Posts Tagged “experience matters”

Everydayonomics: The despair of being over 60 and jobless

Stuck “on a human hamster wheel”: Older unemployed people are likely to remain unemployed much longer than younger people. Photo: Greg Newington

One of the most confronting interviews I have done this year was with Glenda Ellwood-White, a 60-year-old who has been out of work for more than five years.

She lives with her 23-year-old son in a granny flat in Sydney’s inner west. Her income is so low she often cannot afford meals and when she does eat, the menu is monotonous.

“I often think my stomach will kill me if I have any more noodles,” so I often just have a piece of toast and a cup of tea,” Ellwood-White told me.

She likens life on the Newstart benefit to being stuck “on a human hamster wheel”.

We do not hear that much about the struggles of older unemployed people such as Ellwood-White, but it turns out they are likely to remain unemployed much longer than younger people.

Analysis by Marcia Keegan, an economist with consultancy SGS Economics and Planning, shows that a quarter of those aged 45 to 64 remained unemployed for more than a year compared with only 15 per cent of people aged under 44.

“If you become unemployed at an older age, your chances of finding a job are a lot lower than someone who becomes unemployed at a younger age,” she said.

The problem is most acute for those aged over 60 – two-thirds of Newstart recipients in that age group have been out of work for more than 12 months.

So why are older workers so much more likely to be unemployed long term?

Prejudice is a major factor. The Australian Human Rights Commission says discrimination can be found among the job applicants as young as their mid-40s. A recent job search experience survey found almost one in five people aged 45 to 64 felt their age was the main difficulty they faced in finding work. Ellwood-White claims her long search for a job proves age-based prejudice is “rife”.

Another explanation is that employers fear a short period of service from older workers.

“If an employer interviews someone in their late 50s or early 60s, they might think the person is going to retire in a few years or take their superannuation tax-free,” Dr Keegan said. “They think they might be able to keep a younger worker for longer, but this is very unfair, because workers in their late 50s or early 60s often want to work for another 10 years or more.”

But older workers can sometimes be demanding. When Keegan explored what wages unemployed people wanted, she found older people, especially men, tended to have higher expectations than younger workers. This might encourage employers to go for younger workers, especially if they have been out of work for a long period.

Disability is another factor. More than 30 per cent of workers aged 60 to 64 have some sort of disability that limits job options. In contrast, the rate of disability among those aged 15 to 24 is only about 8 per cent. The good news is that the proportion of older workers with a disability is falling – among 60 to 64-year-olds, the rate dropped from close to 40 per cent in 2003 to about 33 per cent in 2012.

This year’s federal budget introduced a new policy to reduce mature-age unemployment called Restart. Employers will receive $10,000 over two years when they employ a person aged over 50 on income support for at least six months.

Even so, older workers are a significant part of a growing longer-term unemployment problem in Australia. This year, the rate of long-term unemployment has climbed to 1.2 per cent of the labour force – well above the decade-long average of 0.92 per cent. The Fairfax-Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index – which puts a dollar figure on national welfare – shows the well-being cost of long-term unemployment has surged in the past year and is now a $2 billion-a-year drag on the nation’s collective well-being. Much of the pain is being felt by those aged in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

Source:SMH

Younger workers take more fake sick days

January 2, 2015

Credit: Thinkstock

A new, Australia-based survey has found that younger workers are more likely to fake a sick day, or at least admit to it, than older workers.

According to the survey from the University of Melbourne, 39 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 24 and 43 percent of those between 25 and 34 admitted to calling in to work to take a sick day in the past 12 months.

The researchers said older workers, who tended to be in managerial positions, were much less likely to take a fake sick day off.

“The people less likely to fake a sick day were workers over 45 years old or in executive and senior management positions,” said Peter Gahan, director of Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne. “These more senior employees were also more likely to look forward to returning to work after their weekend.”

