How To Deal With Old & Stereotype Employees

hai fauizia

It is not at all a difficult situation but a common scene in many organisations and more particularly if it is apublic sector.

The following few lines may help you.

1. Check or analyse the reasons why they behave like that?

2. What is that they normally feel routine or monotonus in their work

identify?

3. What is their interest in life findout?

You can do the following.

1. You can make people feel happy and sincere any person if you can

speak something about their personal life.

a. Income levels

b. Work related problems

c. Health problems

d. Family related problems

on the above personal problems you give your own experience and share your ideas to improve in the above areas. You can gain confidence in people.

2. You become a friend , philosopher and guide to them , that help you to

retin their attention and interest in you.

3. Theory books only helps you to limited extends. You be practical and speak to people from your heart

Good luck and have a wonderful day

amdprasad : :D

Hi,
Its a good situation to learn. To deal with middle age is not so tough than deling with old people. Who so ever to deal with the very common solution is good relation.
As youngsters we initially need to respect every elder one, later try to be one among them.
Here you have the solution. We should not be too skeptical on dealing with mid agers. More of all if you are in a senor position then, you need to delegate your responsibility and share your work.
Ofcourse you can't trust every one for your work. But unless and until some one are given a chance you can't make our any thing about them.
So far so good be a good friend and good colleague for all. Never leave the hope of becomming a better person. Take every challenge as an opportunity and living for ever and leaving never.
Regards
D.V.D.Raju

Dear All,

Here is a good article on:

[b]How To Manage Older Workers

The work force is aging as baby boomer move toward retirement. Gen X managers need to learn how to motivate and manage this talent pool of older workers. Both generations have very different views of the other and will need to learn how the other generation operates. It is up to the managers, Gen X or otherwise, to take the lead and create the climate in which older workers will remain engaged and productive.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: Varies

Here's How:

1.Throw out all your assumptions.

You may think older workers are harder workers or that they are difficult to train. Get rid of your stereotypes. Your older workers are individuals just like everyone else in your group. Treat them as such.

2.Remember the range of ages.

You wouldn't treat a seasoned manager of 35 the same as a 21-year old right out of college. Don't think the 15 year gap is any less in your older workers. A worker at 55 and a worker at 70 have different goals and needs. As a manager, you may need to look at groups getting ready to retire (55-62), retirement age and still working (62-70), and older worker who want to keep active or who need to work (70+). Each group presents different management challenges.

3.Communicate, communicate, communicate

Don't assume that the older worker knows what you expect of them. They don't have the same background as you. Be very clear what you want done and what the measurements of completion and of success will be. "Bill, take care of that for me" is not enough. Try "Bill, I need you to prepare the department's budget for the next fiscal year. Use the numbers from last year and add 10% on everything except training which should go up 15%. I need it by Tuesday".

4.Value their life experience.

Your older worker have been around. They have seen a lot. They have done a lot. Recognize the value of this experience. Learn from it. Encourage the younger members of your team to learn from it. The lessons from the "school of hard knocks" are invaluable.

1.Train them.

Older workers need training as much as younger workers - just as much, just as often. The subject of the training may be different, but the need is the same. And don't believe that older workers can't be trained. They are just as receptive as their younger peers.

2.Meet their security needs.

Older workers probably need benefits more than the younger workers. They need medical coverage, vision care, and financial planning. Make sure your company's benefits plan meets their needs too.

3.Motivate them.

Any manager's key job is to motivate their employees. Older workers have different motivational "hot buttons" than their younger counterparts. Opportunity for advancement is probably less important than the recognition of a job well done, but see step #1 above.

4.You don't have to "be the boss".[/b]

The older workers grew up in a hierarchical society. They know you are the boss. Most of them were bosses at some point too. Get on with leading the department and don't waste time posturing. It won't impress them anyway. They've seen it all before.

5.Be flexible.

Your older workers, depending on age group (see #2 above) may want flexible hours or a shorter work week. For those of them that need that, be willing to be flexible. You need their talent and technical skill so do what you need to to keep it available. Do not, however, assume that all older workers want to go home early. Some may be motivated by working the same long, hard hours that they have always done.

6.Use them as mentors.

Let them coach and encourage the younger workers. Most older workers have a wealth of knowledge and experience that they would love to pass on. Give them the opportunity to do so and your entire organization will benefit.

F. John Reh,

Dear Fauzia,

I believe by now you have had some thought processes to work for you.

I'll give you the "operating framework" to make things easier for you when you come down to applications.

Simple. Firstly I would be curious what practices are you employing which are being met with resistance. You know, it's that simple win/win scenario.

I have always learnt from experience that before anything became a big problem it could have been resolved by simple communication. Have you tried this already?

I think you have a large role to play in changing your own perspective and mindset about how you perceive them old folks. What is your outcome..what would you see- feel-hear or know from experience that would let you know that they have changed or accepted your methods/processes? Are you clear about the Outcome?

As your outcome will determine what approach to use.

I'll tell you about me. On my first assignment out of campus I joined this big financial group. To my disappointment no matter how much senior or educated staff I was dealing with - they all saw the "HR" function as something that was left in the refrigerator for too long! All that mattered to them about HR was "Salaries" & "Parties". At first I didn't bother much or else I wouldn't have spent two years with the same Organization. I took it up as a challenge and decided to work on it.

