This question comes from Hello Fresh, which is seeking more balance between the number of younger and older employees.
More internal attention, government incentive schemes, branding and external advice and a mix of these things can increase the influx of older people. Examples of measures include:
- Bring older candidates more to the attention of recruitment people. For example, they can include at least one person over 50 in every application process.
- Take advantage of existing schemes, such as trial placement of people over 50 and the UWV offering mobility bonuses and training vouchers for older people.
- Adjustments within your branding can help, such as using images of older people on communication channels. Moreover, you can also specifically name the positive contributions of older people, such as work and life experience. You can find more detailed information here.
Finally, you can use agencies that specialize in matching employers and older job seekers. Amsterdam – Diverse & Inclusive can provide you with the information on such agencies.
THE EXPERT: ADRI HULSHOFF
Adri Hulshoff is Managing Partner at DITIS HR. The social recruitment agency devises innovative and social solutions to HR issues, such as TankWerk. We put the Hello Fresh question to him.
He points out that older candidates face many prejudices during the application process, such as sluggishness and toughness. Getting older people involved is a matter of being more conscious of these biases. It is also about including the values of older people in their labor – such as punctuality, loyalty to the employer and high work ethic – in their financial rewards.
“Older people are often still extremely fit and vital. Absenteeism among healthy older people is not significantly higher than among healthy younger people. They are often flexible, because many of them are no longer tied to children.”
If you really want to hire more older workers, you have to put your money where your mouth is. If you want your shop floor to match the image of your company towards your target groups, Hulshoff believes: look for those over-50s in a targeted way, involving specialists such as DITIS HR.