The survey also reported that full-time workers were more likely to say they had faked a sick day than part-time workers. Full-time workers also were more likely to say they dreaded coming in on Mondays.

“The results show that if you take a sickie, you’re less likely to look forward to going to work on a Monday,” Gahan said. “This may imply that people who take ‘mental health days’ do so because they feel disgruntled at work, and that those who work part-time are more enthusiastic about returning to work.”

Additionally, only 19 percent of Aussies in management said they dreaded Mondays, compared to 42 percent of all employed surveyed.

“There are also warning bells for middle managers,” Gahan added. “Thirty-six percent of middle managers admit to faking a sick day in the past twelve months and forty-seven percent believe that their counterparts are being paid more than they are.”

The University of Melbourne team said they plan to follow up with a similar poll focusing on small and medium businesses.

A different study published in November found that men and women in managerial positions react differently to their elevated role. The study, from the University of Texas at Austin, found that female managers were more likely to experience increasing symptoms of depression, while their male counterparts were more likely to experience decreasing levels of depressive symptoms.

The researchers noted that they considered many factors associated with taking on a management role, such as the number of hours worked and schedule flexibility.

“What’s striking is that women with job authority in our study are advantaged in terms of most characteristics that are strong predictors of positive mental health,” said study author Tetyana Pudrovska, an assistant professor in sociology at the university. “These women have more education, higher incomes, more prestigious occupations, and higher levels of job satisfaction and autonomy than women without job authority. Yet, they have worse mental health than lower-status women.”

“Women in authority positions are viewed as lacking the assertiveness and confidence of strong leaders,” she added. “But when these women display such characteristics, they are judged negatively for being unfeminine. This contributes to chronic stress.”

Source:redOrbit

Key Abbott government employment scheme struggles to meet target

Date: January 2, 2015 –

Employment Minister Eric Abetz. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

’60 is the new 40′: Julie Bishop

A key plank of the Abbott government’s employment strategy is on the cusp of failure, with just over 500 job seekers so far joining a scheme meant to benefit 32,000.

The $10,000 Restart incentive was unveiled in Treasurer Joe Hockey’s May 2014 budget, the latest bid to tackle a policy area that has long vexed both sides of politics: how to encourage employers to hire mature-age Australians.

Moments after the budget was handed down, Employment Minister Eric Abetz said Restart “more than delivers on the government’s 2013 election policy commitment to lift workforce participation and improve quality of life”.

It was projected to help up to 32,000 people annually.

However, Senate documents show employers have hired only 510 job seekers through the scheme in the five months since its July introduction.

There are nearly 175,000 Australians over 50 looking for work through Job Services Australia.

The documents warn it is difficult to predict the take-up rate for the $10,000 incentive but it was “likely” demand would grow. If it does not, it’s possible the program could fall 95 per cent short of the government’s target.

Job seekers aged 50 or over who have been receiving income support for at least six months are eligible. Employers who hire them receive up to $10,000 depending on whether milestones are met.

The government has budgeted $524.8 million to fund the project over four years.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Senator Abetz point to the scheme as an important component of the government’s so-called Economic Action Strategy.

“As our population ages it’s more important than ever that we try to ensure older people are contributors economically as well as simply culturally and that’s what will happen under an incoming Coalition government,” Mr Abbott said during the 2013 election campaign.

Senator Abetz on Thursday said the government “expects that take-up will increase as employers become aware of the programme”.

“As it stands, there are more than 600 mature-aged workers in jobs today that weren’t as a result of this programme,” he said, suggesting the total number has grown slightly since the 510 figure was reported in the Senate documents.

“The government is focused on building a stronger and more prosperous economy which will see more employment opportunities as employers gain confidence.”

Luring more mature-age Australians into the workforce is a potential boon for the economy but finding the right policy settings to make it happen has vexed both sides of politics for many years.

Under questioning at Parliament House earlier this year, Department of Employment deputy secretary Martin Hehir said programs targeting mature-age workers had proven to be “quite intractable”.

