Knowledge transfer: New university employees are assigned a mentor to help them through the onboarding experience, said Patricia Donini, Mason's employee relations director and deputy director of HR and payroll. Selected by department supervisors, mentors don’t receive training but typically are more experienced employees.

To strengthen knowledge transfer and employee satisfaction throughout the organization, HR launched a workplace-coaching program in 2007. University deans, directors, and others nominate employees for the positions. Coaches are selected by HR from the pool of recommended applicants. Unlike mentors, coaches meet with employees upon request; together, they brainstorm options and effective solutions to work-related problems or situations.

Outcome: Employees are Happier, Engaged, and Committed

Mason has been tracking employee satisfaction in a variety of areas for several years. Based on the results, which include program-participation rates, the university is on the right track. Consider the following outcomes, which have helped reverse Mason's employee-turnover rate toward a downward trend:

In 2000, HR started surveying employees every three years about their quality of work- lives. The survey measured everything from employees’ salaries and benefits to their work-unit relationships, fairness, autonomy, and growth. The percentage of employees who reported being either satisfied or very satisfied increased from 63.4 percent in 2000 to 74.2 percent in 2006.
Employee turnover dropped from 20.7 percent to 13.7 percent between fiscal years 2005/2006 and 2006/2007.
More than one-third, or35 percent, of the school’s 17 conflict coaches are age 50+. The average age is 47.
Average attendance in Mason's "Life Planning" seminars increased by 9 percent between 2007 and 2008.
Since 2007, 15.4 percent of all tuition waivers have been given to employees age 50+.
Participation in retirement-education programs and in one-on-one retirement counseling has also increased.

After reviewing the metrics, Harber said that she's most impressed with the increase in employee satisfaction, the growing participation rate in retirement education, and the fact that experienced employees are still being recognized for their contributions.

"We're really trying hard to do all the things we can to hire the best, retain the best, and bring back the best," she explained, adding that she believes the school's reputation as a positive workplace for experienced workers is growing stronger. "We're here to continue doing great things with them," she said.