Making New Jersey an age-friendly state is not just the work of government. Businesses, employers, developers and others in the private sector must be invested in the goal of creating an age-friendly economy in which everyone can thrive.
Rooting out ageist hiring biases. Promoting the flexible and supportive work policies that workers of all ages need and want. Recruiting the vast numbers of direct-care workers our expanding care economy will require. Tackling New Jersey’s many affordability challenges to ensure the Garden State does not have an exodus of talent and experience to states with lower costs of living.
Those are some of the transformative changes required, and leaders of our Age-Friendly NJ alliance are heartened to finally see several signs of traction on those crucial goals.
Last summer, New Jersey Advocates for Aging Well (NJAAW) was awarded one of the Department of Human Services’ age-friendly project grants to launch a yearlong campaign to recruit New Jersey businesses to become “Certified Age-Friendly Employers.”
In December, a coalition of advocacy groups celebrated the release of a new strategic plan to overcome shortages of certified nursing assistants and other front-line care workers.
And in January, newly sworn-in Governor Mikie Sherrill pledged to make affordability a chief priority of her administration, with her transition team laying out a final action plan that lists lowering housing costs and curbing rising energy costs among its chief goals.
“We’re gratified to see greater attention - as well as some thoughtful strategizing among the state’s public and private-sector leaders – being devoted to the economic factors that have the greatest impact on older residents’ lives and livelihoods,” said Julia Stoumbos, Director of Healthy Aging for The Henry & Marilyn Taub Foundation. “Population aging can lead to new and prosperous opportunities for New Jersey’s businesses, provided our leaders capitalize on the value of older workers, plan for the growth of the caregiving economy, and address the affordability challenges that make it hard for people of all ages to remain in a high-cost state like New Jersey.”
New Jersey has 2 million residents over age 60, a quarter of whom are still working.
With the population aging and people desiring or needing to remain in the workforce until much later ages, NJAAW is partnering with the Boston-headquartered Age-Friendly Institute to recruit 12 to 15 New Jersey employers to join its national Certified Age-Friendly Employer, or CAFÉ program.
Businesses that join are provided with mentorship and training on ways to become more attractive workplaces to employees age 50 or older through improved hiring and retention practices. Earning the “certified age-friendly” label could help those employers have greater cache with their older adult consumers.
Since the program’s launch, seven New Jersey employers have signed on, including New Jersey Performing Arts Center, food and beverage supplier Allen Flavors and some of the state’s larger senior living and elder care entities - Jewish Home Family, Lutheran Social Ministries of NJ, Peace Care New Jersey, Seabrook Village and Parker Health Group.
“We are seeking to create a powerful cohort of businesses committed to leveraging the talents and experience of workers age 50 and older,” said Cathy Rowe, Executive Director of NJAAW. “While New Jersey employers rightfully focus on DEI practices in the workplace, aging is usually not included in the diversity perspective. We’re seeking to open employers’ eyes to the tremendous assets older workers can bring to the workforce.”
While the CAFÉ program seeks to overcome ageist employment biases , another initiative - the Essential Jobs, Essential Care coalition - is seeking to reverse another worrisome workforce trend – New Jersey’s shrinking pool of direct-care workers, the employees who provide most of the hands-on personal care in nursing homes, assisted living residences and home-care settings.
That coalition’s advocacy in recent years led the Department of Human Services to publish a Direct Care Workforce Strategic Plan that categorizes and prioritizes a list of strategies the state can use to strengthen the direct care workforce in the years ahead.
That plan calls for the public and private sectors to work together to make these traditionally low-wage jobs more appealing through such strategies as offering better and more diverse benefits, schedule flexibility, multiple career ladders, mentoring, mental health supports, child-care, transportation and other innovative policies and practices.
Both budding initiatives are intended to serve as roadmaps for recruiting and retaining a more robust and diverse workforce, which in turn could help New Jersey businesses overcome worker shortages and meet the evolving needs of an older populace.
To fully ensure a healthy workforce and a growing economy, however, New Jersey’s leaders will have to work at the same time to address the rising unaffordability of housing, utility service, health care and other basic living costs.
That’s why age-friendly leaders and other advocates are pushing the new gubernatorial administration to adopt a Multi-Sector Plan for Aging through a campaign called Lifelong Strong New Jersey.
“We need to combine targeted campaigns such as the Certified Age-Friendly Employer initiative and the Essential Jobs, Essential Care Coalition with some bigger-picture planning that addresses all of the many economic factors that will be impacted as New Jersey’s population ages,” Rowe said. “A Multi-Sector Plan for Aging can help New Jersey retool its workforce and build the age-friendly economy we need now and in the future.”