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With employment trends always changing, it’s important for employers to provide a workplace culture that will attract employees of all ages. 

New research shows that hiring older employees can open up a range of opportunities for small businesses, helping to increase productivity, innovation, and workforce reliability and stability. 

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) ran a research project to get more information about employing mature age workers.  The research worked with 15 small businesses to explore whether targeted awareness raising would encourage them to consider employing mature age workers. The businesses that took part in the report were from the care, hospitality , and wholesale and retail industries, and were based  in regional and city locations across Australia.

Initially, all participating employers held some positive views of mature age workers. However, through taking part in the project, most realised that they had some biases and had been excluding this group.

The research found that the best support for small business wanting to hire mature age workers are short fact sheets, tailored supports and good news stories from their industries.  

Check out DEWR’s Mature Age Hub to learn more about the research and see what tools and strategies your small business can use to attract more mature age employees.

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