Atlantic Health: 2009 Best Employers for Workers Over 50

By: AARP.org | Source: AARP.org | September 2009

Winning Years: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006
Industry: Hospitals/Healthcare
Location: Morristown, N.J.
URL: www.atlantichealth.org

Highlights of 2009 Winning Strategies
Atlantic Health continues to be an AARP Best Employer for Workers Over 50 because it helps its employees maintain life-work balance. Not only can employees take advantage of programs, development opportunities, and free continuing-education classes, but retirees are also able to tap into a large list of retirement-planning workshops. The workshops include such topics as eldercare, Medicare, Medicaid, Medigap, powers of attorney, and living wills. Thirty-four percent of Atlantic Health employees are age 50+.

Recruiting: To attract mature talent, recruiters at Atlantic Health draw on the health-care system’s established partnerships with local senior clubs. Atlantic Health also uses its 1,000-Hour Club to keep in touch with retirees, who can return for per diem and temporary work assignments.
Workplace Culture and Continued Opportunities: Learning and development opportunities offered to full- and part-time employees at Atlantic Health include tuition reimbursement, in-house classroom training, online training, and certification classes. Employees must work 19 hours of work per week to be eligible for tuition reimbursement. One hundred percent of Atlantic Health employees took part in at least one development opportunity, with an average of 72 hours spent in training.

Atlantic Health celebrates long-service anniversaries with announcements, parties, and awards. Atlantic has programs designed to help employees balance life and work obligations, including an identity-theft-protection program, a free shuttle service, a dry-cleaning service, extended bereavement leave, a Medicare workshop, eldercare workshops, and an on-site nurse practitioner.

Atlantic Health employees gain experience through temporary job assignments, team projects, educational opportunities, and access to a formal job-rotation and mentoring program. The hospital system is also committed to accommodating its older workers by investing in workspace ergonomics and patient-lifting devices.

Benefits/Health:  Atlantic Health offers full- and part-time employees  the following health benefits: individual and family medical and prescription-drug coverage, employee and family vision insurance, employee and family long-term care insurance, and short-term disability coverage.

Atlantic also offers full-time employees working at least 36 hours per week individual and family dental insurance and long-term disability coverage.

Retirees above and below age 65 are eligible for retiree and spousal medical insurance, drug coverage, and a retiree death benefit. Retirees under 65 and their spouses are also eligible for vision coverage. Atlantic Health offers employees a flexible spending account (FSA) with a debit-card feature, helping them cover out-of-pocket medical expenses while eliminating the hassle of reimbursement paperwork.
Benefits/Financial:  Atlantic Health offers cash-balance or other hybrid retirement benefits and a 403(b) plan to its full- and part-time employees. Employees can choose to invest in life-cycle funds, and employees ages 50+ can make catch-up contributions to their 403(b) plans. Two full-time, certified financial-service representatives offer employees retirement information and planning advice. Atlantic Health also provides “Focus on Your Financial Future” workshops, which provide information on retirement planning, Social Security benefits, the company’s pension plan, IRA considerations, investment planning, and debt management.

Atlantic Health offers short- and long-term unpaid leave to employees who have caregiving duties. In the past year, 79 percent of employees used one of the following benefits, which Atlantic Health provides: flu shots, health screenings, health-risk appraisals, smoking-cessation programs, discounts to health clubs, physical-activity programs, weight-loss counseling, and stress-management training.

The company offers free workshops to help employees deal with the responsibility of taking care of older relatives. Atlantic Health also provides on-site care for children and grandchildren; the on-site day care also serves as a backup for parents and grandparents. Finally, Atlantic provides referrals to help employees find care for children and grandchildren and for eldercare.

Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements:  Full- and part-time Atlantic Health employees may take advantage of the following alternative work arrangements: flextime, compressed work schedules, job-sharing, and telecommuting. Full-time employees can use the company’s phased-retirement program and can move to part-time work on a permanent or temporary basis.

Opportunities for Retirees:  Atlantic Health has an employee who is directly responsible for relations with the company’s 2,100 retirees. Through this employee, Atlantic keeps in touch by inviting retirees to company events and workshops and by giving retirees ongoing retirement-planning opportunities.

Atlantic Health formally acknowledges workers upon retirement and invites them to the Service Awards Dinner and Dance. Retirees may also stay connected to the company through temporary-work assignments, consulting work, telecommuting, or part-time work. Retirees can also join the 1,000-Hour Club, which enables them to return to work on a per diem or part-time basis without affecting their retirement benefits.

Age of Workforce: Thirty-four percent of Atlantic Health employees are age 50+, with an average tenure of 15.4 years.