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In her 50s, Sian Evans left her long-term career at a fast food chain in search of new opportunities – and it’s fair to say she felt some trepidation about the change.
Having worked in recruitment, Sian was very aware of ageism’s prevalence in the job market. So, after spending more than 30 years with the same company, only to leave and become a later-life jobseeker herself, she worried about her chances of securing a new role.
“I thought long and hard about whether I was doing the right thing,” she explains. “I worried that no one would look at me because of my age – that they’d be considering things like: how much longevity have I got? When am I going to want to retire?”
However, Sian’s friend, who’d recently started a job with Roadchef, told her the motorway service area operator was looking for a new recruiter. So, in a leap of faith, Sian decided to apply.
She says, “One of the things that drew me to Roadchef was that there was no challenge about age or anything like that. It was a mindset of: are you the right person for the job? That was something I really, really welcomed because age is just a number.”
Sian ended up with a few job offers, but after “a whirlwind of interviews”, she accepted a position at Roadchef – a choice made in no small part due to their age-inclusive hiring practices and the engaging members of the HR Team.
Seven years later, 61-year-old Sian still loves working as a recruitment manager and has no intention of slowing down. So, we spoke to her about her role and what Roadchef has to offer later-life job seekers.
“Once I started working in recruitment [...] I realised that I could have a massive impact”
Interestingly, as a teenager, Sian from Nuneaton started her career in motorway services with a different company before moving into a management position at a fast food chain. This role led her to London – where she was put in charge of two of the company’s flagship restaurants – and, eventually, a role in HR, which took her all over the country.
But sadly, in 2008, a tragic and unforeseeable event shook up Sian’s career journey.
She says, “Unfortunately, I became very ill. I broke my neck and was paralysed from the neck down. I had to undergo intense operations to have it rebuilt and therapy to learn to walk again. So they created a recruitment role for me so I could work from home and didn’t have to be out and about while I rehabilitated.”
While she was immensely grateful for the opportunity to keep working, Sian initially wasn’t sure about the move into recruitment.
“I’m really passionate about impacting, growing, and developing my team – and seeing them succeed. So, I couldn’t see how I would get that same buzz from recruitment at first.
“But once I started working in recruitment, and I could see people coming into the business and moving on in their roles, I realised that I could have a massive impact.”
Sian remained in her role at the fast food chain for eight years before deciding to move elsewhere. Rehabilitated from her injuries, she was needed in the office more frequently – a commute that took four hours on a good day. So, wanting something more convenient and flexible, Sian started with Roadchef in 2016.
“There’s never a dull moment at Roadchef”
Roadchef is one of Britain’s leading roadside service area providers. Operating 30 different locations across the UK and welcoming 52 million customers each year, they’re always on the lookout for new team members at all levels to join the team.
Sian’s role includes overseeing a team of recruiters responsible for hiring team members and supervisors, but she also hires candidates in various positions herself. These include anything from unit managers, who look after the brands (like McDonald’s and Costa Coffee) at their service areas, to department heads at the support office.
She says, “The diversity of my role is what I love most. Last week, I was recruiting a head of health and safety and, this week, we’re looking for an assistant manager for a new restaurant. You just never know what’s going to come through the door. There’s never a dull moment at Roadchef! Every day is exciting as I get to talk to so many great potential employees.”
When asked what the most rewarding part of her job was, Sian bursts into an ear-to-ear grin and says, “When that candidate says yes. When you’ve got a really hard-to-fill role, and they say yes, I get quite excited!”
“But also when I recruit somebody and they get promoted. That’s a massive win for me because we’ve done what we said we can do. We say we’ve got amazing development programmes – and that person has been developed. So, yeah, that’s massive for me.”
“When you get to a certain age, you have a lot more experience and confidence”
“We have such a diverse workforce at Roadchef,” Sian tells us. “I think our eldest employee is in their 70s. What our hiring managers like about a slightly older workforce is that they offer stability – and the life skills and support they can offer a diverse workforce.
“And, of course, when you get to a certain age, you have a lot more experience and confidence. We have committees where we pull together teams from different sites to talk about company plans. The age group we’re talking about often comes up with amazing ideas because they’ve got those life skills they are happy to share. They can also bring things from other companies they’ve worked with.”