Just 230 employers took advantage of a $1000 annual subsidy under the two-year life of the Gillard/Rudd government’s Jobs Bonus scheme. That program was also meant to benefit up to 10,000 employers.

“So in one sense we know what has not worked in the past, and it has been quite an intractable area,” Mr Hehir said.

“So while the days are very early and the numbers are probably still low to begin with, you would probably have to say that it [Restart] is making faster progress than the previous work in this area.”

The Abbott government’s Commission of Audit noted that the effectiveness of wage subsidies “is open to question” because they may displace other job seekers and jobs may be lost once incentives expire.

Meanwhile, another job-creation scheme has also struggled to gain traction. The Tasmanian Jobs Programme, which offers $3250 to employers in an effort to revive the state’s sluggish labour market, has created 114 jobs in its first year. The government said it would employ 2000 Tasmanians over two years.

Opposition employment services spokeswoman Julie Collins said wage subsidies were “not enough” to support older Australians.

“We have Tony Abbott telling Australians they need to work longer – but in what jobs? People aren’t taking up wage subsidies because the jobs aren’t there,” she said.

The government has pledged to re-evaluate Restart in mid-2016.

Source: SMH

Should companies hire older workers?

Written by BEN SLATER

Posted on 19 Dec 2014

Does age matter? I’ve stumbled into many vigorous online debates over how much of a factor age is within the hiring process – it’s clear that older job seekers have a much tougher time of it.Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg have made huge success seem even more attainable for the young – are you wasting your time at college if you’re not starting your very own company? Students want guidance here and progressive universities like Stanford are responding with their very own courses on how tobuild a startup (very interesting if anyone is that way inclined).In the light of all this, younger generations are demanding more and more workplace responsibility. To make room for this, companies are taking it out on older job applicants.

Is this fair? No, definitely not. Older workers can still offer plenty of value.

Always hire the best

Let’s start with the classic anti-discrimination argument – it doesn’t matter how old you are, it matters how good you are.

We could almost just leave it there. I don’t think you could find anyone that would take genuine issue with that sentiment. Employees and potential hires should be judged based on what they bring to the role – nothing more, nothing less.

Age is a great teacher. Older professionals have had time to learn what works and what doesn’t. They’ve had time to work on themselves, build the best versions that they can be. They’ve had time to build up extensive networks that are invaluable for business – remember many of the biggest deals happen outside the boardroom (lending credence to the addage ‘it’s not what you know but who you know…’)

The value of mentorship

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves” – Steven Spielberg

It isn’t just a detailed Roladex that makes your older employees so important, their capacity for mentorship is also essential.

The importance of effective training and development in the workplace cannot be overlooked. People are the one resource that will ultimately set your company apart – you need to help them unlock their potential.

Mentorship schemes are great to add extra value on top of standardised, HR led training schemes. Personal relationships between younger and older employees can go a long way to help strengthen company culture and increase retention rates.

Morgan Stanley ran a successful scheme to retain female employees in their sales department by selecting leaders from different departments to brainstorm a curriculum and consider what characteristics create great company employees. The wisdom and value imparted by these senior employees was vital in keeping top talent at the company.

Who is next in line?

One of the first questions that most young people will ask when interviewed will be – ‘how much responsibility will I get in my new role’. Gen Y in particular are especially interested in being granted ownership of their work.

How does this affect older employees? At some point you are going to need to pass on responsibilities to younger members of your team or risk them leaving for a competitor. This is often why older job seekers are turned away – companies are unsure how long their tenure will be and are unwilling to jeapordise younger workers’ development.

Training is worth the money

It’s often easier for companies to favour younger applicants because of their familiarity with technology. The number of roles that require digital natives is growing, and technical skills are at a premium. It’s therefore much easier to hire Gen Y-ers who have a greater level of understanding.

