AARP honors businesses

Two Iowa businesses are on a list of employers honored by AARP for their policies friendly to older workers. Among the “30 best Employers for workers Over Fifty” is Muscatine-based Stanley Consultants. President and CEO Gregs Thomopulos says it’s all part of the company’s corporate core values. They call employees “members,” and he says experience is very important in the company’s service to its clients. As long as they’re in good health and perform well, they’ve always encouraged members to keep on working “till they’re ready to go play golf.” Thomopulos says that doesn’t mean they don’t have plenty of young people, too. He cites Will Rogers saying that if you stay on the same track, you’ll get run over. The challenge is to maintain focus and grow business, and the company philosophy says regardless of how much business there is, they’re hire new graduates each year from within the various disciplines of the engineering field. What’s an older worker have that a young one might lack?Experience, Thomopulos says — when you come right out of school you know the latest theory and technologies but in terms of design, experience means you’ve learned from projects. And the company’s growing so fast that despite its recognition for hiring and retaining older workers, even more young ones seek it out to apply. Stanley Consultants, which is doing work in Iraq, consults with foreign and American customers on engineering projects. The other Iowa firm honored for treating “mature workers” well is the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines. To read the article surf to www.aarp.org