LOS ANGELES SKYLINE

Report: The City of Los Angeles steps up efforts to be more inclusive of the older worker

A new report lays out a plan to bridge the gap between the city’s employers and experienced workers
-

In Los Angeles, there are almost a million adults aged 55 and over, accounting for 25% of L.A.’s population as well as 20% of the city’s workforce. The city has released a report – AdvantAGE LA: A Blueprint for Employing, Retaining, and Advancing Older Workers Across LA – “dedicated to the employment, retention, and advancement of older workers.”

In a statement, the City of Los Angeles explains, “In partnership with AARP, the City of Los Angeles is set to launch the transformative Age-Inclusive 101 training program with employers citywide, reinforcing its commitment to fostering inclusive work environments.

“Both the City and County are dedicated to advancing AARP’s Employer Pledge Program, which not only bridges the gap between companies and experienced workers but also empowers older professionals to secure meaningful and fulfilling careers.”

Mayor Karen Bass notes, “This report proactively develops a plan that serves our older workers while also identifying the policies we need to implement to continue leading the way. We must do all we can to support older adults and provide opportunities to thrive.”

Components of AdvantAGE LA include:

  • A demographic analysis of Los Angeles’ older workers
  • Identifying the needs and challenges older workers face
  • Offering of an economic rationale for an older worker strategy
  • Best practices and model programs for employing, retaining, and advancing older workers
  • Evaluation of Los Angeles’ current workforce programs serving older workers
  • Labor market analysis and employment opportunities for older workers
  • Five time-specific goals to increase successful outcomes for older workers, promote age-inclusive workplaces, ensure culturally competent services, and offer in-demand training and career advancement opportunities.

The plan is the result of input from a variety of stakeholders including “older adults, community leaders, [city] agency staff, subject matter experts, and existing programs.”

Among the goals laid out by the plan, “create and provide in-demand training, upskilling, and earn-and-learn opportunities to enhance career success for older workers.” The plan notes four industries that can potentially provide significant opportunities for older workers:

  • Health care and social assistance
  • Education
  • Hospitality, tourism, and leisure
  • Customer service

To implement the report’s calls to action, the plan calls for:

  • Create a collaborative entity to establish and track all recommendations
  • Name dedicated City staff to manage and implement the recommendations
  • Collect and use data about older workers when making decisions about resource allocation and programs
  • Embed input from older adults in department and agency strategic plans, budgets, and priorities
  • Create regional collaboration to advocate for policy changes that will support older workers

“This initiative is about meeting employer needs and assisting older workers, but it’s also about valuing the experience and skills that older workers bring to the table and directly confronting ageism. We are committed to making Los Angeles a leader in age-inclusive employment practices,” says Patricia Pérez, Workforce Development Board member and chair of the AdvantAGE LA taskforce in a released statement during the plan’s unveiling.

You can read the full report – AdvantAGE LA: A Blueprint for Employing, Retaining, and Advancing Older Workers Across LAhere.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.