Home Depot Canada Recruiting Mature Workers

Toronto, Ontario, February 16--Home Depot Canada, according to the Globe and Mail, announced plans yesterday to actively recruit employees in the 50-and-up age bracket to support its expansion strategy. The newspaper said the hiring initiative, developed in partnership with CARP, Canada's Association for the Fifty-Plus, targets seasoned employees with customer service and leadership skills who "will prove invaluable to our store managers and associates on the floor," said company president Annette Verschuren. The newspaper quoted Eric Vengroff, vice-president of marketing at CARP, as saying that "Home Depot needs lots and lots of people, and they see the 50-plus population as a ready labour pool. It is a generation that is often discriminated against in the workplace. Many of these people are underemployed. They may be retired or semi-retired, or they may have been turfed out of another organization." The partnership, similar to one that Home Depot's parent company struck with a seniors' advocacy organization in the United States, gives Home Depot access to CARP's 400,000 members. Home Depot Canada, which has 117 stores in Canada and plans to open 19 more in the next 12 months, said yesterday that 20 per cent of its 23,000 employees are now 50 or older, and the plan is to increase those ranks to better reflect the demographics of its customer population. The newspaper said that company is currently gearing up for its spring recruitment drive, with plans to hire 7,000 employees over the next few months. Melody Shiels, director of human resources with Home Depot Canada, was quoted as saying "The knowledge they bring to the job goes a long way toward improving customer service." She said, "For instance, a carpet installer whose knees are going could come into our environment and deal with our customers and share with them their expertise and tell them what they need to buy."

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