VHA and Workers 50 Plus — A Winning Combination

Earlier this year, Kerry Hannon, a free-lance finance journalist, wrote a feature for Forbes Magazine in which she made a prediction about older workers in today’s work place. “The day is coming when employers are going to embrace the value of older workers,” Hannon wrote. Little did Hannon know that VA is well ahead of the game when it comes to appreciating the value and resourcefulness of older employees.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been named one of America’s best places to work for employees over the age of 50.

VHA ranked 25th out of the top 50 employers selected this year by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

VHA received the AARP “Best Employers for Workers Over 50” award at the Society for Human Resource Management Conference in Chicago on June 17, 2013. The award recognizes employers who “have set outstanding examples through programs that help them retain, retrain, engage and recruit the older workers who will be increasingly crucial to their success.”

According to AARP, VHA received high marks in the most heavily evaluated criteria: recruitment, workplace culture, continued opportunities, organization statistics and benefits.

Dr. Malcolm Cox, VHA’s Chief Academic Affiliations Officer, attended the award ceremony on behalf of the Veterans Health Administration. Currently, 50 percent of

VHA employees over all, and 23 percent of new hires are over the age of 50. They include physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, radiologists, psychologists, more than 53,000 independent licensed health care practitioners, and thousands of support staff who are directly involved in the health care of American’s Veterans.

As a new hire and support staff member over 50 working for VHA’s Healthcare Recruitment and Marketing office, I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with so many dedicated professionals who have but one objective — to provide personalized, proactive, patient health care for our Veterans.

The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,700 sites of care, serving 8.3 million Veterans each year. With a medical care appropriation of more than $47 billion, VHA employs more than 239,000 staff at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, domiciliaries, and Readjustment Counseling Centers.

To learn more about careers with VA, visit www.vacareers.va.gov.