This year's Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) Award for Excellence in Innovation has been awarded to St George Bank.

The 2007 Innovation Award, which was sponsored by Jobwise, recognised organisations that have shown leadership and innovation in implementing phased retirement initiatives.

St George Bank was selected from a shortlist of six finalists to win the Innovation Award in Melbourne on October 23rd 2007, in recognition of their success in offering their large and diverse workforce a range of phased retirement options including financial planning for retirement, part-time and other flexible working options as well as a grandparental leave scheme which provides older staff up to 52 weeks leave in order to care for grandchildren.

The judges also recognised Sunstate Cement as highly commended for their strong commitment to their phased retirement programme through ongoing monitoring as well as inclusion in the company’s workplace agreement and Employee Induction Programme.

This years AHRI Award for Excellence in Innovation demonstrates that many businesses are well down the path to implementing phased retirement options for their mature age workers and the nominations included a variety of innovative approaches to retaining staff considering retirement. The benefits of these initiatives for nominees – including higher retention of older staff, reductions in training costs and increased productivity - clearly demonstrate the value of using a retention strategy to keep valuable experienced staff engaged.

For further information on the AHRI award, click here.

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