I found the time to catch up with them during lunch breaks. I would casually start up a conversation get a feel of what’s up with them. The following week I would get back with the same group and build on what I had started in that week.

Now, Fauzia, what lay behind these casual meetings was a hidden agenda of my own to get information about what makes them “tick“. Who are my people? So I ended up getting to know about them as people- i.e. what is their life beyond office, what they do, their talents and stuff,challenges,expectations etc.

With this little information on hand I designed a informal brotherhood - in HR trmlgy Org culture where I was welcome and seemingly being accepted as a part of it. All it took was talking – meeting them at their model of the world.

Soon I began linking my ideas and processes to what it is that they wanted from the Organization. You see a good way to get their buy-in is to get them coming up with a solution about what they think is a problem. You just have to then direct it - not execute it. It should be executed by them. In a short span of time a simple guy like me emerged as a recognized professional who understood what his people want..who knew what the business was all about (tho I beg to dffer wth that :-)).

I was in control. When they saw how the process are linked to their own development be it value-oriented or monetary up the scale they were the ones pushing and asking for it. From here on the road was easy.

As for you, I find you are a little resistant towards accepting them as a part of your Organization. You will have to break the ice be it thru HR interventions or small "offsite" parties and Programmes. Once you have that basic Rapport established set out to gather the information you need to make your processes work.

For your branch employees start out small forums that get more than two branches integrated at various levels..have quizzes, contest..anything which has its results seen within the same week or two. This will get you recognized. Its simple - its herd mentality.. If you have 2 of them you will soon have the rest of them. Its easy. It takes Branding so remember everything that you do in HR has to be "sold" and to brand it is a sure shot way of getting people to use it. And it has to be fun thats the bottom -line. Yes the top Mgmnt buy-in is important and others have spoken in lenghts about them I won't get into that.



Remember HR has long changed- sure books talk about it.but not necessarily show you how. HR is a pro-active agent who will integrate people, processes and systems and necessary Behaviors, Skills, Attitudes and Value levels which even most CEO's fail to recognize.(exceptions are always around in the system). Thats where you stand out...thats why you are in HR.

Hope after reading the above you find yourself compelled to make those necessary adjustments within yourself that make you more receptive and flexible in tune with your environment to go after the outcomes you desire to establish in your Organization.

Best Wishes

Nad

Hello Fauzia
When ever the young ones are entering the organization ,they find every thing running on an auto of the olden times,reason that the knowledge the youngsters acquire from the institutes and the books is rather theoretical . There is a gap known as "Knowing Doing Gap". Further things and people do not change over night it requires lot of effort . Communication is the key, communicate with them and find reasons as to why they dont want to change. The change may come for that you have to develop trust in them and required to be open to them ."Openness and Trust " the key for organizational success.
Best of luck.
Jawaid F M Khan

Hi Freinds,

I will give a common example of RESIST to CHANGE thats why CHANGE MANGEMENT concept come in to picture.

See, suppose u live away from your family members. Generally u used to visit to ur family members at once in a year ot twice in a year keeping in mind of economy or other reasons.

Ur family member's room setup is not suiting u or its not in correct manner. Now what u ll do, u will convince member to change the ROOM SET UP but every member will resist and they ll say not to change the any set up. Even there is chance of hearing sound that "ENGLISH HAWA LAG GAYI KYA BAHAR RAHAKR?????. CHALA HAY CHANGE KARNE SET UP!!!!!!! DO DIN KA MEHMAN HA KHAWO PIWO AUR JAWO VAPAS" Actually it is in hindi. We may say that "DON'T BECOME ENGLISH MAN. YOU HAVE COME HERE AS GUEST AND GO BACK AFTER VACATION"

means its human nature to resist of change.

Now we should implement change management. But how?????????

As per member suggestions, 02 or 03 things require for this.

1) Why you want to change the OLd set up???? means why you are thinking that old employees are not doing well????? Find out reasons first. It be fact based not on logic based.

2) To change OLD setup, what are the benfits for organisation or employes?????? Are there any loss to employees?????

3) If any benefit, draft policy and get appoved by higher level management. You adopt EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION when you think to adopt new set up.

In Short, most important is COMMUNICATION to every one that change is in favour of organisation as well as employees.

Regards

Sidhehshwar

Hello
I am one in the middle age and I have confronted this problem arising in older people who think they know how to take decisions. If you have issue based decisions to delegate on the older ones, it is easier to take into confidence some who are really helpful and speak throgh them if you fear others will not react in a smoother manner. Anyway, young or old, they have to come to work and earn a living and Managers nowadays are definitely younger and this is a fact they have to reconcile to. Call them in groups of five and tell them your problem, quite frankly. Sometimes this works. At least you will have some helpful hands, if not all. If you are the boss, you have to make them understand you are and what you expect out of them in a more dierect way. Many of them have mind sets and enclosethemselves in a steel armour, refusing to learn. It is easier to locate them and change with the help of others who arewilling to listen.
Best of luck youngster
Sincerely
Raghavan V

Thank you very much Nad, Jawaid, Sidheshwar & Raghavan for your kind views.
I am really thankful to all of you.
Hope I would get this kind of support from all of you in future too.
Thanks again
Fauzia