Sian also tells us that later-life workers have been particularly successful in Roadchef’s customer service leader roles.
“These are our team members out the front explaining to customers how to use the self-ordering stations and talking to customers,” she explains. “While younger team members might be slightly shy and not so confident engaging with customers, a slightly older generation often has those amazing people skills – and customers love that.
“So there are lots of really positive ways people in later life can impact and influence the business – at a small and large level.”
“We can offer many different career pathways”
Despite their age-diverse workforce, Sian says that some later-life applicants don’t think they’re suitable for some of the roles at Roadchef or don’t believe that they can have careers in them. This is especially true for jobs in hospitality, she tells us, because job seekers often view them as strictly for younger people. But she’s keen to set the record straight.
“Take McDonald’s, for example. It’s not just great fast food. They have some of the best training programmes in the world. I think lots of people see these brands as for younger people, and it’s not until you talk to them about the journey that they see you can have a really great career there.
“Plus, with Roadchef, you can move across brands – and around sites and locations. There are opportunities to come into the support office as well. So we can offer many different career pathways.
“We also have a diverse range of ages doing apprenticeships, which is fantastic! If there’s an apprenticeship that you want to do to help you progress, then you can absolutely do it!”
“Everybody will rally around you [...] They’re very supportive and flexible”
As well as the diverse range of roles available at Roadchef, Sian is proud of the flexibility that Roadchef offers its employees. Talking about the hourly roles on site, she says…
“We offer a number of different options, and we’re fully flexible. So if people want to work eight hours a week or 30, they can. We always have the rotas done two weeks in advance so people can manage their lives around it.
![“Everybody will rally around you [...] They’re very supportive and flexible”](https://media.restless.co.uk/uploads/2024/02/Sian-Office-2.jpg)
“But we’re also flexible if people want to move their shifts around because of unexpected appointments, family emergencies, or anything like that – because we all have them.
“We also give people the opportunity to flex their hours up, as well as down. So if you join us on a full-time contract and then want to go part-time, you absolutely can because we value your skillset.”
Sian explains that this flexibility also translates to salaried employees – which is especially important to her, as she balances her job with caring for her elderly parents.
“At Roadchef, if anything happens – say if someone’s parent is ill – everybody will rally around you. We have a policy in the support office that you need to be in for three days a week. But when my mum was particularly poorly at the beginning of the year, I was told I could flex my working pattern. They’re very supportive and flexible.”
“I’ll know when the time [to retire] is right, and it’s not at the moment. I enjoy my job and love what I’m doing!”
To those considering applying for a job at Roadchef – whether at one of their motorway service sites or in the support office – Sian has this to say…
“Give us a chance! Come and have a chat with us. Lots of people would’ve come across us because they needed to take a break, use the bathrooms, or have a bite to eat on a long journey – you know, in and out quickly. But we’re not just a destination; you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the variety of roles we have and the flexibility and career paths we offer. Come and see what we do!”
As for Sian, she doesn’t have any plans to go anywhere. “I’ll stay with Roadchef for as long as they’ll have me because we’re growing, and we can offer so much to everybody,” she says. But when retirement does come, Sian’s got her sights set on sunnier climes…
“My partner and I have talked about moving away from the UK somewhere warm. I’d like to become a snowbird. You know, spending the summer in the UK and [being somewhere else the rest of the year]. I’ve always fancied mainland Spain, though we haven’t really looked at that yet.
“But I don’t see myself ever giving up work permanently. I think I would do something part-time, like volunteering. I love animals. I grew up with horses, and I have my big black lab who’s lying in the sun that’s coming through the window now. So I might do something with animal charities.
“However, I haven’t said that, at 65, I’m going to retire. I’ll know when the time is right, and it’s not at the moment. I enjoy my job and love what I’m doing!”
To learn more about Roadchef, you can visit their age-diverse employer’s page on our website, and to discover the wide variety of roles they offer, click the button below.
Are you looking for a new role in later life? Or are you thinking about making a change? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.