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This article deals with employee engagement in SMEs when the employee’s years of service are taken into consideration. The aim of the paper is to show if seniority influences engagement and if there are further factors that have major impact on employee engagement. To fulfill the aim quantitative methodology was applied. It is based on the analysis of data that derives from an engagement survey that was conducted in 2017 with 70 SMEs globally that belong to the mechanical engineering industry. The sample consists of 5,078 employees that participated in the engagement survey. The survey was standardized based on the engagement model from Aon Hewitt and consisted of 74 questions. The organizational structure of the different legal entities is similar due to the common industry and types of employees who are mainly Service and Sales representatives. This also leads to a similar HR strategy and allows to compare the results. The data from the engagement survey was analyzed with IBM SPSS software that provided the regression analysis. The results indicate that the construct of employee engagement is complex and there is not only one influencing variable. However, seniority does have an impact. The engagement of recently hired employees is around 27% higher than for employees with higher seniority. Additionally, employees with a high seniority show less interest when it comes to rewards and recognition.

Majority of developed countries exhibit changing transition towards older population structure. This explains why nowadays, the so–called active ageing – a policy focus to help people remain in charge of their own lives as they age and to promote their continuing contribution to the economy and society – is so frequently discussed. In the context of active ageing, active work participation of elderly is one of the prospective policy objectives, along with the identification of the motives of elderly to stay on the job market. Existing literature indicates that a large number of factors influence this decision, including income and living conditions, whether the person lives alone or not, health condition, social contacts, place of residence, but also varied interventions based on local or national government policies. Empirical results however remain scarce. This article provides insights into what influences the decision of the elderly to remain on the job market in the Czech Republic.

In modern business, the phenomena of “nepotism” and “cronyism” are often observed, which are usually associated with corruption in the public sector and abuse of public resources. However, these phenomena are international in scale, and no country or sector of the economy is free from them. Existing research does not identify shared and contradictory interests of individuals based on nepotism or cronyism. This study aims to fill this research gap. A research hypothesis was developed and tested in order to determine a point from which nepotism and cronyism are not beneficial to their perpetrators. The research data included Poles and Albanians. According to Transparency International (2022), the obtained results showed that Polish society is currently less vulnerable to corrupt practices than Albanians. Moreover, it was substantiated that relative altruism operates as the mechanism that explains nepotism or cronyism practices. Individuals involved in nepotism or cronyism perceive these practices as a tool to reduce the risk of their operations failing. However, the phenomena lead to long-lasting reciprocity, like in the case of corruption. This study contributes to a better contextual diagnosis of organizations and helps develop preventive strategies.

Extended working life policies have been widely promoted in Europe and in wider international settings. However, to date, these policies have not, for the most part, taken sufficient account of the gender and health dimensions of working longer. This chapter outlines the empirical and policy landscapes that are present in Europe and several other countries. It examines the different meanings of 'extended working life' and the indicators used to justify raising the age of eligibility for a pension. Gender and health inequalities related to extended working life, such as gender pay and pension gaps and differential life expectancy rates are presented. The influence of the labour market on the employability of older workers is examined in the context of economic downturns and digitalisation. The chapter concludes that policy initiatives which meet the diverse needs of older workers and which address gender and health inequalities related to extended working should be a priority for governments and employers in the years ahead.