Elderly Employment in the Eastern Hotel Businesses of Thailand

Abstract

The research aimed to survey opinion of human resource managers and elderly employees toward elderly employment in the eastern hotel businesses of Thailand, develop elderly employment model in the eastern hotel businesses of Thailand, as well as take lesson-learned from work experience of the elderly employment in the case study with an adoption of mixed research through the use of ‘Concurrent Triangulation Strategy’. The findings revealed that most of the human resource managers and elderly employees agreed with the elderly employment in the eastern hotel businesses of Thailand. That is, most of the human resource managers wished to employ the elderly employees, whereas the elderly employees wished to continue their work. Regarding the elderly employment model in the eastern hotel businesses of Thailand, there was a determination for: the appropriate job assignments, the job types, the qualifications of elderly employees, the recruitment and selection, the working time, the employment contract, and the compensation and welfare for the elderly employees. However, the important factors affecting the success of the elderly employment composed of the following: the willingness of elderly employees, the readiness of hotel businesses, and the support from the government. For the lessons from the work experience of the elderly employees in the case study, it was found that the important causes for their working after retirement age composed of the causes from themselves and from the hotel businesses’ work environment. The findings also revealed that the elderly employees had some obstacles or problems which related to both their health and their work. However, all these obstacles and problems could be prevented and solved without any severe effects on themselves or the hotel businesses.