Now in its 5th year, the Best Employers Award for 50 Plus Canadians™ (BEA) competition was created by the Workplace Institute to recognize and reward organizations for innovative and effective programs or initiatives that lead the way to best practices for 50-plus workers while achieving organizational goals.

Objective

The goal of the BEA is to raise the bar for excellence in addressing workplace issues with 50-plus workers through public acknowledgement of groundbreaking and inventive approaches. Developing new ways to retain and attract mature employees is becoming a priority for smart organizations who wish to establish themselves as employers of choice in a competitive labour market.

The Workplace Institute is interested in celebrating “good news” stories - the ways in which an organization has introduced new ideas or programs with 50-plus employees and reaped the rewards for individuals, teams and the organization.

Award Categories

The BEA seeks to recognize great practices for 50-plus workers in the following categories:

• career development
• retention
• recruitment
• workplace culture/practices
• management practices
• health support
• retirement/retiree practices
• benefits
• pensions
• recognition

In 2007, a new category of award was created to recognize the unique challenges for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

Eligibility Criteria

All workplaces with more than 10 employees and in business for more than three years can apply. Applications from all business sectors - private, not-for-profit, academic institutions, labour organizations and governments - are welcome. In the case of larger or multifaceted organizations where an individual unit within the organization may have created something unique, the application may come from one or more business sections.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• description of the program/idea/initiative
• rationale
• responsiveness to needs of the 50-plus worker or organization
• innovation
• quality
• effectiveness of the initiative as measured by positive change and measurable results

Workplaces are not expected to be outstanding in every area. An organization’s application may focus on one great thing it does to meet the needs of its 50-plus workforce in any one category or on many little things in several categories that incrementally add up to make it a great place to work for the mature employee.

Often HR policies implemented for the whole organization are especially appreciated by its 50-plus workers. Policies do not need to be specifically directed at 50-plus workers to be included in the application, but should be shown to be valued by 50-plus workers in the organization.