Training for older worker - Essay Example

Training and Older Workers As population demographics shift towards the older generations makingup greater numbers of the population, the importance of retaining and working with older individuals is only heightened. Even after retirement from one profession, older members of the population may continue on towards a second career. Thus they can be expected to receive training and that is why the three articles selected are important. Reed et. al. (2005) discussing aging and the acquisition of computer skills while Armstrong-Stassen and Templer (2004) discuss how training can be adapted to a target audience composed of older individuals. Finally, Wallen and Mulloy (2006) compare the methods for teaching older and younger trainees. Content While all three articles deal with the need for using different methods for teaching and working with the older generation, Reed et. al. (2005) focus on the connection between aging and how new computer skills can be taught to older individuals. This makes the article particularly interesting since technology and computers form an integral part of almost every sphere of office work. However, when it comes to training in general Armstrong-Stassen and Templer (2004) show how training should be adapted and modified to be most beneficial to older individuals. Wallen and Mulloy (2006) develop these ideas further by comparing the differences in training between older and younger individuals thus all three articles deserve a closer examination. Article 1 Reed et. al. (2005) begin with explaining the importance of older workers which is expected to increase as time goes by and note that calling older workers slow or inflexible is a stereotype. However, older workers may face issues of self-efficacy and believe themselves to be unable to perform certain technology related tasks simple because they are old. Thus, their age related confidence levels may be more responsible for create barriers to their training rather than any direct impact which they age or their advanced years have on their performance. The researchers hypothesize that age is negatively related to computer skill acquisition and that age is negatively related to computer self-efficacy (CSE). The third hypothesis given by the researchers is that CSE will mediate the influence of age on the acquisition of computer skills. To test their hypotheses, the researchers used 109 volunteers from a Midwestern community. These subjects were predominantly female and the median age of the group was 51 years old. The subjects took a survey to report on their computer skills, their attitude towards technology and their ability to handle change. The self reported results were compared to their monitored and measured performance on completing a set of tasks with spreadsheet and word processing software. The results showed that CSE effectively mediate the relationship between age and both the objective and subjective measures of the acquisition of computer skills. However, the subject’s attitude towards change and technology had no significant bearing due to age or CSE. The study also showed that individuals who had confidence in their computer skills were able to learn and perform better than those who did not. The researchers noted that when it comes to older employees, training should not be limited to skills based training alone but should also focus on self-efficacy. Article 2 The research conducted by Armstrong-Stassen and Templer (2004) sought to find out how Canadian organizations are adapting training methodologies to include older individuals in the training process. This was done through the process of conducting a survey of nearly five hundred human resource executives from various industries in Canada. Alarmingly, the researchers discovered that even though the majority of the respondents said that they provide access to training, less than a tenth were considered to be highly engaged in the training process. Even fewer could be said to have adjusted their methods of training for the aging population or to accommodate for their needs. Managers, who would need to work with an aging workforce in the future, were often unaware and remained untrained with regard to making sure that the training needs older employees are fulfilled. These results made it clear that most organizations are unaware of the challenges which will come up in the future as the population demographics change in Canada and in many other countries which form a part of the developed world. Customized training methods and engaging older employees in corporate training are strongly recommended by Armstrong-Stassen and Templer (2004) since they are likely to become important concerns in the future. Article 3 Wallen and Mulloy (2006) looked at the training methodology used to teach younger and older students when it comes to computer based training for safety. They note that aging is a process which results in a few changes that may make it difficult for an individual to learn from computer based training. However, with the use of proper educational theories based on cognitive psychology may improve the instructional design of computer based training. To test this idea, the researchers created three computer based safety training programs and let younger as well as older workers train using it. The sample size of fifty workers was spilt in three groups. One was presented the training as text alone, the second was given text with pictures and the third was given text, pictures and audio narration. The average age of the participants was 43 and the results from the test taken by the subjects showed that both older and younger individuals worked best with the version of training that contained audio narration, text and pictures. The results led Wallen and Mulloy (2006) to conclude that computer based training can be used for older workers but the programs should be designed to for both older and younger workers. Works Cited Armstrong-Stassen, M and Templer, A. (2004). Adapting training for older employees. Journal of Management Development, 24(1), 57-67. Kendra, R. et. al. (2005). The Impact of Aging on Self-efficacy and Computer Skill Acquisition. Journal of Managerial Issues, 17(2), 212-228. Wallen, E. and Mulloy, K. (2006). Computer-based training for safety: comparing methods with older and younger workers. Journal of Safety Research, 37(1), 461-467. Read More