Retention of Older Workers in Three Belgian Firms

Future economic growth requires the employment of a greater number of workers above 55 years old. To deal with this increasing problem, it is important to identify the preferred solutions of older workers in order to promote the retention of these workers in their jobs. Older workers of three enterprises have been interrogated on this subject. The aim of this study was to identify the best solutions for the workers. A distinction was made between the solutions proposed by the literature and those proposed by the workers in a spontaneous way. We also tried to determine whether the solutions differed as a function of socio-professional category, working time and type of working hours. Finally, this study determined the actions that need to be undertaken: actions regarding discrimination, working conditions, working time and professional development. In particular, this study established that the actions against discrimination are requested more by manual workers, part-time workers and those with variable hours. Therefore, we suggest that the requests of manual workers should be considered differently from those of executives. The latter are searching for more opportunities for development, whereas the manual workers prefer an improvement of working conditions.

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