Bill Driscoll, a district president for Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing firm, Accountemps, acknowledged that it is crucial for firms to stay up to speed on emerging trends and for talent to be on top of rapid changes. And older workers should be viewed as part of the solution.

“We get so focused on hiring and attracting new talent…[but] we can re-recruit our own people” and help them update their skills, he said.

Niki Theophilus, executive vice president and chief human resources officer for Omaha, Nebraska-based West Corporation, said firms should not be so quick to dismiss older workers. "There are people who are experts [in technology use] who are in the Boomer or Gen Y category,” she said. “You have to be careful” about stereotyping.

Theophilus added that companies should have career development plans that are tailored to the different stages of an employee’s career. “The best learning and development cultures are going to look at training from a lot of different angles--shifting somebody to a project where [he or she] is going to gain skills they didn’t have before,” Theophilus said.

Read the full post from the Society For Human Resource Management.