|
Click here to view the Resources Related to Retention Strategies for Older Workers. |
Older Worker Retention Strategies Grants Overview
Many industries in the Commonwealth are facing worker shortages and knowledge drain due to the current or impending retirement of skilled workers. The intent of the Older Worker Retention Strategies Program is to support the Commonwealth's businesses in conducting the design and planning of strategies to:
- Increase their ability to retain their older workers (over 50 years of age); and
- Support the sharing of the strategies developed through these grants to increase our collective knowledge on methods for retaining older workers.
Through the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund, Commonwealth Corporation has funded seven grant projects that began their 12 month grant period in November or December 2008. Each grantee will, as an outcome of the project, provide a written retention plan which provides a strategy and timeline for addressing their goal of retaining their targeted group of older workers. Through review of the grantees’ retention plans and mid term and final reports, promising practices will be identified related to planning and designing targeted retention strategies.
Back to Top
Older Worker Retention Strategies Grant awardees are:
Organization: Bay State Medical Center, Springfield, MA
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): HealthCare, RNs in Surgical Services
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: Explore scheduling, work flow, work environment, job re-design, knowledge transfer changes to address retention in this RN specialty. Will also do literature review to identify best practices for strategies to retain nurses. Their work will be shared with members of the CANDO project in Western MA (Collaborating for the Advancement of Nursing Developing Opportunities)
Organization: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): HealthCare, Perioperative Nurses
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: Conduct a workforce analysis which may include focus groups, surveys and interviews to identify practices which will impact the retention of Perioperative nurses. Changes may include knowledge transfer strategies, phased retirement, changes to ergonomic environment and working conditions. Grantee will research best practices and submit a summary of this research.
Organization: Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): Higher Education, Tenured Faculty
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: A Steering Committee will collect input from faculty and develop recommendations that may impact retention of tenured faculty. Recommendations will be vetted with Human Resources, University Leadership and faculty union for the purpose of identifying phased retirement, and post-retirement employment options. Models identified may have implications for other state employees.
Organization: Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), Worcester, MA (with partners from Western MA Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association)
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): Manufacturing, Machinists, Set Up Operators, Machine Operators, Production Workers
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: Will create an assessment tool and methodology that will demonstrate the business impact of retaining, or losing, the skills and knowledge of targeted older workers. Grantee will work with six member companies to utilize this tool for the purpose of developing specific retention plans for each company. The tool will be made available for other businesses to utilize after the grant period.
Organization: Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board, Lawrence and Haverhill, MA
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): Manufacturing, 7 Production Workers, 4 Office Workers, 2 Quality Assurance Workers, 1 Die Maker
Grant amount: $38,537
Planning grant summary: Will conduct interviews and complete surveys with employees from partner business. Based on these findings, grantee will work with company leadership to develop a retention plan for those targeted employees. Grantee will also complete a literature review to identify existing strategies and models being used to retain older workers and provide a summary of the findings.
Organization: UMass Medical School, Worcester, MA
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): Higher Education, occupations TBD
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: Develop a Steering Committee that will identify a set of criteria and a method of identifying “mission critical” positions. The employees in these “mission critical” positions will be provided with individual services and supports through the University’s “Flexible Work Options” program. The design and implementation of this strategy will be shared with other UMass Campuses.
Organization: UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA (with partners from MA Nurses Association, UMass Graduate School of Nursing)
Industry and Targeted Occupation(s): Healthcare, Registered Nurses
Grant amount: $50,000
Planning grant summary: Will focus on all RN’s over 50 yrs of age who work in direct patient care roles. Grantee will conduct a literature search on RN retention strategies and share summary. They will utilize a web based questionnaire and focus groups to gather input from RN’s, identify and explore specific strategies then make recommendations for plan implementation to leadership.
Contact Us
For more information, contact:
Karen Shack
Commonwealth Corporation
The Schrafft Center
529 Main Street, Suite 110
Boston, MA 02129-1125
617-727-8158 ext. 2250
kshack@commcorp.org
Back to Top
