Valuing Experience

Training and Development

Effective training and development is important for all workers, but it is particularly important for older workers so they can keep their skills up to date, build or maintain their confidence and continue to be engaged. This will also benefit the organisation.

Ensuring access for older workers
Older workers need to have equal access to training and development opportunities to maintain skills, careers and productivity.

It is useful for employers to monitor who gets training and development in their organisation. International studies indicate that older workers do not receive the same level of training as younger workers. Feedback from employers and employees suggest that it may be similar in New Zealand. There are two possible causes for this.

1. Older workers do not have access to training and development opportunities
Given the age discrimination provisions in the Human Rights Act, there would be few organisations in New Zealand that have explicit rules or policies excluding older workers. However, access can be limited in more subtle ways.
• Only younger workers get picked or recommended for training and development
• Managers assume that older workers will not be interested in training and development and hence do not provide them with the relevant information or encourage them to participate
• Training opportunities are limited so the emphasis is placed on people at early stages of their career
• There are assumptions that older workers will find it more difficult to learn, so it is not worth the organisation investing in their training and development.
The experience of some organisations overseas that have targeted their recruitment at older workers, is that older workers give them a greater return on their training investment than younger workers. Tesco, the UK retail chain found that the retention rate of older staff who completed training programmes significantly exceeded that of younger staff.

2. Older workers do not take up the opportunities that are provided
• They may lack the confidence to take up opportunities
• The way that training and development is delivered may be off-putting for them
• The timing and location of the training may be difficult for them due to their personal circumstances
• They have been given the impression that younger employees are more deserving.
• They have been doing the job for a long time and do not feel the training being provided adds anything new.

If employers want to involve older workers in training and development opportunities, it is important that they understand anything that is discouraging their participation.

Encouraging participation
Companies use a range of strategies
• Having an explicit expectation that all employees will undertake relevant training and development. In some cases this is part of their employment agreement, in others it is part of their performance management or career-development programme.
• Actively demonstrating that training and development is valued. If there is a direct correlation to performing the job better, it may be useful to tie it explicitly to remuneration.
• Assessing how well managers encourage training and development for their staff within the manager’s performance assessment.
• Ensuring that training and development is delivered in a way that works for older workers.
• Encouraging and supporting individual older workers to take up the opportunity, particularly if they have not had recent experience in a training situation.

Ensuring training and development is effective for older workers

Design
Care will be needed to ensure that the training and development strategies used by the organisation match the learning styles of the individual worker. Studies suggest that some older workers will need longer to learn new skills, but that they tend to grasp and use these skills more fully in the long run.
Studies also suggest that older workers are more likely to respond to:
• self-paced learning
• on-the-job coaching
• pragmatic application-orientated training.
This matches the experience of New Zealand employers. ACC has found that on-the-job training that is grounded in reality works particularly well. Genesis Energy found that engineers who needed to update skills and knowledge for new technology responded best when they were given the opportunity to learn at their own pace.

Care is needed to not buy into stereotypes about older workers. Genesis Energy knows that there is a myth that older workers are not as quick with technology “but that is not our experience”.

Learning environment*
Learning environments that are effective for older workers are likely to also benefit all employees. It is useful to:
• Provide audio and visual learning materials designed to compensate for any hearing or sight loss older persons might have. This is especially important when using slide or taped presentations, videotapes, films or flipcharts
• Use large, bold, dark print on flipcharts
• Reduce glare
• Keep a consistently high level of light on the screen when showing films, videos or slides
• Post training materials at eye level (for those wearing bifocals)
• Be sure that there is no distracting background noise.

Training techniques*
• Relate new learning to trainees’ past experiences
• Help each trainee to transfer and translate current skills to the new skills being learned
• Stress the relevance and application of training issues
• Allow for participation and interaction among learners by using problem solving, case studies, role playing, and practice sessions
• Eliminate time-pressured situations. Encourage self-pacing. Allow trainees extra time to practise alone
• Use handouts, memory aids.

Training delivery*
Organisations need to select trainers and presenters who can work effectively with diverse audiences, who can understand and respond to the needs of both older and younger workers. Effective trainers will be able to adapt their material and delivery to different audiences.

Trainers and presenters will find it useful to:
• Use good diction
• Speak clearly at a lower range and a natural rate of speech
• If there are hearing-impaired persons, seat them up front where they can see the speaker’s face
• Provide encouragement, assurances, and reinforcement often.

ACC has found that the selection of the trainer or facilitator particularly important. They have found trainers who operate with a facilitative style that supports and encourages without being patronising, are more likely to be effective.

* These are adapted from advice given by the American Association of Retired People