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.
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http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20151026-the-secret-strengths-of-older-workers