Often employers don’t want to invest in training older employees to get them up to speed. They don’t think about the value that an older worker could provide if given flexible hours and allowed to get to grips with the new requirements of their role.

We need to put aside any ideas that older workers are ‘past it’. They are typically vibrant, energetic and experienced – they have a lot to offer. Swallowing a few extra training costs would give employers access to a whole new talent pool – definitely worth it in my opinion.

Source: Seedjobs

Which age group is guilty of chucking the most sickies?

Friday, 19 December 2014 1:50

BROEDE CARMODY

Which age group is guilty of chucking the most sickies?

YOLO*: young workers are more likely to fake a sick day than other age groups, according to research from Melbourne University.

Almost 40% of employees aged 18-24 and 43% of people aged 24-34admitted to faking a sick day in the past year in a poll of more than 1000 Australian workers conducted by the Centre for Workplace Leadership.

In comparison, workers over 45 years old or in senior management positions were least likely to fake a sick day.

Founder and director of the Centre for Workplace Leadership, Peter Gahan, told SmartCompany the study also looked into what employees thought of their workplace more generally and received some interesting results.

“More than twice the number of young workers were reported as taking a fake sickie than older workers,” he says.

“And about half of them who were among that group said they were not looking forward to coming into work after a weekend. I suppose it suggests to us that your past absence behaviour is probably a good indicator of future absence behaviour and the likelihood of people taking a sickie.”

Gahan says this widespread “Mondayitis” should be at the forefront of managers’ minds, and while it can be easy to label young people as lazy it is worth looking at the bigger picture.

“Given about half of them are also not looking forward to coming back to work, it tells us there is an issue with engagement and the extent to which people are happy at work,” he says.

“Have a sense of absence behaviour as an important way to get a sense of how engaged your workforce is. When people take an absence, don’t assume it’s because people are being irresponsible – it might be that you have an issue with employee engagement and satisfaction.”

“Managers need to think about how they can ensure that there is an opportunity for their workforce to express that dissatisfaction and be provided with a sense that they’re being listened to.”

Gen George, founder of short-term jobs platform OneShift, toldSmartCompany in light of the research businesses could look at how flexible their workplace is.

“I’m not justifying people lying, I just think it should be reviewed to suit the new culture at work,” George says.

“It works both ways, but maybe there’s happy medium… but of course while still protecting businesses.”

(*Maybe it’s just a case of You Only Live Once)

Source: SmartCompany

The 3 Honest Reasons You Didn’t Get The Job

PATRICIA POWELL-HUGHES,

EP AUSTRALIA

I can put just about every reason a candidate didn’t get the job into three simple categories.

1. Community
2. Capacity
3. Communication

Let’s imagine your resume is good enough to get you an interview. At this point, there are things that are in your control and those that aren’t.

It’s out of your hands when a job is withdrawn or offered to an internal candidate. Or sometimes you just don’t click at the interview.

But you’re in control for the rest.

About 90% of communication is non-verbal, so remember this saying: “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”.

The split second you walk through a door to an interview, someone is making a judgment call on you.

You’ll be judged on your physical appearance. Are you inappropriately dressed – too revealing, too tight, outdated or untidy – or are you reeking of perfume or cologne?

If you are, then you’ve got to do a lot of work to turn that around. This is no time for the limp, clammy handshake – or the knuckle-cracker.

You need good eye contact and an open, friendly smile. Because you can lose a job before the interview has even started.

And unfortunately, not every hiring manager can run an interview well. They can be nervous or not know how to interview. Sometimes they don’t know what they’re looking for. And all that comes into play before you even sit down and start talking.

Below you will find the honest reasons you didn’t get the job. People don’t often hear them because employers often can’t give this kind of feedback.

In fact, a lot of candidates never hear back from an employer, even after they’ve interviewed. I think that’s because they don’t know how to say these things.

Review this list, be realistic and consider how you come across. Don’t do it to run yourself down, but do it to learn about how you could present better next time.

