Objective: In most Western countries, macro-level actors realise there are major challenges ahead in dealing with an ageing society. Demographic developments will have large consequences for welfare state expenditures and will profoundly alter the composition and level of labour supply on the labour market. Although various measures to raise the participation levels of older workers have been suggested for a good length of time now, there is still only limited insight into how employers are behaving towards older workers. The aim of this dissertation is to improve our understanding of employers’ attitudes and actions towards older workers. Design/methodology/approach: The central questions of this study are (1) whether Dutch employers’ behaviour has been changing over time and (2) how European employers are behaving towards older workers, offering the opportunity to analyse behaviour of Dutch employers in a European perspective. To answer these questions, a questionnaire was developed and international survey data was jointly collected within the framework of a research project called ‘Activating Senior Potential in Ageing Europe’ [ASPA]. Consortium partners of the ASPA-project collected survey data among employers in eight European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The surveys were sent to company directors, owners and heads of HR departments (‘employers’) and ‘older workers’ were defined as workers aged 50 years and older. Besides survey research, all consortium partners conducted case study research at the organisational level in their own country. Findings: This dissertation shows that in the Netherlands, retention behaviour has been modestly changing over the last decade, which seems to be incited by institutional changes. However, older workers’ recruitment and retention levels are still low in the whole of Europe and employers rather retain than recruit older workers. European employers associate an ageing staff primarily with an increasing ...