Valuing Experience

Effective Supervisors and Managers

Companies involved in this project were clear that their supervisors and managers were the greatest asset they had in recruiting and retaining older workers, and, at times, their biggest hindrance. Their good managers respond to the individual needs of all of their workers, including their older workers. Some managers, however, can be clumsy in managing older workers. They may try and treat them the same way as younger workers. A lack of confidence in managing older workers can come across as patronising or dictatorial which irritates older employees who may have been doing the job or been in the organisation much longer than their manager. Some managers may shy away from talking about difficult issues. Others may be overwhelmed or occasionally bullied by older workers.

What skills and knowledge to supervisors and managers need?
To work effectively with older workers, supervisors and managers need to:
• Understand and be sensitive to the aspirations and needs of older workers
• Be able to participate in safe and constructive dialogue about these aspirations and needs
• Be aware of how assumptions and stereotypes about age can get in the way, and have strategies for minimising the chance of this happening
• Be able to build cohesive teams
• Develop a culture of respect and professionalism
• Be aware of and open to flexible ways of working, and have practical strategies for implementing them.

Equipping supervisors and managers
Organisations can support managers in this situation by:
• Incorporating an awareness of difference, including age, into management and leadership training, and induction training for managers
• Providing them with tools to help them hold career discussions, consider requests for flexibility and effectively manage different working arrangements
• Providing them with individualised coaching
• Creating safe processes for employees to give managers feedback
• Providing them with examples and case studies about how different situations have been managed effectively
• Facilitating processes where they can talk with and learn from more experienced colleagues.

Genesis Energy is clear that the key to success is managers having open conversations with their employees. Their HR team has begun having quarterly meetings with each of their managers to support and coach them in managing their employees, specifically including their older workers.

ANZ National see leadership learning as one of the most important things they can do to support managers’ performance and create high-performing teams, and have developed a mechanism for identifying and incorporating new talent management challenges into their learning. Multi-generational leadership challenges are coming up increasingly.

ACC has found it useful to reinforce the organisation’s expectations of managers by including an overt emphasis on diversity management, such as what steps they have taken to recruit and retain older workers, within managers’ performance guidelines. 

           Managing older employees - Advice for managers or supervisors
 

Do:

Avoid:

·        Acknowledge the wealth of experience they bring – both work and life experience.   ·        Consult older employees about decisions that affect them.   ·        Listen carefully to their views.   ·        Ask them to share the lessons they have learnt from their past experience – both what worked and what did not.   ·        Involve them in finding solutions to today’s problems or issues.   ·        Give them credit for their suggestions.  ·        Introduce changes as building on the past, not simply replacing it.   ·        Involve older employees in planning for the future.   ·        Treat them with dignity and respect.

·        Dismissing things as old-fashioned.   ·        Inferring that the way things were done in the past was always wrong.   ·        Inferring that because they are older they must be set in their ways and unable to change.   ·        Inferring that because they are older they will not be interested or will find it difficult to learn new things.   ·        Assuming that they will not be interested in new technology or new ways of doing things. ·        Assuming that because they are older they will not have any fresh ideas.   ·        Not giving feedback because it may hurt their feelings or embarrass them.