Prolonged Employment of Older Workers Determinants of Managers' Decisions Regarding Hiring, Retention and Training

Prolonged and productive employment of older workers is a necessary condition to maintain welfare and social security systems threatened by ageing populations. Despite this importance, the labour market position of older workers is much worse than that of workers in primal age. Yet not much is known about the factors that contribute to those different outcomes for older workers. The general aim of this dissertation was to gain more understanding of the dynamics in the labour market participation of older workers around retirement age in the Netherlands. In particular, the current study has evaluated which individual characteristics of older workers, organisations and managers affect managers' decisions to hire older workers, offer them training opportunities and retain them in organisations. This study also assessed empirically the potential role of managers' attitudes on their behaviour regarding hiring, training and retention of older workers.