If an employer did tell you why you didn’t get the job, they might make some of these points:

Community

• You are not a good cultural fit with the existing team
• You are not a good fit culturally for the clients or stakeholders
• Your goals don’t align with the business goals
• Once we met you we realised we could promote someone internally, thanks

Capacity

• You overstated your experience in your resume and are not where you think you are
• You have too much experience for the role and as a business we don’t want that
• You don’t bring in new skills to the business you are too alike to what we already have in our team

Communication

• You didn’t research the role, the business, the team, you were not prepared
• You didn’t answer the questions properly or at all
• You talked too much
• You didn’t listen
• You big noted
• You didn’t engage with the interviewer
• You are interested in the role for the wrong reason/s
• The hiring manager is not a good interviewer
• The hiring manager has no real idea what the job is really about

If you go for one job interview and don’t get the job, there’s a myriad of reasons you didn’t get it. But if you’re job-hunting and you’ve been to half a dozen, it’s you. You’re doing something people don’t like.

Look at what you can physically take control of. You can control your handshake, your physical appearance, the way you speak and the way you listen. If you do your best and you’re presenting well and don’t get the job, it’s just that someone else clicked better.

As an interviewer, you can tell if someone’s burnt out, distracted, angry, scared, fearful, confused, or – if they’ve been job-hunting for a while – that they’re a bit self-defeated right from the start. You can tell all of that in the first couple of minutes from talking to someone. Don’t sit down in the interview and give a big sigh. You somehow have to try and leave your problems behind.

If you’re the right person for the job, there’s nothing you can be asked in an interview that you can’t answer. The questions will only be about you or the work that you’ve done. People get themselves wound in a coil about “what kind of questions are they going to ask me?”. But it’s only about you.

When you go into an interview, start the conversation. This is not an interrogation: it’s a rapport-building session. Be yourself and if you’re the one chosen, it will be the right company for you. If you pretend to be someone you’re not in an interview and then get the job, you’re going to get in there and probably not like it.

Patricia Powell-Hughes is the managing director and founder of EP Australia. 15 years ago Powell-Hughes started the business as a recruitment agency, growing it now also extend into executive and HR consulting services. Unique for her insider knowledge of the television, media and entertainment industries, Patricia Powell-Hughes has undertaken leadership study with the Melbourne Business School, written online columns about the workplace and is building a profile in public speaking.

Source: Business Insider

Mature employees want to keep working

More than half of mature workers—those age 50 and older—have a desire to keep working after they turn 65, but on their own terms.

That’s according to results from a joint study by Ceridian and CARP,Second Wind: The Evolving Nature of Retirement.

“Mature professionals are often overlooked based on assumptions that they are too old to keep up with the times and may cost a company more in terms of benefits,” says Ross Mayot, vice-president and general manager with CARP.

“Employers need to realize that the age of the worker does not define capability, negate the willingness to learn or adapt, or automatically mean increased benefits costs.”

To retain and recruit these productive and skilled workers, the study recommends that employers need to be prepared to address mature workers’ health concerns.

Adopting a progressive approach to workplace wellness contributes to a healthier aging population and can help make it easier for companies to extend health benefits beyond traditional retirement age—a desire of nearly half (48%) of the study’s respondents.

According to the study, the traditional nine-to-five, five-day workweek doesn’t appeal to many who are choosing to work beyond retirement age. Forty-six percent of respondents want non-traditional work arrangements such as flexible hours and job-sharing, and 41% would like phased-in retirement options.

Mature workers also want to protect their health with benefits that extend beyond the age of 65. The good news for employers is that the overwhelming majority of mature workers rate themselves to be in excellent or good health; just 4% report chronic health issues.

“This means, employers can invest in health and wellness programs now and reduce the substantial costs associated with prescription drugs and other healthcare services later,” states the report.

