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Success is mutual and collaborative. A distinctive feature of the Sloan Center on Aging & Work is the development of meaningful and sustained relationships with business leaders and their representatives. For us, this means a commitment to translating evidence-based research for the workplace as well as linking the knowledge, experience, and desires of practitioners to the design of research studies.
Since its founding in 2005, the center has successfully collaborated with employers in research studies, outreach campaigns, and learning circles, to facilitate organizational efforts to adapt to shifting workforce age demographics. We collaborate with organizational leaders from around the world to build a successful program of employer engaged research. Currently we are working with employers in a range of industry sectors – high-tech, hospitality, financial services, retail, healthcare, higher education, pharmaceuticals, the federal government, and more – while exploring relationships with the professional associations of several industry sectors.
Employers benefit from the opportunity to step back from the short-term, market-driven business world and consider the long-term implications from an evidence-based perspective. The center accelerates employer understanding and decision-making through focused collaborations that lead from awareness of how age-related factors make a difference to concrete practical action.
By locating our research squarely in organizational contexts, scholars affiliated with the center are provided opportunities to see their research “come alive” in the workplace. They also inevitably develop greater sensitivity to the volatility and spontaneity of the business world. Such sensitivity, in turn, along with quality research that grows out of these collaborations, enables scholars to better communicate or our practitioner audiences, to design subsequent studies that are relevant and beneficial to organizational leaders, and to have greater on impact organizational solutions.
The center’s distinctive approach to employer-engaged research, involving both employers and scholars as collaborators on our studies requires a unique commitment to external relations. Our team brings to the center a rich background combing both university-based research, project management experience, and on-the-ground corporate experience. We work closely with both the workplace and the academy to ensure that the center to remains innovative, workplace-relevant, and competitive.
In order to ensure that we are business relevant, the center works with a committee of Workplace Advisors. Our Advisors guide development of the center’s research and workplace-based projects and help us identify emerging issues which may inform new studies and/or publications.
Employer Engagement Options
As the need for quality information to inform practice grows, employers are able to target their level of engagement with the center to maximize the value added to their organization. Click here for more information on our Learning Circle »
Current Research and Project Opportunities
The center conducts both primary and secondary research. We invite employers to participate in several capacities including: as advisors, by providing access to sites for data collection, and by participating in case studies and interviews. In addition, the center works with employers to create innovative networks, strategies, and tools to put evidence into practice in the workplace. Click here for more information »
Workshops and Trainings
In an effort to create positive change for the enterprise and the employee the center continues to explore innovative methodologies and vehicles to place our data into the hands of workplace decision makers in a form that is relevant and usable. The center is currently pilot testing a new series of research based workshops and trainings for managers. For more information, please contact Kathy Lynch, Director Employer Engagement.