Recruitment and Retention

Abstract

Labor market participation by people aged over 40 has been increasing since the mid‐1990s. This trend significantly conditions corporate strategies of recruitment and retention to a workforce that is older and in late careers. Recruitment involves a set of organizational actions to attract and hire new personnel from the external labor market. Considering recruitment processes primarily targeted on older workers, three different target categories can be identified: mature persons with advanced skills (technical or managerial) and extensive experience; low‐skilled workers on flexible, part‐time, or fixed‐term contracts; and retired persons returning to work. Retention consists of a set of human resources management strategies intended to keep personnel within the firm and to value them. Retention policies differ according to the age of employees, and they take account of organizational demography and generational differences. Of particular importance are retention strategies to persuade valuable workers approaching pensionable age to delay their retirement.