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How Tough It Is For The Graying Workforce To Come Out Of Their Comfort Zone?

15th September 2022

Every business has its own rollercoaster ride where ups and downs are constant. Learning and development solutions are constantly upgrading so as to make everyone fit the fast pacing technology in the entire business industry. However, the graying workforce, according to the gen-Z is not working up to that level where they prove why they should not relax at this moment.

On that note, graying workforce means older employees in the workplace who do not want to opt for premature retirement because they believe that they have more to deliver to the organization. Well, exceptions are everywhere but there are multiple older workforce challenges in an organization.

Due to the baby boomer characteristics of the older employees, online training programs on managing learning transfer are conducted. Having said that, employees over the age of 60 or who are from the baby boomer generation have already reached retirement age. They usually do not have the enthusiasm to learn new stuff and always stick to dated approaches.

Needless to say, this trait has been a major cause of concern for the younger generations because the workflow gets messed up due to the procrastinating habit of the graying workforce.
 

Attracting and retaining talent at all ages
Credit: oecd-ilibrary.org

These are the problems that organizations have to encounter due to aging employees:

  • Favoritism
  • Absenteeism
  • Postpone their retirement
  • Succession
  • Not so flexible
  • Prefer the physical workplace to remote culture
  • Toxic office politics
  • Depressing and demotivating

The aging workforce does not want to go opt for work-from-home culture because according to them a physical working environment boosts and encourages employees to put their best foot forward. On the contrary, research has shown that during the pandemic, the remote work culture has actually elevated the productivity of employees and they’ve delivered their best contributions.
 

Old Age to Working Age
Credit: visualcapitalist.com

Such generation-gap-based conflicts have always caused tension in the workplace. Transfer of training to older workers seems hard because most of them are not accepting. Instead of upskilling themselves, they tend to argue why the older methods are not factual enough to bring any sort of revenue.

Post-pandemic era most companies are giving options to employees if they want to work remotely or from the office. Some companies are encouraging hybrid work culture as well. To create an incentive, and accommodate mid-life employees with quite notable family demands, some organizations are providing various options to employees regarding the working schedule only for people who have served the employees for at least 5 years. With several work schedule options, and alternatives to travel, an employee with many family obligations still has the opportunity to advance in their career.
 

Remote Workforce Impact
 
Credit: fanniemae.com

Approaching middle-aged or old-aged employees with learning solutions is far different tha approaching younger workers. HRs can ask middle-aged employees like this: Hey, you have been an outstanding resource to this domain, but I was thinking that you should try this new domain because I believe that it can help a lot in your career advancement. Such words motivate employees sometimes and they can go for the learning and development training.

Every employee has an array of interests but middle-aged people who served an organization for a longer period of time often do not want to come out of their comfort zones. Pushing them to come out of their own zones is actually a hard nut to crack but also necessary. Let us cite an example.

People who are the marketing heads of some companies have quite a bit of experience. Since things are getting digital now entirely, people have to imbibe knowledge and come out of the shell of their boomer characteristics. Generally, we have seen that middle-aged people are handling the managerial or any supervisor position but they lack an ample amount of knowledge when it comes to trending technology or strategy.

Digital marketing has its own world and a whole new language that gen-Z and late millennials are used to but for gen-Y getting accustomed to that phase is quite tough. Using Instagram reels by creating innovative content, using relevant hashtags, and captions, and thereby, generating organic traffic is beyond their imagination. Besides, new digital marketing tools are in the market, and having a sane knowledge of those tools is quite necessary. This kind of learning transfer is required so that the entire team has a streamlined workflow.
 

Most In-demand Digital Marketing Tools
 
Credit: iamrafiqul.com

There have been multiple scenarios where the stigmatized thought processes and orthodox beliefs of middle-aged managers have restricted younger workers to cease their creativity. Common! If you’re using internet explorer then you should never expect the outcome of using google chrome. It is as easy as that but middle-aged managers find it tough to accept the creative mindset of younger employees is at stake owing to their limited thought processes.

The idea behind the learning and development solutions for middle-aged and older employees in the workplace is to generate high-performing outcomes to overcome graying workforce challenges. Making them flexible is another intention because nobody knows when another pandemic is down the line.

Therefore, basically, to get rid of boomer characteristics, online programs on managing learning transfer is focusing on:

  • Increasing the flexibility of middle-aged and older employees so that they can get comfortable with the remote working culture.
  • Engaging them into new vertices so as to check the absenteeism.
  • Providing a new team to them in order to keep an eye on favoritism if that exists at all.
  • New learning solutions use audio-visual training sessions by providing authentic statistics and case studies so that they do not feel unmotivating and depressing.
  • Not to think about any succession.

If you’re a member of the learning and development solutions team and you’re planning for such online corporate training for older employees to combat such mentioned workforce challenges, feel free to call our toll-free number 1800-212-6400.


Written By : Victoria Lewis

         


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