The vast majority of mature workers are looking for assistance with routine health maintenance measures, especially getting more exercise, better nutrition and weight loss.

Stress is a minor concern for mature workers and should allow “employers to divert some of their budget for any stress-related programming to more desired programs instead.”

Source: Benefits Canada

Jobless rate: salad days behind us as reality bites

ROD MYER Money Editor (acting)

The Australian economy is spluttering and there are worrying signs for 2015.

File photo of workers building cars at the Toyota plant in Melbourne — Mining and industry cuts have boosted the jobless rate. *Photo: AAP*

Australia dodged a bullet in the global financial crisis, but China’s appetite for coal and iron ore kept the recession wolf that stalked other countries from our door.

That’s all changed now as the latest rise in the jobless rate to 6.3 per cent from 6.2 per cent tells us. Joblessness now sits at a 12-year high.

The economy is still creating jobs, with 42,700 new ones emerging in November, but it needs to create tens of thousands more each month if employment is to stabilise.

• Boomers ‘prospering at expense of the young’: report
• How to avoid a Christmas debt hangover
• How not to pay the ‘Australia tax’

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch economist Saul Eslake told The New Daily that the jobless rate will peak at 6.75 per cent in a year as the economy bottoms and starts to improve.

The trouble is that all but 1800 of those were part-time jobs and the number of people who’d like more work is growing as a result.

You don’t have to look far to see signs of economic weakness.

The most recent GDP figure had the economy growing at only an annualised 2.2 per cent mid year, only two-thirds of the long-term trend.

And in the last week reports tell us consumer and business confidence are on the skids.

Ominously, the big department stores David Jones and Myer are reportedly planning to start their Boxing Day sales before Christmas, and not because Santa is coming early. It’s because shoppers are reluctant to reach for their wallets.

That will be worrying Joe Hockey, who urged consumers to get out and spend, but with people feeling uncertain about their jobs, a Christmas splurge is unlikely.

Up, up and … away?

Unemployment has been rising inexorably for the past 31 months and is now the highest it’s been in 12 years.

The worrying thing about that rise is, it’s the second longest stretch of rising unemployment in almost 60 years, with only the 38-month run-up to the peak of the early 1990s recession when unemployment hit double figures being longer.

For the past decade or more our national income has been driven by a rampaging resources industry that grew to account for about eight per cent of our economy when traditionally it was closer to two per cent.

The multi-billion dollar projects the boom underpinned are mostly built and that means a lot of those people in fluoro jackets earning six-figure salaries are losing their jobs and heading back south in reduced circumstances.

That’s taken a lot of cash out of the economy as will the current collapse of commodity prices driven by oversupply created by a lot of those new projects.

Another boom needed

So we are looking for a new economic champion but there is none stepping up to the plate.

Sure, housing construction is on the up but it isn’t close to taking over from mining construction at its heights.

And there’s lots of well-paying, secure jobs being lost in the car industry and areas like aluminium as Australia deindustrialises.

All that leaves us trapped in a pincer movement with unemployment.

There’s no recession but we are creating about 135,000 jobs a year while we need about 354,000 to hold the employment ship steady.

Australian Industry Group senior economist Julie Toth told The New Daily that there were early positive signs.

“Job ads are improving, but these will probably not translate into positive job growth within the next six to nine months,” Ms Toth said.

“We’re not expecting a strong improvement in employment growth over the next 12 to 18 months.”

Source: The New Daily

Take an encore: Reinventing your career

Social, economic and technological changes have all conspired to create what’s been labelled a ‘fluid workforce’, in which workers – young and old – need to be prepared to change jobs over the course of their careers.

Posted by Nigel Bowen on 5 December 2014

But how does someone who’s been working in the one field for 20 to 30 years reinvent themselves?

