Employment policies friendly to older people have helped B&Q, Europe’s largest do-it-yourself chain, to win an inaugural corporate-responsibility award.
B&Q took the Retail Week magazine award partly for its commitment to recruiting older people.
It opened a store 11 years ago in Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK, staffed entirely by over-50s. Independent research two years later showed that the store performed as well as or better than the average B&Q outlet on sales, profit, staff turnover and customer satisfaction. Since then the company has extended its over-50s recruitment policy, so that now 21 per cent of its 35,000 workers in Europe are aged 50 or over.
Ikea has developed a similar policy, embracing not just older applicants but also the long-term unemployed, disabled people and single mothers. When the furniture retailer focused on these social groups in a recent job advertisement before the opening of an Ikea store in Seville, Spain, more than 30,000 people applied for 350 posts. Ikea says the policy gives it access to more motivated and loyal employees.