our mission

The Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College promotes quality of employment as an imperative for the 21st century multi-generational workforce. We integrate evidence from research with insights from workplace experiences to inform innovative organizational decision-making. Collaborating with business leaders and scholars in a multi-disciplinary dialogue, the center develops the next generation of knowledge and talent management.

The Sloan Center on Aging & Work is grateful for the continued support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Research

Working in partnership with a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, the center’s studies explore emergent issues related to aging and work. We prioritize timely, innovative studies incorporating research rigor with compelling workplace relevance into three distinct topical clusters — our State, U.S./National, and Global Initiatives.

Current projects in the U.S./National Initiatives include, the Talent Management study, and analyses of the Age & Generations study of the Health and Retirement study (HRS). Center researchers have also begun to explore the experiences of working adults related to eldercare responsibilities (the Family Caregivers for the Elderly study with Families and Work Institute as well as working in retirement.

Our State Initiatives focus on variations in the experiences of aging and work in states across the country. The States as Employers-of-Choice study, a collaborative project with the Twiga Foundation, Inc., is gathering information about the steps that state agencies are taking to adapt to the aging of the workforce.

The Center partners with researchers from countries around the world to conduct a range of studies as part of the Global Initiatives. These investigations, including the Country Context Studies and the Generation of Talent Study, explore employee/employer perceptions of the contemporary work experience cross-nationally. Members of our research teams analyze demographic data, information about workplace practices, and relevant public policies from different countries around the globe.

Employer Engagement

The center develops strong relationships with employers to maximize the impact of our research on talent management. We customize our interactions with different organizations and industry sectors to respond to their needs and preferences. Employers may affiliate with the center, ensuring exclusive access to special products and forums. The center also offers memberships in Learning Circles to employers who want to explore dedicated topic areas, of employers’ choosing, within a practitioner learning community.

Dialogue

The center promotes the rich and thoughtful exchange of innovative ideas about aging and work among business leaders, academics, and policy makers. We have designed our publications, virtual forums, seminars and workshops, e-communications and online resources as vehicles for sharing high quality information and stimulating discourse about the experiences of today’s multi-generational workforce.