Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER December 14, 2015 16 FEATURES/EXECUTIVE SERIES feel like they are "creative" per se, yet they are thrown into a brain- storming group and expected to produce brilliant ideas on de- mand, said Wilson. "How do we create a process that builds the conditions where that energy can grow?" Rational versus emotional sides of the brain To answer that question, it's im- portant to understand the two "sides" of the brain — the rational and the emotional. "When you look at that emo- tional brain, what does it do for us? It feels what other people feel," said Wilson. "at's a useful skill in inno- vation if you want to be human- centric in your innovation." Emotion also gives us gut-level intuition and hunches that are be- yond what our rational brain can get to. "It scans for cues. It's always looking at someone's physiology and scanning for the most minute clues in their physiology," he said. "It basically is one of the power tools of sociality." Sociality or social cognition means making sense of others and of ourselves. It's what allows people to do the three things they need to preserve their genes — to connect, co-ordinate with others and harmonize their needs, ac- cording to Wilson. But there can be a downside. "Once (the emotional brain) senses possibility or peril, then it will release the appropriate hor- mones. It's either going to be those approach hormones or those avoid hormones," said Wilson. e other side, or the rational brain, contains the ability to pre- dict outcomes — to focus your attention in the midst of massive distractions, to regulate emotions in tension-filled situations, to step into decision-making and execu- tion, he said. "Clearly, when these two brains work together, we can be remark- able human beings and we can be incredibly innovative. e issue is that when we're in a situation where we're being asked to brain- storm and we're not a creative per- son, it can feel to us like a threat- ening situation," said Wilson. "And before we know it, that emotional brain has become over- blown, hyper vigilant, sending all sorts of messages that 'You have nothing to contribute here. You're going to fail here. You're going to look stupid among your peers.' "e chance of us creating great innovations in that situation is very slim." It's also important to learn how to embrace tension and make it productive, said Wilson. "Business leaders, their very first response to tension in the or- ganization is to avoid it," he said. "e energy is actually in the tension, and the epic tensions that we deal with in innovation have to do with: Do we centralize control or do we decentralize control? Do we disseminate information to everybody or is it on a need-to- know basis? "Do we do what's right for the whole or do we do what's right for the individual? Our managers, our directors, our leaders are standing in the midst of those tensions ev- ery day." Make tension productive INNOVATION < pg. 10 For older workers, training still matters Mandatory retirement may be gone, but older workers still face barriers By Susan Eng C hanging the law to elimi- nate mandatory retire- ment was easier than changing the societal attitudes that make workplace age dis- crimination a reality for too many older workers. Laws can't change prejudices but they can stop people from acting on them — and, over time, change soci- etal norms. Until then, employers need to recognize inherent presumptions about older workers and proac- tively counteract them. Sometimes, negative attitudes are hidden behind positive plati- tudes. While people may value the experience and loyalty of older workers, the stereotype that older workers are harder to train on new processes or technolo- gies still holds sway, according to a 2012 Canadian Ipsos Reid poll. Age discrimination is a real- ity — a full 38 per cent of older workers believe they have fewer workplace opportunities due to their age — especially when com- bined with 17 per cent saying they experience age discrimination, according to a 2013 poll of CARP members sponsored by Ceridian. Ironically, 37 per cent of older workers believed eliminating mandatory retirement provisions across the country would worsen employer and workplace attitudes toward them, a troubling finding given that 55 per cent of them already are concerned about age discrimination in the workplace. In soon-to-be published re- search by Ellie Berger titled Age- ism at Work: Negotiating Age, Gender and Identity in the Dis- criminating Workplace, older workers seeking to take courses or attending workshops to up- date their skills — and avoid be- ing classified as out-of-date — felt employers were reluctant to train them and did not want to invest money and time in training them: "ey look at people as a mon- etary investment. ey invest a certain amount of time and ef- fort in training a new recruit — the higher level of the recruit, the more expensive the time in training," said one research participant. "And they expect to get back 10 times their investment or else it isn't worth it to them to hire them. So if they spend a year acclimatiz- ing me, training me, getting me integrated into the system, then they would expect to get 10 years of profitable time out of me. Now, if I am 50 years old, they look at me as a poor prospect." ese fears were borne out by the comments made by the em- ployers in that study. ey com- plained older workers were not up-to-date on new technologies, unaware they themselves had denied their workers the training opportunities. So what are we to make of the erstwhile recommendations to "Value your older workers" and "Tips on recruiting and keep- ing older workers"? As the say- ing goes, "It takes only one psy- chiatrist to change a light bulb, but the light bulb has to want to change." Implications e implications for older work- ers are serious. More people are staying in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age, many because they like what they are doing but also because they need the money or at least the health coverage. In the last 10 years, the proportion of old- er workers more than doubled from 295,000 in 2004 to 710,000 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada. Growth of the 65-and-over labour force (140 per cent) out- paced the growth of the 65-and- over population (40 per cent). In 2004, only eight per cent of seniors were working compared to today's 13 per cent. If older workers can't advance or lose their jobs, they have a much harder time getting a new job. ose aged 55 to 64 spend an average of 29 weeks unem- ployed after losing a job, and those aged 65 or older spend 32 weeks. ose aged 15 to 24 aver- age 11 weeks unemployed, and the number is 23 weeks for those aged 25 to 54, according to 2012 research by Statistics Canada. ere are employers that have counteracted these prevailing attitudes and they proudly pub- licize it when they are named a top employer of older workers, with criteria such as active re- cruitment of new workers aged 40 and older and extended health coverage after retirement. at is a good place to start — although it must be said the initiatives tend to focus on how to ease the workers out to retire- ment rather than help them build their careers while still on the job. We are not yet in a position to catalogue best practices around training to older workers; rather, there is a growing body of lawsuits and applications alleging age dis- crimination from denying access to training opportunities, and with them the chance to advance. So perhaps the right answer is to not treat older workers any differently from their younger cohorts when allocating training opportunities, and simply choose based on merit — not presump- tions about their age. e goal is to not just accom- modate older workers but allow them to reach their full potential and, coincidentally, make for a more productive and more co- hesive workplace. e boomer generation that is making its presence felt in today's work- place amounts to 9.6 million Ca- nadians and for the next 20 years, employers can reap the benefit of their contributions — or watch from the sidelines. Susan Eng is executive vice-president at CARP in Toronto. For more infor- mation, visit www.carp.ca Perhaps the right answer is not to treat older workers any differently.

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