Successfully attracting new talents and managing an ageing workforce in the European food and drink industry are the themes of the toolbox report presented yesterday by EFFAT and FoodDrinkEurope at a meeting in Bratislava.  The report is based on the compilation of 28 hands-on good practice examples and tools submitted by respective national affiliates and members of the European social partners.

The toolbox is also available as a living online platform available to employers, employees and interested parties to share initiatives and find inspiration on new innovative ways to address the bottlenecks in recruiting new staff when food and drink companies face an ageing workforce.

The report is the conclusion of a two year-long joint research project between EFFAT and FoodDrinkEurope, entitled “Bringing in new talent and managing an ageing workforce: two sides of the same coin – implementing good practices for a more attractive food and drink sector”.

With the financial support of the European Commission, the European social partners have joined forces to debate and tackle the obstacles to job creation in their sector. The project focused specifically on three different priorities: attracting new talents, managing an ageing workforce and improving the image of the sector.

Welcoming the launch of the report and opening today’s conference Harald Wiedenhofer, EFFAT General Secretary said: “The project is an excellent contribution to promote sustainable employment in the food and drinks sector. Let us learn now from all these encouraging examples of good practices”.

Mella Frewen, FoodDrinkEurope Director General commented:  “The toolbox report will not only help provide more jobs in our sector; it will also add value by sharing experience and know-how. FoodDrinkEurope, together with our Social Dialogue partners EFFAT and of course the European Commission, is proud to help make the food and drink sector more attractive and bring in and retain more talents”.

The details of the project and best practice examples are available on http://fooddrinkeurope-effat-toolbox.eu/ where users can download material in different languages.

Translated reports: http://fooddrinkeurope-effat-toolbox.eu/download-the-report/
Translated Executive Summaries: http://fooddrinkeurope-effat-toolbox.eu/about-the-initiative/
Case studies (in English): http://fooddrinkeurope-effat-toolbox.eu/case-studies/

Ends

Note to the editors:

FoodDrinkEurope is the organisation of Europe’s food and drink industry, the largest manufacturing sector and leading employer in the EU and a key contributor to its economy (286 000 companies, 99% SMEs, 4.2 million employees).

EFFAT is the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions. As a European Trade Union Federation representing 120 national trade unions from 35 European countries, EFFAT defends the interests of more than 22 million workers towards the European Institutions, European employers’ associations and transnational companies. EFFAT is a member of the ETUC and the European regional organisation of the IUF.

Press contacts:

EFFAT:
Maddalena Colombi |Head of Press and Communications | m.colombi@effat.org | +32 2 209 62 62

FoodDrinkEurope:
Florence Ranson | Director of Communications | f.ranson@fooddrinkeurope.eu| +3225081028