New tricks

Rosemary O’Connor, director of Encore Careers Australia, offers the following advice to those toying with the idea of starting afresh: “My top tip is to start planning your encore career as soon as possible. Think about what you would like to do next. What are your passions and interests? What skills and experience do you have? These are often transferrable to many different areas. Be realistic but think broadly – an encore career isn’t meant to be more of the same. Visualise your new career. What will it take to make it a satisfying reality? Above all, have a plan.”

Taking the necessary steps

If you’re serious about an encore career, here’s how you can get started.

Consider what you are good at and what interests you. Compile a list of industries to match. Do some research. To start, go onto job sites, explore some of the roles and companies in that area. This should help provide some insight into the array of roles available in those fields.
See if you can get in touch with industry associations or try speaking to people who actually work in the field to get a realistic picture of what is involved in the encore career you’re considering.
Look into related courses – whether it’s a short course or a formal qualification or certification. Find out if there are any prerequisites for the roles you are attracted to and see how you can go about addressing this. Consider volunteering your time or services for a company or business you admire to gain practical experience and make contacts.
Once you’ve laid the groundwork it’s time to start approaching employers, or launching a business and attempting to attract customers. Chances are you’ve acquired many transferrable skills, so make sure to highlight them on job applications or in your promotional material. Don’t let fear of ageism stop you highlighting your work and life experience – the wisdom and maturity you have gained is a valuable selling point.

Have you embarked on an encore career? How challenging did you find the transition?Please comment below or start a conversation over on the Living Well Navigator forums.

Helpful links What is an encore career? Ten tips for older job seekers Living Well Navigator – Job search

Helpful links

What is an encore career?
Ten tips for older job seekers
Living Well Navigator – Job search

How to keep your brain young and slow the process of ageing

RUTH OSTROW
DECEMBER 08, 2014

One revolutionary tip for longevity is the silly walk, a la John Cleese and Monty Python.Source: Supplied

WE dont have to age or at least grow old as fast as we do. Thats the finding of researchers in the US, where a group of specially trained lab rats equivalent in our years to 60-year-olds became as young and healthy as their 20-year-old companions.

Although our bodies will inevitably decline, scientific evidence presented at the recent international Mind & Its Potential Conference in Sydney suggests that the process can be slowed down by several decades. The things that really matter to us — vitality, libido, memory, and brain power — don’t have to change much into our 70s and 80s. And how can this be achieved? Not through hormones, surgery, vitamins or stem cell replacement.

It’s all about neurogenesis, or our ability to grow new synapses and neurons in our brains well into old age, according to University of California neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, who in Sydney shared advice on how to keep our brains young. “The King of Neuroplasticity”, Professor Merzenich, 72, says that when the brain is rejuvenated it also rejuvenates everything from our skin and organ function to capacity for pleasure and energy. The aim is to “fatten” the brain so the body doesn’t atrophy.

So how do we do this? Merzenich and other leading neuroscientists gave me their best tips for longevity. One of Merzenich’s revolutionary methods would have baby boomers and gen Xers laughing: the silly walk, a la John Cleese and Monty Python. Merzenich finds new and complicated ways to move every day to give his brain huge challenges. He says the brain loves to make decisions and solve problems, and it hates safe ways of doing things. To stay young, he says, don’t make things easy for the brain. Give it big surprises. Get out of the cave. Don’t say “I don’t do that.” Try it.

Exercise is fantastic for overall health, but to specifically grow the brain, the exercises can’t be predictable or routine. So add to the mix Rumba, Tango, gentle acrobatics, and yes, even a silly walk.

Merzenich was one of the stars of eminent psychiatrist and researcher Norman Doidge’s groundbreaking bestseller on neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, The Brain That Changes Itself. Doidge told me that “What fires together wires together”, and new synapses and pathways are forged constantly as long as the brain is used. With a bit of brain rewiring and practice, a pianist can become a concert pianist; a stroke victim can learn to talk and walk.

