The winners of the 2015 Age Smart Employer Awards have been recently honored at a ceremony attended by experts in aging and employment, several elected officials and a diverse set of New York City businesses and their employees.

 

The six award recipients, plus five finalists, were selected from 52 applicants for their policies and practices that encourage different generations to work side by side productively and effectively.

 

The winning firms are:

 

Amy’s Bread, a bread and pastry bakery in Manhattan, NY with 250-plus daily wholesale customers, has an explicit focus on retaining older workers who brought stability as the business grew. It restructures physically demanding jobs and uses older workers to train younger ones.

 

Brooks Brothers, LIC Factory & Alterations Center, which manufactures 1.5 million ties a year for the world-renown clothing retailer, has an average employee age of 54. Management consults with older workers about equipment and process design, restructures assignments and offers unusual flexibility for a factory setting.

 

Eneslow Pedorthic Enterprises, a footwear company in Manhattan, NY, focuses on older workers in its hiring practices. It emphasizes skills training and cross training and allows workers to “dial up or dial down” hours as they near retirement.

 

Metro Optics Eyewear, a Bronx, NY ophthalmic services company, has a strong commitment to hiring, training, promoting and retaining workers from the neighborhood and a culture of flexible work arrangements, mentoring and reimbursing costs for optician certification and licensing.

 

NYU Langone Medical Center, a national premier medical center in Manhattan, NY, recruits “mature” candidates, offers extensive training opportunities, a retiree option to be part of an in-house temp pool and innovative benefits.

 

Sunnyside Community Services, a community based organization in Queens, NY serving 14,000 people annually, identifies people with career ad vancement potential and offers access to career ladders within the agency.

The Age Smart Em ploy er Awards recognize and honor the forward-thinking leadership of these businesses and provide resources and support to encourage others to follow.