AARP and SHRM are asking for your help in identifying potential "Best Employers." — Photo by Gary Houlder/Getty Images

Who was the best employer you ever worked for?

Through the years, I've noticed that this question isn't always the same as asking what your "best job" was. Maybe that shift manager you worked for made waiting on tables seem like great fun — as a boss I once had did. I've also noticed that what we value in an employer changes as we age. In my waitress days, I enjoyed the frenetic pace and the entrepreneurial satisfaction of tucking big tips into my pocket at the end of each night. Later, as a young management consultant, I valued the boot-camp intensity of business training and the opportunity to explore and expand my boundaries through business travel.

See also: More on AARP Best Employers.

Now, as a parent of two young children, I'll do almost anything to avoid getting on an airplane for work — and I'm glad that my current job at AARP gives me the flexibility to stay put. I love that I get to mentor younger colleagues and learn from older ones. I love AARP's social mission. And I appreciate the long-term financial stability I'll get through a 401(k) match, a pension and retiree health benefits.

Some of these benefits are in short supply in modern organizations. But there are still employers that offer the kind of workplaces where all employees can thrive — including those over age 50.

Since 2001, AARP has worked with employers to identify, acknowledge and reward policies and practices that define a great workplace for older workers. Last year, with the help of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the "Best Employers for Workers Over 50" program recognized 50 U.S. employers that exemplified the fairness and flexibility that older workers value.

This year, AARP and SHRM are asking for your help in identifying potential "Best Employers."

It's hard not to be wowed by companies like last year's winner, Scripps Health of San Diego. Not only does Scripps recruit, retain and rehire older workers, it offers a dizzying array of unconventional benefits: Section 529 college savings plans, pet insurance, on-site child care, legal assistance, drug discounts, and even a deeply discounted personal genome scan to help identify inherited disease risks.

Next: Rolling out the red carpet. »