City of Glendale

Winning Years: 2011, 2009
Industry: City/County Government
Location: Glendale, Ariz.
Website: www.glendaleaz.com

The City of Glendale has been certified as a "Mature Worker Friendly Employer" in the state of Arizona. Retirees are eligible to participate in the city's wellness plan, which includes annual flu and pneumonia immunization clinics as well as onsite mammography screenings and wellness fairs that offer screenings for cholesterol, glucose, lung function, flexibility and blood pressure issues. Notably, there is no cost to the retiree for either the immunizations or screenings.

See also: How the 2011 Best Employers winners were selected.

Additional Policies and Practices:

Recruiting: Mature workers are targeted via senior placement agencies. The City of Glendale also partners with Goodwill Industries' Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) to employ mature workers in various departments citywide.
 
Workplace Culture/Continued Opportunities: Employees are offered the following learning and development programs: tuition reimbursement, in-house classroom training, online training, certification classes, as well as career counseling and job shadowing. Employees must work at least 20 hours per week to be eligible for all of the above programs except for the tuition reimbursement benefit, which requires full-time employment status (40 hours per week).

A popular workshop that is offered is "Too Young to Retire" and is geared toward the older worker. It is designed to help retirees transition to the next stage of their lives successfully by exploring retirement-related topics such as beliefs and misconceptions about retirement, money and budgeting, attitudes, fears, and resources, health, wellness and travel, and community service opportunities.

Long-service anniversaries are celebrated with announcements, parties and awards.

Because of employee requests, new programs such as the "Retirement Health Savings" and "Too Young To Retire" have been added. Both programs have been very beneficial in assisting the mature workforce in planning for the future.

Employees have opportunities to gain new experiences by working on temporary assignments in other departments, on team projects and by participating in a formal job rotation program.

High-level officials who have retired have been asked to return to mentoring and peer-counseling positions.

Work accommodations are made if necessary and include modifying facility access, modifying job assignments and making ergonomic enhancements.
 
Benefits/Health: Employees working 20 or more hours per week receive individual and family medical coverage, individual and family prescription drug coverage, and individual and family vision and dental insurance, as well as short- and long-term disability.

Health benefits for retirees include individual and spouse medical and drug coverage, individual and spouse vision and dental coverage, individual life insurance or other death benefit coverage, as well as the services of the Employee Assistance Program.

Flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health care retirement savings accounts are available to assist in covering out-of-pocket health care costs.

Next: Financial benefits and alternative work arrangements. >>