The bottom line, says Merzenich, is “use it or lose it”. He warns us to stop using a GPS and other gadgets for simple tasks. “Study road maps, and force yourself to remember where you’re going and the details around you. As primitive beings we survived by roaming the landscape. So listen and look around in a state of mindfulness.” Before sleep he spends five minutes in bed recalling the details he’s seen in the streets that day, in order to stimulate memory. He says to try and remember phone numbers and email addresses rather than using your mobile.

He advocates training the brain with games. Not a big fan of Sudoku or other problem-solving fads, Merzenich has a website of scientifically proven exercises. BrainHQ.com, from Posit Science, was featured in the ABC documentary Redesign My Brain, in which Todd Sampson volunteered himself as a lab rat to test the science of brain plasticity. Sampson turned into somewhat of a genius before our eyes.

Merzenich also praises meditation, which according to experiments by Richard J. Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of contemplative practices on the brain, opens pathways in unused areas of the mind. Merzenich says we should learn languages, go back to university or do some courses — but to leave our comfort zone. He says try complex subjects you might not be good at, such as maths.

I followed his advice and three years ago went back to university. Despite being a technophobe, I chose to study technical matters such as video production, camera usage, and operating an edit suite. I was often in tears. But I did well, and noticed that my brain improved in other areas of memory and competency. The theory is that if you develop one part of the brain, synapses grow elsewhere.

New hobbies can challenge your brain with enough tension to create small squirts of cortisol and noradrenaline. Unlike dangerous chronic stress that comes from worry, small hits of stress hormones are excellent for stimulating the mind. Perhaps birdwatch and learn the name of new species. Stay curious. Travel is great. After achieving a new skill, reward yourself. Self-praise clinches the lessons and rewires the brain. Positive feedback promotes good habits.

US psychiatrist Stuart Brown was recently in Australia talking about the importance of play in brain health. Activities such as volleyball, running into the sea and ballroom dancing have been shown to trigger parts of the brain associated with social connection and increased intelligence.

Brown first recognised the importance of play by discovering its absence in the life stories of murderers and sociopaths. His research led him to prove that when we play and laugh, we release not only dopamine, oxytocins and other reward neurochemicals but also create synaptic connections.

Social interaction is crucial for wellbeing, according to the “father of social neuroscience”, UCLA professor Matthew Lieberman. He says without love, relationships and community, the deterioration of our health is equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes a day. Being with people helps us read facial signs, develop empathy and exercise our prefrontal cortex, which governs higher order functions. It was, and still is, crucial to our survival as a species. So turn off Facebook and go face-to-face.

Neuroscientists have proven that juggling increases thinking speed and one’s ability to focus. Michael J. Gelb, a respected creative thinker from the US, says that while juggling we increase our metacognition — the capacity to think about our thinking processes. This improves motor skills, spatial awareness and problem-solving capacity.

Most of us feel awkward trying new things, which is why we mostly don’t. Tal Ben Shahar, a prominent US expert in positive psychology, says we need to reframe our failures so we see them as “lessons”.

He believes we should not let fear make us shun new things. Developing comes from accepting our failures with grace. “Babies don’t just walk. They need to keep falling down, then they walk,” he reassures those of us who are embarking on a journey towards our full adult potential.

How to jump-start the grey matter

• Find new ways to move or walk every day

• Don’t stay in your comfort zone. Give the brain surprises, decisions and problems to solve

• What fires together wires together. Talent is not important. Practice any skill for 10,000 hours and you’ll master it.

• Stop using a GPS and contact book: memorise maps, phone numbers and email addresses

• Do online exercises such as BrainHQ.com from Posit Science

• Meditate for at least 20 minutes at a time, preferably morning and night

• Study something you are not good at; take up hobbies

• Read, read and read

• Play and increase your social contact

• Before going to sleep, for five minutes recall details of something like the house next door or a friend’s face

• Juggle to increase motor skills and spatial awareness

ruthostrow.com; Twitter: @OstrowRuth

Source: THE AUSTRALIAN

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