Study of Greek workers shows staffing policies benefit all ages, but especially younger employees

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose was to examine the topics of ageing workforces and the usefulness of staffing practices among the Greek labor force.

Design/methodology/approach

Researchers tested a series of hypotheses on 1,254 employees of public and private companies, in Athens. The applicants were selected at random. Postgraduate students were trained as research assistants to distribute questionnaires to employees with at least a year of experience with their current employer. In the study, 53.2 per cent of participants were women and 46.8 per cent were men. The average age was 41.4 years,

Findings

The study demonstrated the effectiveness of staffing practices for all ages, but the results indicated they were more helpful for younger than older employees.

Originality/value

A main conclusions was that young and old reacted differently to staffing practices and HR departments should develop more targeted strategies. For example, focusing more on past experiences, reference seeking and background checks would be a good idea for mature applicants, rather than relying too much on interviews. This was because older applicants may have learned to “play” the selection game better than their younger counterparts and create false impressions.

Citation

(2020), "Study of Greek workers shows staffing policies benefit all ages, but especially younger employees", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-10-2019-0239