2015-10-27 04:48:42
27 October 2015
When Shawn VanDerziel became a manager a decade ago, he inherited a large, motivated workforce of people who truly cared about their roles. The only complication: most of them were approaching or well beyond pension age.
VanDerziel, now 44 years old and chief human resources officer for the Field Museum in the US city of Chicago, admitted that at first he had a lot to learn about managing older workers.
They are more independent, VanDerziel said, and they don t need constant feedback about how they re doing. More than anything, he said he s learned about when to back off.
As a younger manager, you might think you have a better way to do something, but you have to learn to respect older workers and the fact that they have developed a system, VanDerziel said. Allow them to do it their way and show them some respect.
VanDerziel s challenge of dealing with a mature workforce can be a difficult one for younger managers who have inherited older employees or who have advanced faster than their peers. And, there are few rules on how to proceed.
The reality in most organisations is that the average age of workers is increasing, said Dirk van Dierendonck, professor of human resource management at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. Anybody new to leadership will have to figure out how to manage older workers.
Tailored approach
Many new managers who find themselves overseeing people who are their parents age will make lots of mistakes. Often, younger bosses will use the same management style they d use with millennials, but that's not necessarily the best approach.
Allow them to do it their way and show them some respect.
While younger workers favour regular feedback, older workers will see that as meddling and intrusive, van Dierendonck said. Some veteran members of your team also may dislike the less-structured hours and more open workspaces regularly requested by millennials.
Another challenge is that older workers often feel comfortable challenging a young manager s authority, often right from the start. The answer is to resist being confrontational. Instead, show the older worker that you respect them and the experience they bring, van Dierendonck said.
Whether you re working with the office cleaner or the CEO, the best approach is to engage that person on a personal level, said Steve Greenwood, executive director of the Ireland-based Berkley Group, which specialises in recruitment and talent management. That person won t care about your goals and help you achieve them unless you have developed a relationship.
That s not as easy with older workers, who don t always have the same motivations and goals as their younger counterparts. The kinds of management training programmes that might be valued by new hires may be of no use to those approaching pension age.
Instead, older workers may find more value in being asked to mentor younger counterparts, Greenwood said. That s good for the company, because your older workforce is passing on much-needed knowledge, and it s good for the veterans, because it shows the manager values their experience.
And, those managers are also more likely to retain talent, van Dierendonck said. Baby boomers are more committed to the companies that employ them and are less likely to leave for new jobs.
If you re building your company or department for the long run, it may be more profitable to invest in people who are invested in the organisation, van Dierendonck said. You re more likely to see that investment from older workers.
Greater productivity?
Many new bosses assume veteran employees will be less productive than their younger counterparts, often mistaking their more calculated approach for sluggishness. But in fact, van Dierendonck said, experienced workers often complete tasks more quickly.
Whether you re working with the office cleaner or the CEO, the best approach is to engage that person on a personal level.
There s also this surprise: older workers often have the big breakthroughs. If you consider that entrepreneurs are often over 40, you have to assume that older workers have a lot they can bring to your company, van Dierendonck said. We have an idea that entrepreneurs are younger because of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but that s rare. Almost always, big ideas come from older people.
The best managers know how to achieve a balanced management style. For instance, at the Field Museum, VanDerziel learned to ignore the idea that older workers didn t want feedback. Sure, they don t want the same daily or maybe even hourly feedback needed by many millennials, VanDerziel said, but they do want to know when something they re doing is wrong.
They re also not going to take that criticism personally, VanDerziel said. With millennials, you might want to put feedback in context, to give them compliments first.