Our constantly changing work environments can be daunting for many of us, but especially so for our senior workers. Senior workers who do not yet have the skills for our new ways of working, and particularly those who do not have significant financial reserves to fall back on when they find themselves needing to change careers, are the most vulnerable category.

The difficult questions we now face are: what can we do to help our senior workers overcome their fears, and how can we, as organisations and employers, manage these fears?

Being Empathetic & Acknowledging Our Fears Together

Being able to have safe and open conversations with our senior workers begins with us. It is important to firstly begin by practicing empathy and acknowledging our own fears before these conversations are had with our senior workers. By acknowledging our own fears in our changing work environment, we will be able to have non-judgmental, respectful and encouraging conversations with our senior workers to do the same.

We can start these conversations by asking ourselves a series of personal questions, for example: “What about you and me — what fears do I have about the transition? How can I mitigate my own fear?”  Likewise, at an organisational level, the same questions may be addressed: “Why would our senior workers be fearful of the change that is needed? What can we do to mitigate this fear?”.

Transition is very personal and by acknowledging that everyone has personal reasons for their fears is a powerful step in the right direction. In having these important conversations, this will in turn result in the co-creation of the rules of engagement that provides an environment where it is psychologically safe for senior workers to talk about and work through their fears of change.

Embracing Change Head-On

If we want our senior workers to embrace change, we need to face fear in the workplace courageously, both individually and organizationally. As Abraham Maslow so aptly stated:“An individual engages in learning to the extent he (or she) is not crippled by fear and to the extent he (or she) feels safe enough to dare.”

In this regard, CFS has initiated a new series of workshops specifically on adapting to change & uncertainty in the workplace:

(1)  LifeWork II: Back To Work For Seniors; and

(2)  LifeWork II: Adapting To New Workplaces.

The aim of these workshops is to help our senior workers adjust to the hectic pace and rapidly changing priorities, gain a greater comfort level with technological change and regain a sense of control and balance.

The workshops will train participants on digital knowledge, working in a multi-generational workplace, using creative problem solving and decision making to deal with familiar problems, building resilience, and resolving conflicts.