Absence and Disability Management Practices for an Aging Workforce

The goal of Disability and Absence Management programming is to limit absence, control costs, and retain workers to maintain a productive workforce. This can include the development of supportive policies (e.g. flexible work options), manager and employee education, supportive benefit programs, return to work programs, among others. Increasingly, older workers have become a group of interest among Absence and Disability Management professionals, in part because many baby boomers are forgoing retirement and working longer. Projections suggest that by 2020 those 55 and over could account for 25% of workers. This shift is especially important given that disability prevalence increases with age – as the workforce ages, organizations will increasingly need to ensure their programming supports older workers. During the fall and winter of 2012-13, Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute and the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) collaborated on a survey and key informant interviews with DMEC members and conference attendees to learn more about what organizations are doing to respond to and prepare for an aging workforce

Mental Modeling: A Qualitative Method for Mapping Audience Behaviors and Designing Social Marketing Initiatives

Social marketing often applies commercial marketing approaches to programs intended to improve the social welfare by changing individuals’ beliefs and behaviors. We present Mental Modeling, a commercial approach to market research and audience segmentation that has not previously been applied in a social marketing context. We discuss the application of this methodology within an organization focusing on changing employers’ perceptions and behaviors around hiring and retaining individuals with disabilities. First, we describe approaches to social marketing broadly and present the Mental Modeling methodology. We then discuss interpretation and application of the model to the development of an improved, data-driven approach to social marketing for our target audienceMental_Modeling_2014.pdf: 545 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.0-Mental_Modeling_2014.htm: 162 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.1-MentalModel_Exhibit_1_08.pdf: 135 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Absence and Disability Management Practices for an Aging Workforce

The goal of Disability and Absence Management programming is to limit absence, control costs, and retain workers to maintain a productive workforce. This can include the development of supportive policies (e.g. flexible work options), manager and employee education, supportive benefit programs, return to work programs, among others. Increasingly, older workers have become a group of interest among Absence and Disability Management professionals, in part because many baby boomers are forgoing retirement and working longer. Projections suggest that by 2020 those 55 and over could account for 25% of workers. This shift is especially important given that disability prevalence increases with age – as the workforce ages, organizations will increasingly need to ensure their programming supports older workers. During the fall and winter of 2012-13, Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute and the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) collaborated on a survey and key informant interviews with DMEC members and conference attendees to learn more about what organizations are doing to respond to and prepare for an aging workforce.Absence_and_Disability_Management.pdf: 4039 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.0-DMEC_aging_white_paper_for_HTML.htm: 270 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020