Education key for 40-plus workers as technology divides staff – Stuff.co.nz

MADISON REIDY

Last updated05:00, July 16 2017

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Employees over the age of 40 were raised to believe that showing loyalty to a company would keep you in a job until retirement, but technology has flipped that expectation on its head.

When computers had nomemory, punch girls did the job.

In the 1960s Margaret Douglas started her career in ITpunching computer code onto magnetic strips at the Whangarei City Council.

The computer she used to work with now sits on show at Motat.She can still read binary code.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF

Computer administrator Margaret Douglas has kept up to speed with technology for almost 50 years.

Decades later, mobile phones, emailand Google exist and Douglas still works in the industry she loves.

READ MORE: *How to keep a baby boomer happy in the workplace *The changing face of New Zealand's workforce: More women and over-65s *More people keep working after 'retirement' age *Fiona Kingsford: How to bridge the intergenerational skills gap

But she said it was not easy to stay on top of technology as it evolved in front of her eyes.

SUPPLIED

United States Future of Talent Institute chairman Kevin Wheeler visited New Zealand to tell human resources executives they had a duty to make older employees aware of the changes happening to workplaces.

The key was to never stop learning, she said.

"I have done a fair amount of upskilling on the way and I am still doing education now.

"A lot of it you have to do yourself. You cannot expect your employer to cover it all off, you have got to keep working at it."

United States Future of Talent Institute chairman Kevin Wheelerraised the alarm toNew Zealand corporates about the importance of upskilling and retraining staff as technology and automation would inevitably take over jobs.

Wheeler told human resources executives here that they needed to encourage staff above 40-years-old to increase their technology capabilities so they could adapt to new types of work.

He saidMillennials were better off because they were raised in the digital eraand could foresee and adapt to evolving trends.

Wheeler said the understanding of technologyhad forced an age divide in workplaces.

"Your dealing witha generational difference here. When you are dealing with people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, this stuff [automation and technology] is devastating."

He said human resources played a significant role in minimising the fear of automation and technology among the older work force.

Notifying staff of changes the future would inevitably bringwas not scare mongering, it was necessary to prevent them from becoming useless and unemployed, he said.

Wheeler said human resources departments had a duty tohold the hand of workers over 40 in a rapidly changing and downsizing workforce.

-Sunday Star Times

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Education key for 40-plus workers as technology divides staff - Stuff.co.nz